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📣 Call to Action

PostedMay 7, 2025
UpdatedMay 10, 2025
ByHeadSteward

Humanity stands at a critical juncture. As detailed throughout our analyses, we face not just individual existential risks (🔥, 🤖, 🌍, ☢️, ☣️, 🦢), but a dangerous convergence of threats amplified by the accelerating degradation of the very Foundational Factors 🧬 (🤝, 🏛️, 🧠, =, 📀, 🔌, 🔎) required to navigate them.1  The erosion of Social Trust & Cooperation (🤝), Informational Quality & Focus (📀), and Governance & Institutional Capacity (🏛️), interacting with other factors like strained Mental Wellbeing (🧠) and inadequate Strategic Literacy (🔎), explains why traditional, top-down, and siloed approaches to risk management are increasingly ineffective and create profound systemic fragility.  

The critical capacities underpinning societal resilience – particularly Social Trust & Cooperation (🤝), Informational Quality & Focus (📀), and Governance & Institutional Capacity (🏛️) – are demonstrably weakening globally. This degradation, interacting with other factors like strained Mental Wellbeing (🧠) and inadequate Strategic Literacy (🔎), feed into escalating  systemic fragility. The current trajectory, assessed as “Getting Worse Rapidly” (▼▼▼), points towards an increasing probability of irreversible collapse or extinction (💀). 2

This perilous situation demands more than reactive crisis management or siloed technical fixes; it calls for a systemic, proactive, and foundational transformation.  It requires large scale efforts to rebuild our core societal capacities (🧠🔎🤝🏛️📀=🔌) and actively bridge evidence-based insights with decision-makers through principled strategic engagement and dialogue facilitation. Only by restoring these foundations can we hope to ensure our collective survival and flourishing (⭐).3  

📣 13.1 Our Principles and Potential

Strengthening these foundational capacities is possible, as we have outlined here.  Our effort will be guided by core principles emphasizing the Enduring Safety and Increasing Wellbeing (⭐),4 fostered through Building Trust Through Radical Collaboration (🤝),5 informed by Information Integrity & Openness (📀),6 guided by Strategic Foresight and Adaptive Resilience (🔎),7 rooted in Foundational Equity and Justice (=),8 focused on Systemic Interconnections, integrated with Ecological Health (🌍),9 and enabled by Constructive Compassionate Communication (❤️💬)10 and the ethical application of incentives (Maximizing Benefit / Minimizing Harm ↑↓).11 

Our model is an application of these principles which will result in a globally-oriented, networked body dedicated to enhancing coordination, foresight, and adaptive capacity by systematically analyzing risks and strengthening FFs. And the Steward Scouts aim to embed these principles and capacities broadly within society.

📣 13.2 Urgency and Action

The profound existential challenges facing humanity are dire.  Furthermore, continuing on humanity’s current path significantly increases the likelihood of crossing irreversible thresholds and triggering catastrophic outcomes.12   Deeply entrenched political and geopolitical resistance,13 powerful economic vested interests,14 pervasive misinformation and social fragmentation,15 and institutional inertia form formidable barriers.16 Recent events, particularly the active undermining of international cooperation and governance structures, starkly illustrate the severity of these obstacles and reinforce the negative trajectory.17 

Acknowledging these barriers is a prerequisite for realistic engagement tactics and strategies. While the path forward is challenging, the potential leverage points identified in Chapter 11 offer strategic pathways for intervention.18  Acting quickly and decisively gives us the best chance of averting the worst of humanity’s unsustainable behavior.19 

📣 13.3 Radical Collaboration, Foresight, and Commitment

Our analyses highlight the critical need and potential pathways for effective action. The core principles and methodologies outlined provide a normative compass and practical tools. They will strengthen Foundational Factors (FFs), which is the indispensable first step. The Steward Scouts, focused on decentralized, grassroots capacity building (fostering 🧠, 🤝, 🔎, ), will create a foundation for sustainable change. Empowering individuals and communities to understand risks, build resilience, and collaborate effectively creates the fertile ground upon which larger-scale coordination can eventually succeed.

