Can enough of us trigger a course change to prevent ‘ecological collapse’?
Welcome to the manifesto website of a proposed organisation designed to swiftly answer the question above.
If it is possible to trigger such change, then it is time for ‘enough of us’ to team up and get the job done.
The manifesto is partially uploaded.
While this web page contains a full introduction to the Same Page Manifesto, parts of the manifesto are still being completed.
Completed pages
— the homepage (this page, which contains the full manifesto introduction)
— the Play your part page
— the Supporting voices page (which amounts to nearly half of the manifesto, so there is plenty there for you to explore)
Pages still to be completed
— the Challenges page
— the Approach page
— the Plan page
(The content of each page is described in the last section below.)
If you would like to be notified of announcements, and as key information is added, please provide your name and email address by clicking the Notify me button (which takes you to a secure Typeform page).
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Notes
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This website is kindly being hosted by the fabulous team at Made for the World.
This website was last updated on 12 October 2025.
Page sections:
- It’s time for us to change course
- It’s the global economic system that we most need to change
- As a focused, confident team, we can change all our global systems
- You can help to mobilise Team Humanity
- What you’ll find in the rest of the manifesto
1. It’s time for us to change course
As most of us are already aware, and the graphic below illustrates, we have reached an existential fork in the road of human civilisation.
If humanity wants a ‘solvent’ future, then enough of us need to swiftly collaborate to trigger a course change. It’s as simple as that.
2. It’s the global economic system that we most need to change
In May 2024, one of the world’s largest and most influential companies, EY, published a report that identifies the upstream source of our plight.
Marked by increasing signs of ecological breakdown, deepening social inequality and rising geopolitical tensions, we find ourselves in the midst of a polycrisis. These causally entangled crises are the result of similarly interconnected structural flaws in the global economic system … Without urgent, large-scale transformation, it’s not a matter of if, but when, we’ll reach the point of ecological collapse.
A new economy: Exploring the root causes of the polycrisis and the principles to unlock a sustainable future, New Economy Unit, EY (May 2024)
3. As a focused, confident team, we can change any global system
My name is Simon Hertnon and I have reasoned that:
- preventing ecological collapse is humanity’s most important challenge because societal wellbeing is dependent on ecological wellbeing
- the flawed global economic system is the upstream source of our plight because it drives the societal behaviours that cause ecological harm
- we have been unable to change course because our busyness keeps us too dazed, distracted, and divided to clearly see or respond to our collective plight
- we can trigger a course change if we team up to end our accommodation of harm-causing business
- we can expedite the course change by focusing on essential mass actions (A1 to A4 below)
- we can mature economic transformation and achieve wider societal wellbeing by efficiently collaborating to redesign our common societal systems (action A5 below)
Five essential actions
| A1 Team up |
| How? By launching a global Join Team Humanity campaign. |
| Right now, ‘enough of us’ could team up (as ‘Team Humanity’, or similar) to gain the power of numbers and cohesion. Members could be from any country. |
| A2 Give notice |
| How? By conducting and publicising mandate-for-changing-course surveys globally, by jurisdiction. |
| Focussing on the world’s wealthiest democracies, our team could then announce to every politician and business that our votes and custom will only go to those whose actions support our collective rejection of harm-causing business. |
| A3 Reject harmful business |
| How? Through a global consumer movement enabled by a simple prove-you’re-worthy-of-our-custom consumer awareness program. |
| Next, we could exercise the enhanced power of our team’s combined social permissions to: – multiply support for regenerative business – continue support for harmless business – end support for harmful business |
| A4 Prohibit harmful business |
| How? By providing a simple legal clause (prohibiting ‘any activity that results in systemic ecological, social, or intergenerational harm’) that political candidates must promise to add to the director’s responsibilities of their jurisdiction’s corporate law. |
| During the 2026–2030 global cycle of democratic elections, we could also exercise the enhanced power of our team’s combined political choices to only support candidates who commit to prohibiting harmful business. |
| A5 Accomplish systems redesign |
| How? Through a global program of system-redesign collaborations that is inspiringly transparent, participatory, respectful, joined-up, and efficient. |
| By 2035, we could complete an essential redesign, and change design, of our globally intertwined societal systems (trade, justice, health, education, etc) so they harmoniously achieve the overall purpose of delivering sustainable optimality for all. |
Together, these practical actions could be termed The Team Humanity Actions.
