This article argues that we must begin thinking holistically if we want to survive much longer on Earth. We must look at our problems from a holistic perspective like that in the Constitution for the Federation of Earth.

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Climate disruption is dawning upon even the most close-minded of human beings. The proliferation and growing possibility of planetary devastation through weapons of mass destruction is beginning to dawn upon even the most close-minded military fanatics. Careful assessment of possible human futures gives us a bleak picture indeed. Even a Bernie Sanders, who is giving momentary hope to tens of millions of ordinary Americans, is not capable of transforming the overall assessment of a bleak and possibly hopeless human future.

In October 2015, the UN announced its new development goals, now called "Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)" to serve as a guide for all nations until 2030. These replace the failed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that were in effect from 2000 to 2015. The Guardian reported that these new goals address the inadequate assumptions behind the failed earlier goals: "While the MDGs, in theory, applied to all countries, in reality they were considered targets for poor countries to achieve, with finance from wealthy states. Conversely, every country will be expected to work towards achieving the SDGs. The new agenda, with 17 sustainable development goals at its core, recognizes that ending poverty must go hand-in-hand with a plan that builds economic growth and addresses a range of social needs, while tackling climate change."

Recently scientists have revealed that the amount of heat in the oceans has doubled since 1997, in a mere 20 years, with immense unknown consequences for life in the oceans and by implication for all life upon the Earth [1]. Meanwhile Vladimir Putin said he "hopes nuclear warheads will not be needed to deal with terrorists or anyone else, after Russia launched cruise missiles from its submarine at Syria" [2] The threat to human existence from both these sources is no longer even veiled or repressed by the media: the possibility of the end of the human civilization project as we have known it is very real and immanent.

However, at the same time a great hope of a fundamental paradigm shift has arisen among a small portion of humanity, a paradigm-shift that I examine at length in my newest book One World Renaissance: Holistic Planetary Transformation through a Global Social Contract (2016). For more than a century now, since the scientific revolutions initiated by the work of Albert Einstein and Max Planck, scientists have been confirming and elucidating the holism of the universe and all the differentiated forms of existence within it--from galaxies to star-systems, to planets like the Earth, to the evolution of life, to the ecosystem of the Earth, to the oneness of humanity as a single species of homo sapiens.

Science has discovered that the universe is a single whole, systematically differentiated into innumerable parts. It has discovered that the universe is composed of levels or "fields" of overlapping wholeness, that every whole is necessarily differentiated by parts but that those parts cannot be understood apart from the wholes that make them what they are [3]. However, this is the crucial point: science has shown that every part in the universe is inseparable from the wholes of which it is a part, and science has shown that one cannot understand any part within the universe without comprehending the wholes within which it is a part.

It is precisely these insights that have not yet dawned on most human thought processes. We continue to focus on the parts independently of the wholes, and we continue to begin with the parts and operate from them. The new Sustainable Development Goals presented by the UN to the world in October contain the same failed assumption: that these are goals to be pursued by some 193 independent member states of the United Nations. That is why the SDGs will fail and the planetary environment will continue to collapse: because the ecosystem of the Earth is one interconnected whole and it cannot be addressed through the independent actions of some 193 independent parts. It must be addressed as a whole, by humanity acting as a whole, or we will not have a climate that sustains human life by the end of this century.

Similarly, news sources are now seriously proposing that "World War Three could start tomorrow" [4]. If World War Three begins tomorrow it will mean the end of human civilization. All scientific accounts of the effects of a major nuclear war agree on that. Yet we continue to think from the parts, and think in terms of the parts, and in this process we never get anything but more parts: more fragmentation--militarized nation-states confronting one another, competing with one another, skirmishing with one another. An ever-increasing emphasis on "homeland security" (whether in India, from which I just returned, or Russia or Britain, or the U.S.): every nation hunkering down on its "security" and military preparedness.

Science has shown that our planetary ecosystem is a whole, that human beings are a whole, and that human civilization is a holistic process of evolution all over this planet. And it is precisely these wholes that make possible an entirely new way of being (involving harmony and interdependence) and new way of understanding our situation. But instead we hunker down on the fragmentations, on the parts, under the illusion that this madness of fragmentation can somehow ensure our security and our future. This is exactly the opposite of what a century of science tells us we should be doing.

I took the photo above earlier this month of an overpass in Bangalore, India. It is symbolic of the point I am making. It correctly states that "destroying nature today" will lead to a "disastrous future someday." Then it shows a green trash receptacle to the right as if throwing trash in that receptacle can possibly make a difference to that impending disastrous future. The problem of climate collapse is not addressed by individuals throwing trash in receptacles, nor by concerned nations trying to limit their CO2 emissions. It can only be addressed if we begin thinking in terms of the whole system, the entire unsustainable system of the Earth.

