Planetary Health Matters: The year we choose resolve over retreat

A Jan 13, 2025, photo of charred homes and burnt cars in the Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles. There were 31 direct deaths and about 400 additional deaths reported in a later study of the wildfire. At RM243.6bil the California fires are the most expensive disaster in the world, insurers say. The planet cannot afford more such disasters year after year. — AFP

LOOKING back over 2025, it is difficult not to feel downcast.

Geopolitical tensions have intensified, conflicts have become more entrenched, and global cooperation feels increasingly fragile. Even without the climate crisis, this would be a sobering moment. Then 2025 closed with a series of climate shocks that brought home, with painful clarity, how closely environmental instability and human security are now intertwined.