Seven of the nine Planetary Boundaries (PBs) that sustain Earth’s habitability, including climate, biodiversity, freshwater, soils, and oceans, have already been crossed, indicating that environmental damage has exceeded safe limits and poses a risk of irreversible change. This stark reality, confirmed by scientists through the Planet Health Check report published in 2025, means humanity is now living outside the safe operating space for life as we know it. It is a diagnosis as severe as a body in organ failure: recovery becomes harder with each boundary crossed.
And yet, even in the face of this sobering truth, there remains space for hope, not naïve optimism, but a grounded, positive hope that makes resilience possible. This spirit shaped a fireside chat at Katadata SAFE 2025, themed “Green for Resilience,” where environmental defender Farwiza Farhan, founder of Yayasan HAkA and recipient of the 2024 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership for her role in safeguarding forests and empowering local communities and BLESS Indonesia Foundation founder Gita Syahrani reflected on what it means to live, act, and sustain courage in a time of planetary crisis. Held in Jakarta on 11 September 2025, the session highlighted the power of collective action across leaders, communities, and individuals.
Listening to Earth’s Health Check
The conversation, titled Earth’s Health Check: What We’ve Ignored, and Why It Matters, confronted the uncomfortable facts: climate extremes growing sharper, biodiversity collapsing, and pollution seeping into daily life. These are not distant forecasts but lived realities, such as floods, fires, and failing harvests that already define the present.
Yet both speakers warned against the trap of despair. Farwiza reminded the audience, “Don’t glorify bad news. There are many actors doing good things on a small scale.” Small victories, a forest patch defended, a river restored, a community finding new strength are not distractions. They are the seeds of resilience, proof that collective action is still possible.
On Carrying the Burden
Resilience, Farwiza noted, does not mean shouldering the entire crisis alone. “Take a break. It’s not all on you. We’re doing this together. Do what you can today. That might mean checking in. Breathing.”
Her honesty underscored a truth often overlooked: activists and leaders are not machines. Their strength depends on the balance of resting, on remembering that change is collective, and on compassion. Compassion for others, certainly, but also for oneself. She admitted that disconnection from nature quickly fuels frustration, a reminder that staying rooted in the natural world is essential for sustaining hope.
A Mosaic of Resilience
As the session closed, Gita invited participants to name one word that helps them stay resilient amid chaos. The responses formed a mosaic: faith-filled words like “Bismillah” and “Astagfirullah.” Grounding practices like “Napas” (breath) and “jeda” (pause). Humor-filled phrases such as “Aku belum kaya” and “Hicikiwirrr” sparked laughter. And affirmations of strength: “Semangat,” “Tegar,” “Adaptasi.”
Together, these words painted resilience as both deeply personal and profoundly shared. It may be faith, humor, breath, or sheer determination, but resilience grows when people find their own anchors and realize they are not alone in the struggle.
In a time of crisis, perhaps the real question is this: what small act of hope will you choose today, and how might it ripple outward into the world around you? And if resilience is built one choice at a time, then what choices, whether big or small, are we willing to make together to keep our planet, and our humanity, alive?
