Earth steward: Will Steffen's contributions to Earth System Science, governance and law.

In January 2023, the world lost one of its most influential environmental scientists, Will Steffen. To that end, Steffen has long been an advocate for a "new responsibility" that extends to the entire planet, which he captured through the idea of planetary stewardship (Steffen et al. [32]; Steffen [27]). Steffen and his colleagues first published their data and findings in the book I Global Change and the Earth System: A Planet Under Pressure i (Steffen et al. [29]). The Court relied on Steffen's evidence in rejecting GRL's "drop in the ocean" argument that the project's GHG emissions would be so insignificant relative to total global GHG emissions as not to contribute meaningfully to climate change (at [515]). [Extracted from the article]