In order for humanity to operate safely within Earth and ensure we act in time to stave off any forthcoming abrupt changes in the planetary systems so that no runaway positive feedback processes that send us in a tailspin to disaster, it would seem sensible to monitor the Eath's processes. The idea is that we could detect any sluggishness of Earth's systems in recovering from any natural perturbations, which would indicate they were losing their resilience. Once we receive our early warning signals, then we could take preventative action. In effect, we'd be setting up a Negative Feedback loop, to keep Earth within safe limits.
The problem with this, as I see it, is that parts of the machinery involved in the negative feedback loop would constitute human brains which are notorious for blocking out unwanted information. A typical reaction in the world today, such as it is, might be that all that information collected by the monitoring systems concerned is just 'made up by mad scientists'. Hence no action is seen to be necessary and is not taken. The information does not make it through the feedback loop, any more than the theory of evolution, the existence of dinosaurs or the globality of Earth would be accepted by extremist religious believers, of which there are many, including increasingly in positions of power. This slight conflict between religion and science could lead to the extinction of the human race.