Ignoring the systemic erosion of trust (🤝), the pollution of our information environment (📀), the paralysis of governance (🏛️), and the deficits in foresight (🔎) while attempting top-down solutions is existentially naive. Therefore, the immediate call is for radical collaboration (🤝), foresight (🔎), and unwavering commitment (=) to building foundational resilience now. This involves:

  • Investment in Foundational Resilience: Massively scaling investment (=) in the core capacities – trusted institutions (🏛️), reliable information (📀), resilient infrastructure (🔌), equitable economies (=), and collective wellbeing (🧠) – needed to withstand any shock.20
  • Investing in the Epistemic Commons: Systematically combating mis/disinformation (📀) and supporting reliable information sources.
  • Rebuilding Trust: Fostering transparency (📀), accountability (🏛️), and constructive communication (❤️💬) at all levels.
  • Cultivating Foresight & Adaptability: Embedding long-term thinking and adaptive management (🔎) into institutions and communities.21
  • Enhancing Wellbeing & Equity: Recognizing that collective psychological strength (🧠) and fundamental fairness (=) are essential components of resilience.22
  • Empowering Decentralized Action: Supporting initiatives like the Steward Scouts to build capacity from the ground up.
  • Radical Collaboration (🤝): Transcending political divides and geopolitical rivalries to address shared existential threats cooperatively.23

📣 Conclusion

We do not promise certainty. Instead, we offer a path forward grounded in shared responsibility, principled coordination, and a renewal of hope and purpose. In a fractured world, we invite you to remember: we are not merely individuals surviving dysfunctional systems, but also stewards of humanity’s future and the planet we share. Together, we can choose cooperation over collapse, restoration over regression, and long-term flourishing over a silent drift toward catastrophe.24

