Faced with an uncertain future and limited resources, where should governments invest to ensure the well-being of their citizens? Job development for struggling rural economies? Better infrastructure to shore up water security? Improved health services?

The problem is that these are all pressing issues. Wages—and incomes generally—are stagnating for most people. Job satisfaction is down, especially among the young, and increasing numbers of working-age people are unable to participate in the labor force. But at the same time, we face a global environmental breakdown impacting our climate, the ocean and freshwater ecosystems, and every form of life that depends on them.

One recent report from the United Kingdom’s Institute of Public Policy Research suggests that the combination of global warming, soil infertility, pollinator loss, chemical leaching and ocean acidification is creating a “new domain of risk” that is hugely underestimated by policymakers at present—even though it may pose the greatest threat to human society in human history.

In fact, all these economic, political and environmental challenges are deeply interconnected. The deterioration of a natural infrastructure that we’ve historically taken for granted—a predictable climate, freshwater and fertile soils—has a knock-on effect on health, wealth, inequality and migration, which in turn threatens social and political stability.

But the connections between these challenges also point toward a way forward. Stopping deforestation and replanting trees at scale is one of the most effective, scientifically-proven measures that governments can take right now to address multiple challenges.