Our planet Earth is under increasing pressure. This union session will consider the broad geosciences aspects of those pressures, by combining presentations of past variability in combination with present observations/status and projections for the future of our Planet. It is planned to organize this EGU Session as a contribution to the ICSU (International Council for Science) meeting that will be held in 2012 in London. The past, present and future will be addressed by the three key-note speakers.