Envisioning an Ecological Civilization

Our civilization is careening at an accelerating pace toward a precipice of climate breakdown, ecological destruction, and gaping inequality. Redirecting humanity’s trajectory will require transformation at a foundational level: moving from a wealth-based, extractive civilization to one that is life-affirming—an Ecological Civilization.

The idea of an Ecological Civilization envisages a potential future of human flourishing on a regenerated Earth. It would require a transformation of our current economy, politics, and mainstream culture, leading to a fundamentally different civilization based of different values, goals, and collective behavior.

In this session, author Jeremy Lent will explore the concept of an ecological civilization: why we need it, its underlying principles, and a glimpse of what it might look like in practice. Beginning with fundamental principles of life, ecosystems and human flourishing, Lent will show how it’s possible to set the conditions for all human beings to thrive on a healthy, vibrant planet—and what that might look like in practice.

Jeremy Lent, described by Guardian journalist George Monbiot as “one of the greatest thinkers of our age,” is an author and speaker whose work investigates the underlying causes of our civilization’s existential crisis, and explores pathways toward a life-affirming future. His award-winning books, The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity’s Search for Meaning, and The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe, trace the historical underpinnings and flaws of the dominant worldview, and offer a foundation for an integrative worldview that could lead humanity to a flourishing future. He has written extensively about the vision and specifics of an ecological civilization and is founder of the Deep Transformation Network, an online global community of over 3,000 people engaging with others in facilitating a deep transformation toward a life-affirming future on a regenerated Earth.

Wisdom Speaker Series: Envisioning an Ecological Civilization