State of our world
Chapter 2 - Society
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Welcome to the State of our world page
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| Peter A. Corning - Evolution and the Fate of Humankind - Published online by Cambridge University Press |
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| Currently, there is the possibility we are headed toward a dark future, with ever more terrorist attacks, divisive guerrilla wars, and even, possibly, World War Three (including the likely use of nuclear, chemical, and cyber weapons) – not to mention a drastic, irreversible climate change – unless we can soon make a radical course change.
The solution to this growing global challenge is not to rely on some charismatic, self-serving, authoritarian leader. The world tried doing this back in the 1930s, and it did not end well (World War Two). .. A better alternative is more effective global governance under the rule of law, with a new social contract that will provide for the basic needs of everyone (a “basic needs guarantee”), along with rewards for merit, and giving back in proportion to what we receive. I call it the “Fair Society” model. |
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Core ideas
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The world is highly complex and, given the diffusion of power, is getting more so. The trends and events impacting individuals or entities depend highly on location. A mitigating or managing action for one situation could differ significantly from another. There is, unfortunately, no one-size-fits-all response, and given the constant dynamics, you can’t ever consider the job done.
Global dynamics are either ‘trends’ or ‘noise’. The first are long-term directional developments for which you must respond strategically; the latter are shorter-term oscillations requiring a tactical response.
It is vital to distinguish strategy and tactics (for more info see 'Corporte futuring'). For example, you might feel that a market is improving, whereas you’re observing a short-term positive oscillation on a longer-term downward trend.
In the 'do you want to know more' section, we gathered some trusted data sources for you.
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Dive deeper
Collected Stories About the State of Our World (2025)
Enough money
We have cultivated a society that is more interested in earning just enough to avoid and ignore problems than in fixing them. But how we earn the money to avoid the problems is exactly what causes them in the first place.
It's almost funny when you think about it. Why are the things this way? Well, while the concept of trickle-down economics is an illusion, trickle-down ideology is very real. We constantly adopt the mindsets and ideologies of the rich.
One of those mindsets is what Douglas Rushkoff in his book "Survival of The Richest" calls the insulation equation:
The belief that with enough money, you can escape or insulate yourself from the reality you were creating by how you make your money.
It’s become the default operating system in our individualistic societies:
Don’t change the system. Just get far enough ahead, "outrun" it, so that it can’t touch you.
- “F**k you money” as the ultimate goal
- Hustle and productivity hacks to build a "freedom lifestyle" insulated from collapse
- Buy into minimalist prepping, disguised as self-reliance
- Treat burnout as a personal productivity problem, not a systemic one
- Believe that earning more is the only way to be safe
It's now mostly disguised in society as the "when I earn this much money all my problems will go away" thinking.
| Content source |
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| Thomas Klaffke |
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Planetary boundaries
| Planetary boundaries - 2025 |
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| The nine planetary boundaries and their status
Climate change: Increased greenhouse gases and aerosols in Earth's atmosphere trap heat that would otherwise escape into space. The climate change planetary boundary assesses the change in the ratio of incoming and outgoing energy of the Earth. More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and more trapped radiation causes global temperatures to rise and alters climate patterns. This boundary is transgressed, and CO2 concentrations are rising. Novel entities: Technological developments introduce novel synthetic chemicals into the environment, mobilize materials in wholly new ways, modify the genetics of living organisms, and otherwise intervene in evolutionary processes and change the functioning of the Earth system. The amount of synthetic substances released into the environment without adequate safety testing places novel entities in the high-risk zone. Stratospheric ozone depletion: Ozone high in the atmosphere protects life on Earth from incoming ultraviolet radiation. The thinning of the ozone layer, primarily due to human-made chemicals, allows more harmful UV radiation to reach Earth's surface. Total ozone is slowly recovering because of the international phasing-out of ozone-depleting substances since the late 1980s. Ozone depletion is therefore currently in the Safe Operating Space. Atmospheric aerosol loading: Changes in airborne particles from human activities and natural sources influence the climate by altering temperature and precipitation patterns. Although large-scale air