We are living in a time of great consequence. We act as if we are not.

Never before have we seen with such clarity how human activity is reshaping the Earth system and the conditions on which life depends.

The global transformations unfolding in our own lifetimes have no parallel since the end of the last ice age. The rate of atmospheric change over the last century alone, in terms of rising CO₂ concentrations, has no precedent in the past 800,000 years, long before the emergence of our own species.

Never before have we understood so much about the drivers of these transformations or anticipated their cascading consequences for people and the planet. Yet our collective response remains profoundly out of step with what we know.

This Manifesto has been written by the BRIDGES Coalition in UNESCO’s Management of Social Transformations (MOST) programme, the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory, Arizona State University and The Club of Rome.