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 that summarizes the challenges and indicates an action plan to face the challenges. We have two main foci:
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.
[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.
[Jan. 09, 2026] This Does Not Work: The President of the USA has withdrawn the USA from many international organizations working for a better future for humanity, see Withdrawing the United States from International Organizations,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.”
[Feb. 12, 2026] Are we already at or close to a Point of no Return?: Damian Carrington raises this question in his article in the Guardian titled “Point of no return: a hellish ‘hothouse Earth’ getting closer, scientists say.” The most recent paper by Ripple et al. assesses “The risk of a hothouse Earth trajectory,” and the author's conclusions are pointing to an increasing probability of Earth moving into a hothouse state. The assessment should be an alarm bell for all of us. Continuing on the current path of our economy and society comes with the high risk of mass extinction, and the current uncertainty could soon turn into certainty.
