Planetary Phase of Civilization - Background

Background

The notion of the planetary phase of civilization rests on extensive sociological and anthropological study done by the GSG. Convened in 1995 by Paul Raskin, President of the Stockholm Environment Institute and Tellus Institute, the GSG examines alternative plausible futures by observing trends in societal change in various domains. Their scenarios, published in a series of essays, have been used in numerous regional, local, and global studies including the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP)’s Global Environment Outlook Series (GEO). The Global Scenario Group synthesized its findings for a non-technical audience in their essay entitled Great Transition: The Promise and Lure of the Times Ahead. An October 2005 article in the Monthly Review entitled “Organizing Ecological Revolution” described the current “global environmental crisis” and the GSG’s efforts as “the most ambitious attempt thus far to carry out such a broad assessment” of our current and future ecological situation.

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