Confronting the Human and Planetary Existential Emergency

A Sustainable and Desirable Future for All of Us
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Humanity is facing the triple challenge of climate change, biodiversity and wildlife loss, and pollution. at the same time, our civilization is on an unsustainable trajectory pointing to a collapse if fundamental transformations cannot change this trajectory very soon. The community in the VCC has prepared a “Declaration of Human and Planetary Existential Emergency” (HPEE) that summarizes the challenges and indicates an action plan to face the challenges. we have two main foci:

  1. Ensure that all people on earth have the opportunity to read or listen to the declaration in their own language;
  2. Provide a place where those who want can join in our effort of coping with the challenges and finding ways to bring us and earth out of this existential emergency.

The moment has come where we all need to act. what do we have to lose by acting? we only are losing by not acting on the emergency!

Hope is like a muscle and action is training this muscle. Jane Fonda.

Have a look at the “Emergency Pilot,” our Emergency-related Newspaper.

Please, consider to join us in our efforts aiming at a desirable future for those who come after us.

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[Mar. 03, 2025] Seeing Earth Through the Eyes of an Alien Planetary Ecologist: In the Call 9-1-1” episode of “With Good Reason”, Hans-Peter Plag takes on the perspective of an alien planetary ecologist coming to Earth. And when he looks at Earth, he sees a crisis of overgrowth. Humans, he says, have become a virus in the Earth’s life-support system. If we don’t learn to do more with less, he fears that we will irreparably disrupt the planetary system that keeps us alive.

[Jun. 09, 2024] A Core Statement: George Tsakraklides states:
“The reason why capitalism is a death sentence for humanity is that it is a system which only understands doing, building and achieving.
It is incapable of stopping, retreating and reducing, which are the very things we must do if we want to have any chance of continuing to exist.”

[Jun. 08, 2023] Translation of the Declaration: The translation of the Declaration of Planetary Emergency is under way. To help, go to the Declaration.

News

COPE VCC News

[Mar. 06, 2026] Global Warming Appears to be Accelerating: In the article titled “Humanity heating planet faster than ever before, study finds” the author Ajit Niranjan reports on a study by G. Foster and S. Rahmstorf. After subtracting the estimated influence of El Niño events, volcanic eruptions and solar variations from the global temperature curve, the researchers find a significant acceleration of warming since about 2015. For the last 10 years, the increase is at 0.35o per decade. This acceleration of warming indicates the insufficiency of the efforts made so far to slow down global warming.

[Mar. 04, 2026] Carbon dioxide overload: Potentially Toxic Atmosphere Within 50 Years: A study by Alexander N. Larcombe and Phil N. Bierwirth titled “Carbon dioxide overload, detected in human blood, suggests a potentially toxic atmosphere within 50 years” published in The Lancet indicates that the anthropogenic activities increasing the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere could lead to a toxic atmosphere already in 50 years from now. “There is mounting experimental evidence that lifetime exposure to these increasing atmospheric CO2 levels can negatively impact the normal physiology of organisms.”

[Mar. 04, 2026] Sea Levels are Already Higher Than Previously Estimated: In an article in The Guardian titled “Global sea levels have been underestimated due to poor modelling, research suggests&rdquo, Tara Russell discusses a new study “ Sea level much higher than assumed in most coastal hazard assessments” by Katharina Seeger Philip S. J. Minderhoud published in Nature. The authors reach the conclusion that average sea levels are 30 cm higher than thought globally, and up to 150 cm in south-east Asia and the Indo-Pacific. This establishes an urgent need to revise many risk assessments and efforts to develop coastal resilience.

[Jan. 09, 2026] This Does Not Work: The President of the USA has withdrawn the USA from many international organizations working for a better future for humanity, see Withdrawing the United States from International Organizations, Conventions, and Treaties that Are Contrary to the Interests of the United States. This is a culmination of the efforts of those whose only goal is to increase their own wealth, no matter what! The Planetary and Human emergency just became far more severe.

Platform News

[Feb. 24, 2026] New Scenario for 2028 Points to an AI-related Highly Undesirable Future for Economy: Aisha Down and Dan Milmo discuss in their article “‘A feedback loop with no brake’: how an AI doomsday report shook US markets” the scenario study “THE 2028 GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE CRISIS A Thought Exercise in Financial History, from the Future” by Citrini and Alap Shah posted on February 22, 2026 on Substack. This study points out that the financial system of today was optimized over decades for a world of scarce human minds. AI changed this: “This is the first time in history the most productive asset in the economy has produced fewer, not more, jobs. Nobody’s framework fits, because none were designed for a world where the scarce input became abundant. So we have to make new frameworks. Whether we build them in time is the only question that matters.” The authors point out that the economy could find a new equilibrium, and “getting to this new equilibrium is one of the few tasks left that only humans can do. We need to do it correctly.”