The Department of Global Ecology, founded in 2002 on the campus of Stanford University, conducts basic and applied research into the interactions among Earth's ecosystems, land, atmosphere, oceans, and people with a goal of informing the sustainability of the Earth system. Department faculty members, post-doctoral fellows, graduate students, undergraduate students, technical and administrative staff work to understand how our planet operates, and how it will respond to future changes. We place a particular focus on research questions that will have a substantial impact on our ability to manage the Earth system, and that have a high likelihood of leading to breakthroughs on timescales that are compatible with the urgency of the climate, biodiversity, energy, and food security crises facing our planet.