#01: Once upon a time, on a cold, dark night in Toronto…

If some extraterrestrial being would look at this world, they would most likely shake their head in disbelief or some kind of cynical amusement.

‘Their planet looks kinda nice’, they would say, ‘but this human species on it acts weird: having systems, institutions, and ideologies in place that destroy their ecological foundation of being… Can you hand over the popcorn, please…’

Yeah, if I would watch this from such a safe distance, I would lean back as well and take a hand full of sweet-savory popcorn – never could decide between the two in terrestrial cinemas – but unfortunately, I am part of this mess, just like you. So, let us leave popcorn, the black universe and its mysteriously sparkling stars behind and start our return down to Earth. What is the current story about humankind that could be a dramatic blockbuster if it was not so damn serious and real?

We, that’s me as the narrator and you as the dear audience, just entered Earth’s atmosphere and are about to pass cloud level. Earth’s bent horizon is expanding in front of us as we look down on Earth. Here, indeed, the situation is grave. Climate change and conflict intensify, yet global decision-makers seem incapable of taking effective action. Symptoms become clearer and clearer: world society is stumbling into a threat that leading critical scholar Stephen Gill warningly calls a ‘global organic crisis’.[1]

This observation reflects a situation where growing conflict and authoritarianism threaten the very foundations of society, including human rights and the health of our biosphere. In 2023, from Central Europe to Central Asia, democracy declined in 11 out of 29 countries, and global freedom deteriorated for the 17th consecutive year.[2] Global conflicts have surged by 5% over the past 15 years,[3] accompanied by an annual rise in military expenditure since 2015, reaching a growth rate of 3.7% in 2022.[4] Amidst a fracturing international community, the climate crisis intensifies and will cross the global warming level of 1.5°C within the next two decades.[5]

This observation reflects a situation where growing conflict and authoritarianism threaten the very foundations of society, including human rights and the health of our biosphere.

So, our planet might look beautiful from afar, but beneath the surface of its fluffy clouds, things have gotten pretty tough. We just passed cloud level and continue to sink deeper. In the time zone where we entered, it is night. It seems as if the scene would have been turned upside down – bright dots sparkling in the dark not in the sky, which is covered with a dark grey cloak of clouds and air pollution, but on the ground. Slowly, the contours of a mega city are revealed in front of our eyes. Streets appear that seem to have no end, expanding in both directions as an endless grey straight line. Yet there are numerous bright, sparkling dots on it as well, moving fast: cars! Long, thin, faceless black towers stretch up to the dark grey sky, in some fragments illuminated: glassy facades of skyscrapers! People are still working in them, in countless offices staring at their computer screens, although it is close to midnight.

The ground is grey as well, with dark tar covering every inch of the ground. No trees, no earthy life can be seen. We continue to sink… sink… sink… and finally: land. Now, for the first time, we feel how cold it is. Winter is holding the city in its fierce grip. We shiver. The tip of our nose and fingers already feels frozen, and the pain stitches like countless tiny needles. Breath is forming small white clouds in the night as we look around. We landed in a suburb of the mega-city, where the houses have just two floors. On many of them, a red and white flag is waving slowly in the cold breeze, with the red forming a leaf of a tree and two stripes on the flag’s right and left edges. We have landed in Canada, Toronto. From there, our journey will start… Now.

Cheeky Child – in the following, I will call her by her short form, Cheeky C – feels a sharp pain in her back and opens her eyes.

She instinctively rolls her small, tiny body to the left side to escape the sharp pebble on the hard, cold ground where she lies. A thought cracks into her mind. ‘How did I get here? Where am I?’ She feels dizzy and shaky. Slowly, she moves her hand, trying to sit up and gain orientation, her two honey-brown braids gently touching her small ears as she lifts her head, the weight of her vest, hoodie, and worn-out jeans feeling too heavy to bear. She senses a rugged wall and stairs close to her, in some parts illuminated by the dirty yellow glow of the streetlamp next to her but mostly covered in shadow. Another thought leaps into the fog which veils every corner of her brain. She breathes in sharply, suddenly freezing in terror. The fog is gone, her brain crystal-clear now, yet, as with the first thought, she couldn’t find an answer, nothing, to this very simple but essential question… ‘Who am I?’

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Sources:

[1] See: Gill, Stephen. 2020. “Critical International Relations and the Global Organic Crisis.” Handbook of Critical International Relations, edited by Steven Roach, 202–20.

[2] Cf: Freedom House. 2023. “Democracies in Decline.” Available online from: https://free domhouse.org/issues/democracies-decline; accessed 15 December 2023.

[3] See: Institute for Economics & Peace. 2023. “Global Peace Index 2023: Measuring Peace in a Com plex World.” Available online from: http://visionofhumanity.org/resources; accessed 15 December 2023.

[4] See: ebd.

[5] Cf: IPCC. 2021. “Climate change widespread, rapid, and intensifying – IPCC.” Available online from: https://www.ipcc.ch/2021/08/09/ar6-wg1-20210809-pr/; accessed 15 December 2023.