Planetization
Discussion
James Quilligan:
"Globalisation was saying there are no limits to growth. Planetization says, yeah, the planet does have its own limits. The work of Johan Rockström shows the planetary boundaries. But it’s even broader than that in some ways, because it really means that we need a new kind of paradigm, which I think is what planetisation is, because in the past, we didn’t have the problem of climate change. And we didn’t see the world as ecologically interdependent. We always just assumed that it would always be working. Nature would work it out in the background, and we didn’t have to assist it in any way, or we didn’t have to worry about it creating scarcity on a level that would be a major collapse to civilization or anything like that. Those are some of the challenges we’re facing right now. And so, part of this has to do with the fact that the way things are being governed right now is through the paradigm of Westphalian sovereignty. Nation states are individual. They can do what they want. And there’s an idea of noninterference that other nations can’t interfere in the internal affairs of one state. At least in theory, that’s the case. In theory, right. But when it comes to international negotiations, that theory is stressed very strongly. Of course. Yes. So, that’s right. And that’s a factor that I’d like to get into in a little bit about sovereignty. But that’s a characteristic of planetisation that we need to get beyond the area of sovereignty. And then, of course, there’s the idea of becoming stewards of the planet, which actually is a field that I’m very interested in. And it’s a part of what I’m calling planetary commons is that we can be."