What you can do

As a reader, you can work on this project, too. Here are a few suggestions that I have successfully tried myself:

• The first step for a lasting correction starts with yourself. For example, ask yourself:
• What ecological footprint are you leaving on this world (personal approach to food, living, heating, mobility)?
• Which goods (house, car, land, meat) and which habits (water and electricity consumption, temperature heating) can you do without or which ones do you want to keep?
• Can you adapt to new things, possibly also make do without something that has always been available during your life?
• The second step could be: Write others using the template above or come up with your own words in a similar form. Then send the text to all of the most important people you know around the world.
• I wrote the above letter to Ms. Ursula von der Leyen of the European Commission, among others. In the meantime, I am digitally registered as a global citizen with Have a word to say so that I can directly contribute my voice on climate and environmental issues.
• Further steps: Get in contact with like-minded organizations and look for ways to help.
• If you are interested in cosmopolitan issues, contact Democracy Democracy Without Borders. This association works with international partners and coordinates global initiatives and programs for a UN parliamentary assembly, a UN global citizens' initiative, and an internet platform for global voting.
• I am also happy to maintain contact with the UN75 Global Governance Forum. The UN75 forum aims to make better use of the ideas, skills, and networks of state and non-state actors through dialogue and recommendations in order to promote the commitment of the United Nations to peace, sustainable development, human rights, and a stable climate.
• I learned a lot about the excellent work of this research center in an email exchange with Mr. Brian Finlay, President & CEO of Stimson. Stimson is particularly committed to creative innovation on environmental and climate issues.
• The Anthropocene Forum is an international transdisciplinary platform dedicated to the topic of the Anthropocene in the interaction of globality, urbanization, and rural areas. I came across the website by chance and learned something new.
• In my home country, I am also registered with Denknetz. Denknetz is Switzerland's left-wing think tank and is committed to the basic values of freedom, equality, and solidarity. This institute notes the increasing social inequalities and a tendency against social solidarity. It wants to better understand the mechanisms of this dynamic and explore/discuss alternatives.
• The SES Energy Foundation Switzerland advocates energy policies that are good for humankind and the environment.
• The WWF, familiar to all environmentalists, says: Together for a sustainable planet. I can only support this statement.
• The aid organizations Fastenopfer and Bread for All show possibilities through the churches to create politically fairer structures on international, national, and individual levels.
• The youth and schoolchildren movement Strike for future explains their legitimate demands to everyone at https://climatestrike.ch, together with facts and calls for participation.
• Last but not least, I am on good terms with the Generations Foundation. Here young activists join forces with the generation of their parents and grandparents in order to change systems together.

If a new World Council is to be implemented from top to bottom, so to speak, that means coordinating the establishment of a set of rules among national state systems, their institutions, and organizations. But that will just be the beginning.

Real change can only take place if it is brought about and carried from below by the planet's 7.6 billion citizens. And we all belong to this movement. The citizen is just as obliged to act as the laws and regulations of the executive officers of the individual nations.

My appeal for the environment and climate is directed primarily at myself. Maybe other people share my deepest beliefs and worldviews. I would be delighted and grateful for any support that brings us closer to taking on more geopolitical responsibility for our planet.

Christoph J. Rohland, March 2021