Seven essential collaborations
To efficiently support accomplishment of the Actions, all those working (or wishing to work) towards realising a flourishing future could also team up through seven essential collaborations1.
| Collaboration | Purpose |
|---|---|
| CR Revive humanity’s wisdom | Fuel the Actions |
| CP Produce helfpul information | Support the Actions |
| C1 Mobilise Team Humanity | Expedite A1 Team up |
| C2 Mandate societal change | Expedite A2 Give notice |
| C3 Amplify social permissions | Expedite A3 Reject harmful business |
| C4 Protect survival systems | Expedite A4 Prohibit harmful business |
| C5 Redesign betterment systems | Expedite A5 Accomplish systems redesign |
These efforts could be termed The Change Course Collaborations and, combined, they should hold a space for pretty much any organisation working toward social or environmental betterment.
Three essential facilitations
Finally, to enable and expedite the achievement of all the Actions and Collaborations, I have also discerned the need for a new, utterly independent for-purpose organisation to perform three essential facilitations.
| Facilitation | Purpose |
|---|---|
| FS Simplify the overall task | Create belief we can change course |
| FP Provide essential information2 | Enable mass engagement |
| FC Coordinate the Collaborations | Expedite achievement of the Actions |
If needed, the organisation could also perform facilitations to ‘kickstart’ each of the Actions.
This organisation’s efforts could be termed The Same Page Facilitations. I suggest this name because, after years of research and contemplation, it seems that enabling us to team up and ‘get on the same page’ about the essential things we need to do is the key to changing course.
Making a start
To invite and attract support for the action plan outlined above, I am crafting this manifesto as the first deliverable of the FS Simplify the overall task facilitation.
This foundational work is my family’s contribution — an intervention of simplicity — to seed focus and belief that humanity can change course.
And now, unless this manifesto draws out a better plan3, it is time to establish the organisation.
4. You can help to mobilise Team Humanity
Interested in helping out right now? You can!
Find out how on the Play your part page.
5. What you’ll find in the rest of the manifesto
The rest of the manifesto comprises five main web pages that each answer a key question.
Why haven’t we already changed course?
How can we unblock our ability to change course?
What actions will change our course?
What can you do to help trigger a course change?
How can we quickly grow widespread belief in our ability to change course?
A storm of challenges
To help us to understand why we have not already changed course, the Challenges page explains:
- why the societal change we need requires focus first, then belief and numbers
- how we have been too busy to clearly see our own nature, systems, and plight
- how the global economic system disempowers us by keeping us busy, muddled, and divided
- why we can’t change course if we don’t empower ourselves as a global team
- why we can’t transform our economic system if we keep accommodating its flaws
A simplicity approach
To help us to break through our own busyness, and thus unlock the focus we need to change course, the Approach page explains how we can:
- seek simplicity and essentialism to overcome complexity and busyness
- consume clear, essential information to overcome the muddle of information overload
- team up to overcome the division of competitive individualism, making it the norm to solve societal problems communally and widely
- focus on ending harmful business to trigger a course change
- focus on developing wiser system goals to mature our course change
- efficiently collaborate on essential tasks to expedite our course change
A simple plan
To help us to efficiently change course as a focused, confident team, the Plan page sets out how enough of us (as Team Humanity) can:
- rally around a collective decision to change course
- bring about the course change by performing five essential actions
- enable and expedite success through essential collaborations and facilitations
- achieve urgency by setting essential deadlines
- make a confident start by establishing a transparent new organisation to facilitate the plan
Play your part
Because changing course requires a facilitated team effort, the Play your part page outlines how you can help me to:
- establish a for-purpose organisation to facilitate and coordinate the Plan
- develop collaborations and ideas for speedily mobilising Team Humanity
A multitude of voices
And, finally, because we can only change course when enough of us believe we can be successful, the supplementary Supporting voices page shows we can:
- grow widespread belief through a multitude of diverse voices (including inspiring personalities from sport, community, the arts and sciences, academia, business, and social media) advocating the Team Humanity Actions to their communities
- draw inspiration from momentum-building changemakers
- gain confidence from insightful words of wisdom (including quotations from the inspirational publications and films pictured below)
Helpful reports or papers (linked to official PDF downloads)
Footnotes
- I envisage the CR Revive humanity’s wisdom and C5 Redesign betterment systems collaborations immediately convening indigenous leaders, policy advisers, researchers, sustainability experts, and others to efficiently synthesise existing knowledge, wisdom, and designs. ↩︎
- To ensure comprehensibility and accessibility, the information provided by the FP Provide essential information facilitation will be individually-named, universally-translated web and PDF pages. To ensure trustworthiness, every page will be strictly and transparently version-controlled (like Wikipedia web pages). ↩︎
- If you are aware of a facilitation plan that is more likely to ‘trigger a course change to prevent “ecological collapse”’ than the plan outlined in this manifesto, then please, let me (and everyone else!) know. ↩︎