Thinking and Acting Systematically about the Anthropocene
Keywords:
Anthropocene, global citizen, cosmopolitanism, Earth System, systems theoryAbstract
Living in a globalized society implies that political thinking necessarily extends beyond the national level to encompass our roles as citizens of the world. Living in today’s globalized society also requires a new level of political thinking commensurate with the complexity of its challenges. To overcome the many difficulties facing the planet on which we live, and therefore our very existence, in the Anthropocene era, it has become incumbent on human beings to practice systems thinking. This paper will first attempt to clear the ground by examining how three common approaches to systems theory are unlikely to facilitate a resolution of the Anthropocene crisis. It will then examine how general systemic thinking, critical systems thinking, and whole healing systems thinking can help us both to comprehend the rifts in the earth’s system and to repair them.