pollution already causes changes to monsoon systems, forest biomes and marine ecosystems, the global metric used in the planetary boundaries framework – interhemispheric difference in atmospheric aerosol loading – places this process just within the Safe Operating Space. Ocean acidification: The acidity of ocean water increases (its pH decreases) as it absorbs atmospheric CO2. This process harms organisms that need calcium carbonate to make their shells or skeletons, impacting marine ecosystems, and it reduces the ocean's efficiency in acting as a carbon sink. The indicator for ocean acidification, the aragonite saturation state, is currently within the Safe Operating Space but the rising atmospheric CO2 concentration means it is close to crossing the boundary. Modification of biogeochemical flows: Nutrient elements like nitrogen and phosphorus are crucial for supporting life and maintaining ecosystems. Industrial and agricultural processes disrupt natural cycles and modify the nutrient balance for living organisms. This boundary is transgressed, because both the global phosphorus flow into the ocean and the industrial fixation of nitrogen (converting stable nitrogen from the atmosphere into bioreactive forms) have disrupted global biogeochemical flows. Freshwater change: The alteration of freshwater cycles, including rivers and soil moisture, impacts natural functions such as carbon sequestration and biodiversity, and can lead to shifts in precipitation levels. Human-induced disturbances of both blue water (e.g. rivers and lakes) and green water (i.e. soil moisture) have exceeded the planetary boundary. Land system change: The transformation of natural landscapes, such as through deforestation and urbanization, disrupts habitats and biodiversity and diminishes ecological functions like carbon sequestration and moisture recycling. Globally, the remaining forest areas in tropical, boreal, and temperate biomes have fallen below safe levels. Biosphere integrity: The diversity, extent, and health of living organisms and ecosystems affects the state of the planet by co-regulating the energy balance and chemical cycles on Earth. Disrupting biodiversity threatens this co-regulation and dynamic stability. Both the loss of genetic diversity and the decline in the functional integrity of the biosphere are outside safe levels. |
| https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html |
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Decoupling of economic growth
A large number of peer-reviewed papers claim to study absolute decoupling of economic growth from environmental harm. But in reality, the vast majority of them focus solely on CO₂ emissions.
This narrow framing gives the impression that we can achieve sustainability through decoupling — without addressing the full picture. Whether these papers argue decoupling is achievable or not is beside the point. The problem is that by measuring only carbon, they ignore other critical planetary boundaries. Focusing only on CO₂ allows burden shifting — reducing emissions while intensifying pressure elsewhere. That’s not genuine sustainability. It’s selective accounting.
If we want to assess whether economic growth can truly be decoupled from environmental harm, we need to evaluate all the harms — not just the ones that are easiest to measure or politically palatable. There is currently no evidence anywhere in the litterature or in real world examples that it’s possible to decouple growth from planetary pressure.
After half a century pursuing the dream of green growth, it’s time for its proponents to shut up or prove its legitimacy, for they are the ones gambling our future on an unproven strategy.
| Content source |
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| Kasper Benjamin Reimer Bjørkskov |
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Stewardship and Sovereignty
What do these two words have to do with our daily lives?
At its core, stewardship is about responsibility without ownership—caring deeply for something without controlling it. This paradox makes it so difficult to grasp in our possession-obsessed world. When we steward our person, we recognize that our bodies and minds aren't possessions to exploit but gifts to nurture. True self-stewardship means making choices that honour our future selves, which might limit immediate gratification but cultivate lasting well-being and purpose. In business, stewardship challenges the profit-at-all-costs mentality. It asks us to see our companies not as personal, but as community resources that generate value beyond quarterly earnings. Steward-leaders understand they're temporary caretakers of something meant to outlast them. Environmental stewardship acknowledges that Earth isn't ours to drain dry but a home we're borrowing from future generations.
Sovereignty means power, authority, and control. It can apply to countries, governments and we the people, our businesses and our environment. Here's the real truth. Through stewardship, we discover sovereignty. By releasing the exhausting grip of ownership and control, we find freedom. We become co-creators rather than consumers, caretakers rather than exploiters. Sovereignty emerges not from domination but from a relationship with ourselves, our work, and our world.
| Content source |
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| Charlene Norman |
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Do you want to know more?
