The Earth is our home, a finite environment that we need to preserve, with resources that we need to manage sustainably. Our growing environmental footprint and its influence on our planet is one of the greatest challenges we are facing. As an integral part of the Earth system, humanity (anthroposphere) interacts with other components of our planet: air (atmosphere), water (hydrosphere), ice and snow (cryosphere), solid earth (geosphere), and all living organisms (biosphere). To safeguard the future of human societies on this planet, we need to understand the environmental consequences of our actions and minimize the risks of natural hazards (e.g., earthquakes and volcanic eruptions). This requires a deep understanding of how the Earth system functions, which can only be achieved through an integrated approach in order to learn how the various components of the Earth system interact to govern the past, present, and future evolution of our planet.