Eco-Village project

Shifting Society's Goals

A Future that Works

How do we get a civilization that has been growing for 10,000 years to realize it is grown up now?  Getting bigger is no longer what we need to do. [Read more.]

One Thing Changes All Else

From ancient times, right up to living memory, humans have been a small, insignificant presence on the Earth. Not so any more. Today, civilization's impacts are felt practically everywhere. This change affects everything – in our human experience the Earth has gone from offering endless new frontiers to where our activity is able to overwhelm it. It is critical that we . . . [Read more.]

Three Potent Steps to a Sane Economy is a key part of our free, eleven part mini-course on Shifting Society's Goals. You can help bring this shift about. We hope you will join us in one or more of our programs.

We can do better than turn the natural world into waste and concentrate wealth in fewer and fewer hands.

From the not too distant past:

Greece's place in the Global Monopoly Game

Near-Term Extinction - Not going to happen: A Challenge, Not a Curse

Local Food Security

Let's Talk Resilience

 

Cartoon

Needed: A New Economic Game: Published in Ottawa's Peace and Environment News.
Where this all started: The Institute for the Study of Cultural Evolution.
When Things Seem Overwhelming: It's Never Too Late
A Most Potent Action for Securing the Future
The Emperor Has No Clothes; How the tide turns
Change Begins With a Conversation
Shifting Legitimacy

The Biggest News on Earth

The biggest news on Planet Earth today is that the human species fills its habitat.

There are no longer vast new frontiers to move to when resources are scarce or we need more room for our waste.

This new situation requires a new goal.

Our purpose is to help shift society's goals.
We invite your participation.

Decisions need now to be based first on whether or not they contribute to long-term well-being. The old criteria of "is the decision profitable" is still important, but it has to move into second place. It is okay for something to be profitable, but not if it forecloses the future.

This site aims to help place the question, about what society's primary goal should be, on the public agenda. Shifting Society's Goals aims to answer the Question of Direction. Are we committed to growing until we drop, or do we accept responsibility for our collective impacts and resolve to build our world to fit within planetary limits?

We'd like to keep you posted on efforts to get our societies to move clearly in the direction of long-term well-being.

This Key Mechanism is central to change.

We hope you will join us in this critical task of re-creating society's goals.