March 31, 2024
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Conventional economics serves us well only if our purpose is to exploit people and Earth to make money for the already rich. I call it ego-nomics. To secure the wellbeing of all of Earth’s people, we will need a new economics that […]
This talk was delivered on October 28, 2000, as part of the 20th Annual E.F. Schumacher Lecture, at the Salisbury Congregational Church in Salisbury, CT, with an introduction by David Ehrenfeld, ecologist, author, and member of the Board of Directors of the Schumacher Center for a New […]
(Commentary originally published by YES! Magazine, October 7, 2022)
The purpose of human institutions is to secure the well-being of people and Earth. Despite our differences, all of Earth’s people share a common destiny that depends on our learning to live together with mutual commitment to a foundational truth recognized by our early ancestors: […]
(Commentary originally published by YES! Magazine, October 5, 2021)
As the 20th anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center approached, I wasn’t paying much attention. But then I received an email from my longtime colleague John Cavanagh, former director of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. It was a private […]
(Commentary originally published by YES! Magazine, August 12, 2021)
Science tells us that we now have fewer than 10 years to reduce the human burden on Earth or trigger tipping points in Earth’s natural systems from which there is no return. Most discussion centers on the climate emergency, but we also have crises related to air, […]
by David Korten
May 25, 2021 (updated with minor revisions on November 3, 2021)
(This is the best version to read on mobile devices. Also available as a PDF for reading, downloading, printing, sharing, and republishing.)
This is a personal white paper directed to those who seek a future that works for all of Earth’s […]
(Commentary originally published by YES! Magazine, July 30, 2020)
Our present course puts humans on track to be among the species that expire in Earth’s ongoing sixth mass extinction. In my conversations with thoughtful people, I am finding increasing acceptance of this horrific premise.
The COVID-19 pandemic, along with climate change, drives home […]
(Commentary originally published by YES! Magazine, April 23, 2020)
The COVID-19 emergency has exposed our societies’ failure to address the needs of billions of people. Simultaneously, we are witnessing a fundamental truth about human nature: There are those among us eager to exploit the suffering of others for personal gain. We can […]
(Commentary originally published by YES! Magazine, March 18, 2020)
The rapid spread of novel coronavirus has prompted government, business, and civil society to take dramatic action—canceling events large and small, restricting travel, and shutting down major segments of the economy on which nearly all of us depend. It is […]
Transformation begins with clarity on the nature of the choice that confronts our species.
Some ideas hit us in a way that is hard to shake. Last year that happened to me. I was in a public conversation with my friend and colleague, theologian Matthew Fox, when he made this observation: “Humans might be the first […]