One side of the Living Planet display looks at how the Earth functions as a healthy ecosystem. Healthy ecosystems provide a range of services, such as climatic regulation, which are not considered in most measures of economic activity.

There is also a Clock Case that shows how rapidly world population is increasing, while the amount of productive land and global biodiversity are both decreasing. It also points out that if everyone had the ecological "footprint" of the average Canadian, we would need 4 whole planets!