The Constitution for the Federation of Earth begins from the wholeness of humanity and civilization and shows how the parts (persons and nation-states) can and should be integrated into one harmonious and interdependent system of mutual thought, discussion, and decision-making. It establishes a World Parliament made up of representatives of the people of the world, the nations of the world, and "counsellors" chosen by the people and nations for their knowledge and wisdom to represent the whole of the world. Through a carefully planned and step by step process, it eliminates all weapons of war from the nations of the world. Through an integrated and scientifically informed process, it ensures environmental sustainability for all economic, commercial, and consumer activities of the people of Earth.

In other words, the Earth Constitution begins with the wholes of which we are all necessary parts: the wholeness of humanity, the wholeness of civilization, and the wholeness of our planetary ecosystem. The Earth Constitution embodies the holistic wisdom of a century of scientific thought. The only possibility for human survival and creating a decent future for our children comes from thinking in terms of these wholes, and deriving our economic, political, and consumer actions from these wholes. The parts fall into their proper places within the harmony of the wholes when we begin in this way. If we begin with the parts (my nation, my private property, my company, my religion, my ethnicity, my race) then we inevitably will fail as a species and as human beings.

The 14^th session of the Provisional World Parliament just took place in Kolkata, India, December 27-29^th. The Parliament operates under Article 19 of the Earth Constitution. In other words, the Parliament begins with the whole of humanity and our planetary ecosystem and operates from that wholeness. We passed two major World Legislative Acts: one merging the entire UN system into the Earth Federation under the Constitution and another creating a Global Sustainability Directorate (GSD) that integrates all UN and international organizations working for sustainability into a single organizational whole, encouraging cooperation and an integrated approach to saving our collapsing environment [5].

The UN's current set of Sustainable Development Goals are neither adequate (in terms of what needs to be done if we want to survive climate collapse), nor are they achievable under the current UN Charter that is merely a treaty of militarized sovereign nation-states in a competitive and conflictive relationship to one another. The UN Merger Act and its complementary Global Sustainability Directorate lay down the pattern for the holistic thought and action that are necessary if we want to end world militarism and create for ourselves a decent, sustainable future on this planet. These legislative acts think holistically, just as the Earth Constitution establishes a holistic world system based on the realities that science has discovered: the holism of humanity and our planetary ecosystem.

There is no other way into the future. We must begin thinking and acting holistically now, or we will only further descend into chaos and mutual destruction on this planet. We need to study and promote the Constitution for the Federation of Earth in every possible venue and forum. We need to be thinking about it and how to actualize it in every aspect of our workplaces, our lives, our politics, and our scientific endeavors. The entire future is at stake: either we think and act holistically or we end up destroying both ourselves and our precious planetary home.

(Glen T. Martin is President of the World Constitution and Parliament Association (WCPA), professor of philosophy and chair of the Peace Studies Program at Radford University in Virginia, and author of ten books on human liberation, earth federation, and the development of democratic world law.)

Notes:

[1] www.abcnews.go.com, 18 January 2016.

[2] www.independent.co.uk, 9 December 2015.

[3] See, e.g., Harris, Errol E. Apocalypse and Paradigm: Science and Everyday Thinking, 2000.

[4] www.telegraph.co.uk, 30 January 2016.

[5] These can be found at http://www.radford.edu/~gmartin/PWP14.call.Feb.14.htm.

Authors Website: http://earth-constitution.org

Authors Bio:

Glen T. Martin is professor of philosophy and chair of the Peace Studies Program at Radford University in Virginia. President of the World Constitution and Parliament Association (WCPA), the Institute on World Problems (IOWP), and International Philosophers for Peace (IPPNO). His website is www.radford.edu/gmartin. His books, focusing on human liberation and planetary paradigm shift, include Millennium Dawn -- The Philosophy of Planetary Crisis and Human Liberation (2005), World Revolution Through World Law -- Basic Documents of the Emerging Earth Federation (2005), Ascent to Freedom -- The Practical and Philosophical Foundations of Democratic World Law (2008), Triumph of Civilization -- Democracy, Nonviolence, and the Piloting of Spaceship Earth (2010), and Constitution for the Federation of Earth -- with Introduction, Commentary, and Conclusion (2011). His 2013 book "The Anatomy of a Sustainable World: Our Choice between Climate Change or System Change -- and How You Can Make a Difference" examined the fundamental worldwide changes necessary for a sustainable civilization. In 2016, he published "One World Renaissance: Holistic Planetary Transformation through a Global Social Contract and in 2018 "Global Democracy and Human Self-Transformation: The Power of the Future for Planetary Transformation." Dr. Martin has given lectures, seminars, and workshops in many countries of the world directed toward transforming our world order to one of peace, prosperity and sustainability under a democratic world parliament. In November 2013 in the Philippines, he received the GUSI International Prize for Peace in recognition of this global work toward planetary peace with justice. In 2016, he published "One World Renaissance: The New Transformative Holism and Our Global Social Contract," which explores the immense transformative potential of the new scientific, philosophical, spiritual, and psychological holism that is sweeping the world. His latest book is called Global Democracy and Human Self-Transcendence" was published by Cambridge Scholars in August, 2018).