Stanford University Press (April 5, 2024): Jonathan S. Blake and Nils Gilman introduce their new book Children of a Modest Star: Planetary Thinking for an Age of Crises.

A clear-eyed and urgent vision for a new system of political governance to manage planetary issues and their local consequences.

Deadly viruses, climate-changing carbon molecules, and harmful pollutants cross the globe unimpeded by national borders. While the consequences of these flows range across scales, from the planetary to the local, the authority and resources to manage them are concentrated mainly at one level: the nation-state. This profound mismatch between the scale of planetary challenges and the institutions tasked with governing them is leading to cascading systemic failures.

Produced by Studio B. at the Berggruen Institute

Animation by Meysam Qaderi

Illustration by Akram Esmaili