If we asked you what planet you live on, you might find the question strange and the answer obvious: Earth! Yet living like modern people who use the resources of six planets, and living on a single, fragile planet with limited resources is clearly not the same thing.

At a time when democracies are experiencing a rise of populism and dictatorships pose an increasingly pressing threat, our hypothesis is that climate change is not simply one issue among others, but will likely frame the political discussion entirely. And there is increasing disagreement on how to keep the world inhabitable, not only because political opinions diverge, but more crucially because we don’t seem to agree on what the earth is made of. Some people still think the world is flat! It is as if there were several versions of Earth whose properties and capacities are so different that they are like distinct planets.

If we had to present briefly our metaphorical planetarium, we could say that there is the planet of the those who want to keep modernizing regardless of the planet’s boundaries (planet Globalization). But this planet seems to have little traction among those who feel betrayed by the current economic system and need to hide behind the walls of their nation state to protect themselves (planet Security). This is without mentioning the few hyper-privileged who can afford to think they will escape to Mars (planet Escape). This discussion is occurring while the way of life on a planet that could reconcile forms of prosperity while keeping in the planetary limits has yet to be invented (planet Gaia).