Origin

The United Earth Initiative and the ideas presented in its initial form were developed under the collective name Worried Earthlings (WE). Building on the work of thousands of thinkers, historic and contemporary, WE articulated the moral and structural necessity of democratic global governance and developed the core ideas underlying the initiative.

WE is intentionally anonymous. United Earth does not comment on individual identities behind WE. This reflects both security concerns and a deliberate rejection of person-centred politics. The initiators of United Earth claim no special political authority from having started the project. Its central proposition is precisely that no founder, organisation, government or other small group can create legitimate global democracy on humanity’s behalf.

Humanity itself must become politically active as a global polity. Each of us must choose whether to take part in that process. United Earth’s role is to propose and facilitate institutional pathways through which a sufficiently broad global political community can emerge and, ultimately, establish a legitimate global parliament through democratic action.

The exaggerated and cynical individualism of our time, together with obsolete forms of tribalism and nationalism, obscures the extent to which many of the forces shaping individual lives now operate globally without democratic control. Global democratic governance is necessary precisely to protect individual freedom, diverse identities and local societies against those forces.

The initiators are not the protagonists of this story. Humanity is.

If United Earth succeeds, it will be because an extraordinary number of people made an extraordinary collective effort. The name WE is therefore also an invitation:

WE? Isn’t that us?
Yes, and so: Become part of this greater WE!

The United Earth Initiative exists to help develop and facilitate the institutional pathways required to create a genuine democratic geopolitical system on planet Earth, capable of addressing the global crisis and laying the foundations for a peaceful civilization.