By Ervin Laszlo
INSIDE
Out
Conscious Global Change from the
The unsustainable condition of the human and the humanly impaired natural world constitutes a global emergency, and it calls for global-level
cooperation to avert a global-level breakdown.
Global-level cooperation is a new requirement in the
history of humanity, and it’s not surprising that we are
not prepared for it. Our institutions and organizations
were designed to protect their own interests in competi-
tion with others; the need for them to join together in the
shared interest has been limited to territorial aspirations
and defense, and to economic gain in selected domains. Pre-
paredness for globally cooperative action that subordinates
immediate self-interests to the vital interests of the community
is lacking, both in contemporary nation-states and in business
enterprises.
Globally coordinated emergency action could produce
positive results. The world lacks neither the financial
nor the human resources for effective emergency
action. Abject forms of poverty could be eliminated,
energy- and resource-efficient technologies could be
made widely available, water could be recycled and
