Mission: The Planetary Limits Academic Network (PLAN) aims to raise awareness about critical systemic challenges facing the human endeavor in this century by building a network of scholars across the disciplines to collectively address them.

Approach: PLAN seeks to do this by fostering a radically interdisciplinary approach to creating viable responses grounded in an understanding of planetary and ecological limits.

Composition: We welcome motivated individuals whose current scholarly work may or may not directly address these concerns. While we anticipate that the majority of our members will hail from academic institutions (hence the “A” in PLAN), we also welcome scholars working in government laboratories, non-profits, think tanks, and similar institutions of scholarship.

The network currently consists of 96 Members, 11 Collaborators, and 335 Subscribers.

Learn more about our Goals:

Build a Network of Scholars

Promote Research and Scholarship

Improve Undergraduate Education

Reach Beyond the Campus

Learn about our Foundational Principles:

1. Humans are a part of nature, not apart from nature.
2. Non-renewable materials cannot be harvested indefinitely on a finite planet.
3. The ability of Earth’s ecosystems to assimilate pollution without consequences is finite.
4. Energy throughput is essential to all human activities, including the economy.
5. Technology is a tool for deploying, not creating energy.
6. Fossil fuel combustion is the primary cause of ongoing global climate change.
7. Exponential growth, whether of physical or economic form, must eventually cease.
8. Today’s choices can simultaneously create problems for and deprive resources from future generations.
9. Human behavior is consciously and unconsciously shaped by mental models of culture that, while mutable, impose barriers to change.
10. Apparent success for a few generations during a massive draw-down of finite resources says little about chances for long-term success.

For more, see the page on Foundational Principles

Sign up for occasional updates, or join our network!

Membership categories

Benefits for PLAN members (academics/scholars)

Guide to whether PLAN membership is right for you

PLAN is a decentralized network of scholars which is not based in a single institution—by design. Direct inquiries to plan.limits at gmail.com, and we will endeavor to get back to you as quickly as possible.