Optimizing economic welfare without constraints might put human well-being at risk, a new climate study argues. While being successful in bringing down costs of greenhouse gas reductions, the concept of profit maximization alone does not suffice to avoid the tipping of critical elements in the Earth system that could lead to dramatic climate change. Scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK, member of Leibniz Association) and Humboldt University Berlin used mathematical experiments to compare economic optimization to the governance concepts of sustainability and the more recent approach of a safe operating space for humanity. All of these turn out to have their benefits and deficits, yet the profit-maximizing approach shows the greatest likelihood of producing outcomes that harm people or the environment.