The Earthrise Community: Transforming Planetary Consciousness for a Flourishing Future

Abstract

In the face of the growing challenges of the Anthropocene—marked by climate change, biodiversity loss, and increasing rates of disease and despair—this paper explores the need for holistic solutions that integrate cultural and spiritual transformation as essential dimensions of change. Recognizing that the interconnected challenges to planetary health stem from destructive socio-political agendas and unhealthy economic structures, we underscore the importance of worldviews and value systems as root causes of social and ecological injustices. Solutions require an understanding of the complex interdependence of systems, fostering mutualistic mindsets, and healing the ‘relationship crisis’ between humans and the natural world by cultivating a deeper level of consciousness. In response to these urgent needs, we describe Earthrise—a community of engaged contemplative practice led by the Nova Institute for Health in collaboration with the Planetary Health Alliance—dedicated to spiritual and cultural transformation in the face of today’s complex crises. Through intentional spiritual relationships—with ourselves, each other, and the natural world—our community emphasizes the power of narrative co-creation in building social cohesion and collective action for environmental stewardship. Our work is not solely contemplative, but also relational and integrative—embodying values through lived practice, community, and ecological engagement. Our activities focus on developing cultural capacities and self-awareness as essential foundations for fair and sustainable social transformation. By integrating diverse perspectives, including ancestral wisdom and Indigenous knowledge systems, we enrich worldviews and deepen our connection to the planet. The Earthrise community seeks to cultivate a sense of belonging, nurturing the meaningful relationships that foster compassion and care. Central to our approach is the use of creative emergence, leveraging the arts to inspire change and catalyze new paradigms. Through this exploration of interconnected themes, we contend that spiritual and cultural transformation is vital to advancing a thriving future, where human flourishing and planetary health are understood as inseparable and interconnected goals.

1. Introduction

Human-induced disruptions to Earth’s natural systems—from climate change to large-scale environmental degradation and biodiversity loss—are inextricably linked to the rising global health crises [1,2]. The physical, emotional, and social distress facing humanity today is deeply intertwined with the degradation of natural and socio-political ecosystems. These disruptions highlight the urgent need for deep, structural changes not only in policies and practices but also in how we think, live, and interact with the planet and each other.

The Planetary Health movement is at the forefront of this endeavor, as a solutions-oriented, transdisciplinary field seeking to analyze and address the impacts of human disruptions to Earth’s natural systems on human health and well-being [3,4]. While the initial focus was heavily orientated towards Earth’s biophysical systems [3], there is growing awareness that human pressures on planetary boundaries must also address human attitudes and destructive behaviors responsible for creating our global challenges in the first place [2]. This includes the unhealthy social, economic, political, and spiritual “climate” perpetuating the “relationship crisis” between humans and nature. It calls for a ‘shift in consciousness’ for a cultural and spiritual transformation (Box 1).

In this paper, we present Earthrise, an engaged contemplative community dedicated to advancing spiritual and cultural transformation in the pursuit of planetary health. We explore how inner development, narrative change, and community-based practices can support the deeper human shifts needed to foster ecological belonging and systemic change. Drawing on the experience of Earthrise, we offer a framework for transformation that integrates ancestral wisdom, emotional intelligence, and creative emergence.

Here, we underscore that planetary health extends beyond environmental science and public policy, requiring holistic realignment of human values, worldviews, and spiritual connections to all life on Earth [5,6]. We explore the deeper aspects of human potential and the emotional connections that influence attitudes, behaviors, and our relationship with the natural world as pathways for meaningful change. We discuss these approaches in the context of Earthrise, a community of engaged contemplative practice cocreated to inspire cultural and spiritual transformation in the pursuit of planetary health. This initiative is led by the Nova Institute for Health [7], in collaboration with the global efforts of the Planetary Health Alliance (PHA) [8] to elevate spirituality, values, and ethical worldviews.

Box 1. Global Challenges Call for Spiritual and Cultural Transformation. 

“I used to think the top global environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change. I thought that with 30 years of good science we could address these problems. But I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy, and to deal with these we need a spiritual and cultural transformation, and we lawyers and scientists don’t know how to do that”. Environmental lawyer, James Gustave Speth, 2013 [9]

2. Our Origin Story: A Community of Practice for Transforming Planetary Consciousness

The origins of our community trace back to 2012 with the formation of a global network through the Worldwide Universities Network, which sought to promote integrated, transdisciplinary, and ecological approaches to health. The network’s mission was “to transform the health of individuals, communities, and the planet through deeper understanding of the interdependence of all systems and by promoting awareness, attitudes, and actions required for meaningful, collaborative change”. This vision was further articulated in the 2018 “Canmore Declaration: Statement of Principles for Planetary Health” [6], a foundational document that underscored the importance of relationality, values, purpose, self-awareness, cultural competency, critical consciousness, and spirituality within the planetary health agenda.

