Pulse: The Planet's Nervous System

Pulse is an interactive 3D visualisation of how Earth's interconnected systems cascade. A single disruption (the closure of a strait, the tipping of a forest, the depletion of an aquifer) does not stay where it starts. It ripples through food, water, energy, supply chains, and information networks. Pulse makes those ripples visible.

What you can explore

The visualisation shows 26 planetary systems and the 25 first-order connections between them. Click any node on the globe to trace the cascade: which systems it touches at first order, second order, and beyond. Four pre-built scenarios are available as starting points:

• What if Hormuz closes? The Strait of Hormuz is a 33km-wide passage between Iran and Oman. 35% of global nitrogen fertilizer raw materials and 30% of global internet traffic transit here. A closure cascades into food prices, internet routing, energy markets, and downstream into civic stability.
• What if the Amazon tips? The Amazon basin recycles its own rainfall through evapotranspiration. Once deforestation crosses a threshold, the system flips from rainforest to savanna. The cascade reaches the carbon cycle, South American agriculture, and global climate stability.
• What if water runs out? Industrial agriculture depends on a small number of aquifers (Ogallala, North China Plain, Indus). When those deplete, food production for hundreds of millions has no buffer. The cascade reaches food prices, migration, and conflict.
• What if rare earths vanish? China controls 94% of permanent magnet production. Rare earth elements are required for wind turbines, electric vehicles, military hardware, and semiconductors. A supply shock cascades into the energy transition and the chip industry simultaneously.

Why visualise this

The systems we live inside are not separate. They are one body. Pulse is a way of feeling that, at a glance: every node is alive, every connection is real, every cascade is data-backed. The data is discovered and curated by Heart, one of the foundations's research organs. The visualisation is part of IamI.Earth, a Stockholm non-profit foundation building Emergent Planetary Intelligence.

Navigation

Return to the IamI.Earth homepage. Read the about page. Read the peer-reviewed papers that ground this work.