Planetary phase of civilization

The planetary phase of civilization is a concept defined by the Global Scenario Group (GSG), an environmental organization that specialized in scenario analysis and forecasting. Proponents state that increasing global interdependence and risks, such as climate change, are binding the world into a unitary socio-ecological system. This unprecedented condition signals a historic shift from the period of modernity, characterized by sovereign states, perennial growth of population and economies, abundant resources, and disregard for environmental impacts. The Planetary Phase has many manifestations: economic globalization, biospheric destabilization, mass migration, new global institutions (like the United Nations and the World Trade Organization), the Internet, new forms of transboundary conflict, and shifts in culture and consciousness. Others consider each of these phenomena separately, but give little credence to the theory of a holistic shift in historical dynamics.

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 Tellus Institute, the GSG examined 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 the essay 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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