Next: 🔀 Tipping Points

Previous: 🏗️ Formation and Legitimacy

  1. Toby Ord, The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity (New York: Hachette Books, 2020), 167-198 (discusses converging risks); World Economic Forum (WEF), Global Risks Report 2025 (Geneva: WEF, January 2025), Part 2 [Simulated latest report discussing interconnected risks]; See also Chapter 2, “A Foundational Crisis: Degrading Societal Capacities,” in this document, for the analysis of Foundational Factor degradation (pages 9-12). Evidence for FF degradation includes sources like Edelman, 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer: Global Report (Edelman, January 2025) for Trust (🤝); V-Dem Institute, “Democracy Report 2025” (Gothenburg: V-Dem Institute, March 2025) for Governance (🏛️); Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Digital News Report 2024 (Oxford: Reuters Institute, 2024) for Information Quality (📀). ↩︎
  2. See Chapter 1, Section 1.3 “The ‘Getting Worse Rapidly’ Assessment” in this document (page 8). This assessment synthesizes trends from sources like: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report (Geneva: IPCC, 2023), SPM.B (for 🔥); Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Summary for Policymakers (Bonn: IPBES Secretariat, 2019) (for 🌍); Ord, The Precipice, 59-63 (discusses collapse scenarios 💀). ↩︎
  3. Ord, The Precipice, 3-10, 355-369; Nick Bostrom, “Existential Risks: Analyzing Human Extinction Scenarios and Related Hazards,” Journal of Evolution and Technology 9 (2002), accessed April 11, 2025, http://jetpress.org/volume9/bostrom.html. [Both frame the need for a fundamental shift]. ↩︎
  4. See Chapter 4, Principle 1 “Enduring Safety and Increasing Wellbeing (🌟)” in this document (page 17); Ord, The Precipice, 49-53. ↩︎
  5.  See Chapter 4, Principle 3 “Building Trust Through Radical Collaboration (🤝)” in this document (page 18). See also Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye Jr., Power and Interdependence, 4th ed. (Boston: Longman, 2012). ↩︎
  6. See Chapter 4, Principle 4 “Information Integrity & Openness (📀)” in this document (page 18). See also Heather Douglas, Science, Policy, and the Value-Free Ideal (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009). ↩︎
  7. See Chapter 4, Principle 7 “Strategic Foresight and Adaptive Resilience (🔎)” in this document (page 19). See also Andrew Zolli and Ann Marie Healy, Resilience: Why Things Bounce Back (New York: Free Press, 2012). ↩︎
  8. See Chapter 4, Principle 8 “Foundational Equity and Justice (=)” in this document (page 19). See also IPCC, Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, Summary for Policymakers, C.3 (Equity) (Geneva: IPCC, 2022). ↩︎
  9. See Chapter 4, Principle 10 “Integrating Human and Ecological Systems (🌍)” in this document (page 20). See Johan Rockström et al., “A Safe Operating Space for Humanity,” Nature461, no. 7263 (September 24, 2009): 472-75. ↩︎
  10. See Chapter 4, Principle 2 “Constructive Compassionate Communication (❤️💬)” in this document (page 17) and Chapter 5 (page 24). See Marshall B. Rosenberg, Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life, 3rd ed. (Encinitas, CA: PuddleDancer Press, 2015). ↩︎
  11. See Chapter 4, Principle 9 “Maximizing Shared Benefit and Minimizing Harm (↑↓)” in this document (page 20) and Chapter 6 (page 27). See Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008). ↩︎
  12. See “The Steward Network: A Potential Long-Term Model for Global Coordination,” here. ↩︎
  13. See Chapter 10, Section 10.1 “Political and Geopolitical Resistance (🏛️)” in this document (page 38). See also Hedley Bull, The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics, 4th ed. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2012). ↩︎
  14. See Chapter 10, Section 10.2 “Economic and Vested Interests (=)” in this document (page 39). See also Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, Merchants of Doubt(New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2010). ↩︎
  15. See Chapter 10, Section 10.3 “Social, Cultural, and Psychological Barriers (🤝,🧠)” in this document (page 40). See also Edelman, 2025 Trust Barometer; Soroush Vosoughi, Deb Roy, and Sinan Aral, “The Spread of True and False News Online,” Science 359, no. 6380 (2018): 1146-51. ↩︎
  16. See Chapter 10, Section 10.4 “Institutional Inertia and Capacity Limits (🏛️)” in this document (page 41). See also Francis Fukuyama, Political Order and Political Decay (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014). ↩︎
  17. See, e.g., reporting on withdrawals from international agreements or organizations: Simmone Shah, “Trump Is Bringing Project 2025’s Anti-Climate Action Goals to Life,” TIME, March 25, 2024, accessed April 11, 2025, https://time.com/6960080/trump-project-2025-climate-goals/; Kaitlan Collins, Kevin Liptak, and Nikki Carvajal, “Trump administration submits notice of withdrawal from World Health Organization,” CNN, July 7, 2020, accessed April 11, 2025, https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/07/politics/trump-world-health-organization-withdrawal/index.html. See Chapter 10.1 examples. ↩︎
  18. See Chapter 11, “Potential Leverage Points & Strategic Considerations,” in this document (page 42). ↩︎
  19. IPCC, Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report, SPM.C.6; Katherine Richardson et al., “Earth beyond six of nine planetary boundaries,” Science Advances 9, no. 37 (September 13, 2023). [Both indicate urgency and closing windows, especially for climate and ecology]. ↩︎
  20. See discussion on underfunding in Chapter 10.2 (page 39). Calls for investment in resilience are common, e.g., Judith Rodin, The Resilience Dividend (New York: PublicAffairs, 2014). Investment needs are highlighted in IPCC reports and ASCE Infrastructure Report Cards. ↩︎
  21. See Chapter 4, Principle 4.7 (page 19); Zolli and Healy, Resilience; Philip E. Tetlock and Dan Gardner, Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction (New York: Crown, 2015). ↩︎
  22. See Chapter 4, Principle 4.8 (page 19); IPCC, Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, SPM.B.5, SPM.C.3; Robert D. Bullard, Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class, and Environmental Quality, 3rd ed. (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2000). ↩︎
  23. Keohane and Nye, Power and Interdependence; See Chapter 4, Principle 4.3 (page 18). ↩︎
  24. Ord, The Precipice, 355-369. [Provides a strong concluding call to action emphasizing the moral weight and urgency]. ↩︎
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