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Your world in data
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| Planetary boundaries |
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| The planetary boundaries framework highlights the rising risks from human pressure on nine critical global processes that regulate the stability and resilience of the Earth |
| https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html |
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| Human Adaptation Institute |
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| Human Adaptation Institute is a private, multi-disciplinary institute for action-research, awareness-raising and change management, founded by explorer and researcher Christian Clot. Our main themes are human adaptive capacities, behavioral evolution and anticipatory adaptation. |
| https://adaptation-institute.com/en/front-page-en/ |
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| Pew Research Center |
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| Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. We conduct public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research. We do not take policy positions. |
| https://www.pewresearch.org/ |
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| The Wicked 7 Project |
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| The Wicked 7 Project seeks to understand the connections between the world’s most urgent problems and why we can’t seem to solve them. |
| https://www.wicked7.org/ |
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| Our world in data |
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| What do we need to know to make the world a better place? To make progress against the pressing problems the world faces, we need to be informed by the best research and data. Our World in Data makes this knowledge accessible and understandable, to empower those working to build a better world. |
| https://ourworldindata.org/ |
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| World Inequality Database |
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| The World Inequality Database (WID) aims to provide open and convenient access to the most extensive available database on the historical evolution of the world distribution of income and wealth, both within countries and between countries. |
| https://wid.world/ |
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| Exiobase |
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| EXIOBASE is a global, detailed Multi-Regional Environmentally Extended Supply-Use Table (MR-SUT) and Input-Output Table (MR-IOT). It was developed by harmonizing and detailing supply-use tables for a large number of countries, estimating emissions and resource extractions by industry. Subsequently the country supply-use tables were linked via trade creating an MR-SUT and producing MR-IOTs from this. The MR-IOT that can be used for the analysis of the environmental impacts associated with the final consumption of product groups. |
| https://www.exiobase.eu/index.php |
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| The International Institute for Strategic Studies |
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| The International Institute for Strategic Studies is a world-leading authority on global security, political risk and military conflict. |
| https://www.iiss.org/ |
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| Eurostat |
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| Eurostat produces European statistics in partnership with National Statistical Institutes and other national authorities in the EU Member States. This partnership is known as the European Statistical System (ESS). It also includes the statistical authorities of the European Economic Area (EEA) countries and Switzerland. |
| https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat |
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| StatBel |
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| Statbel, the Belgian statistical office, collects, produces and disseminates reliable and relevant figures on the Belgian economy, society and territory. The collection is based on administrative data sources and surveys, the production is carried out in a scientific manner and with respect to quality, and statistics are disseminated on time and in a client-friendly manner. |
| https://statbel.fgov.be/en |
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| Statistiek Vlaanderen |
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| Deze openbare statistieken over Vlaanderen lopen inhoudelijk breed uiteen: van de mensen die er wonen en werken over economie en omgeving tot de plaats van Vlaanderen in de wereld. |
| https://www.vlaanderen.be/statistiek-vlaanderen |
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| Centraal bureau voor de Statistiek |
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| Dossier Broeikasgassen |
| https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/dossier/dossier-broeikasgassen |
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| Planetary boundaries |
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| The planetary boundaries concept presents a set of nine planetary boundaries within which humanity can continue to develop and thrive for generations to come.The evolution of the planetary boundaries framework. Licenced under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 (Credit: Azote for Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University. Based on Richardson et al. 2023, Steffen et al. 2015, and Rockström et al. |
| https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries/the-nine-planetary-boundaries.html |
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| European Environment Agency |
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| Can we live within the limits of the planet? We are using resources faster than the planet can replenish them, creating pollution, destroying nature, driving climate change and impacting people’s health and well-being. A transition to a sustainable future will require a fundamental shift in production and consumption systems. |
| https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/topics/at-a-glance/sustainability |
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| Net Zero Tracker |
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| How are nations doing on net zero targets compared with companies? How many regions and cities have published a plan to get to net zero? How many companies rule out the use of offsets or cover their Scope 3 emissions? |
| https://zerotracker.net/ |
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