Building on this foundation, “Project Earthrise” was conceived in 2019 as an overarching framework to advance these principles in collaboration with the Nova Institute for Health (“Nova”). The initiative fostered dialogue and action through conferences, academic papers, and working groups. Project Earthrise drew inspiration from the transformative impact of the “Earthrise” photograph captured on December 24, 1968, by Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders. As noted in the media at the time:

“A remarkable effect of the Apollo 8 Moon voyage was not so much its capacity to draw [our] gaze outward as its powerful force in turning [our] thoughts inward on [our] own condition and that of [our] troubled planet…the flight of the astronauts produced great mental and spiritual ferment [on Earth]” [10] (Figure 1).

This new perspective triggered a profound shift in planetary consciousness that galvanized large-scale social and environmental movements, including the first Earth Day in 1970—as explored in our 2020 narrative review [11].

Nova’s 2020 Project Earthrise Conference further amplified this vision, advocating for a planetary health agenda that prioritizes social and spiritual ecology alongside natural ecology, as outlined in the conference proceedings [12].

These themes have increasingly been integrated into the broader planetary health agenda, with initiatives such as the PHA’s “Constellation Project” fostering an interdisciplinary nexus for sharing new narratives to inspire a new era of planetary consciousness. At the 2022 Planetary Health Annual Meeting (PHAM2022)—the global planetary health congress hosted by the PHA at Harvard University in November 2022—a broader call emerged for greater emphasis on spirituality, imagination, creativity, and emotional connections in addressing our grand challenges.

A specific desire to establish a forum for deeper contemplative connections led to the creation of a new community of practice in December 2022, as a key outcome of PHAM2022. We convene monthly, continuing to promote the shared philosophies of Project Earthrise and the Constellation Project, fostering dialogue and collaboration that align with the principles of relationality, creativity, and spirituality in planetary stewardship.

While contemplative practices are deeply personal and unique, meaningful connections with others can support inner development and provide an “authorizing environment” that fuels collective momentum for transformative change. This emphasizes the power of building a critical mass, where shared attitudes, behaviors, and collective consciousness drive profound societal shifts. It embodies our commitment to harnessing community-driven progress to advance planetary health and human flourishing, which inspired the name of our community of practice.

3. The Goals of the Earthrise Movement: Roadmap for This Viewpoint

Earthrise represents a pioneering effort to address the often overlooked spiritual and cultural dimensions of planetary health—such as values, worldviews, emotional connection, and meaning-making—which shape how humans relate to each other and the natural world. It has fostered a growing community for meaningful conversations and diverse perspectives, aiming to normalize mutualistic approaches and elevate the role of creativity, imagination, and self-development in addressing challenges across all scales. This vibrant community of academics, practitioners, and advocates from various sectors creates a visionary space that embraces interdisciplinary research, artistic expression, and spiritual engagement to reimagine a future rooted in deeper connections with the Earth and one another.

The core goals of Earthrise are to connect community, co-create change narratives, and communicate these narratives to influence both academic discourse and social movements. These goals are guided by five key pillars:

(a)

narrative co-creation for cultural change,

(b)

inner development and cultural capacities,

(c)

diverse perspectives to enrich worldviews,

(d)

connection and community, and

(e)

creative emergence.

These five principles, each discussed in the sections below, provide a framework for promoting individual and collective transformation in ways that ultimately support the well-being of both people and the planet. Here, we explore the importance of these interconnected dimensions of change. By promoting these capacities in a culture of collaboration through our global networks, we aim to contribute to quantum social change [13] in ways that cannot be achieved by logic and advances in technology alone. We anticipate that these efforts will also provide new opportunities for both research and advocacy to advance social and environmental justice and human flourishing.

4. Narrative Co-Creation for Cultural Change: The Power of Stories to Shape Reality

Narratives play a fundamental role in shaping human realities. They define worldviews, influence values, and guide behaviors [14]. Throughout history, cultural narratives have provided societies with meaning, shaping how individuals understand themselves, their communities, and their relationship with the natural world, providing a foundation for social cohesion and collective action. Today, however, the dominant narratives in many industrialized societies, rooted in historical processes of colonialism and industrialization, perpetuate unsustainable values—such as materialism, individualism, and the exploitation of nature for economic gain [14,15,16]. These narratives govern industrial and capitalist societies and are based on assumptions of human dominance over nature and the belief that economic growth and material progress are the highest forms of success [15,17]. These stories have contributed to environmental exploitation, social inequalities, and the depletion of Earth’s resources. In contrast, many Indigenous and ancestral knowledge systems carry longstanding relational narratives grounded in reciprocity, stewardship, and the ‘remembering’ of our embeddedness within the web of life [18].

To create a more sustainable and equitable future, we need new narratives that challenge materialistic assumptions and offer alternative ways of understanding our place in the world [19]. This shift from crisis to hope can be framed as a response to the historical marginalization of Indigenous knowledges and a corrective path toward a more inclusive, just, and sustainable future. It is crucial for driving cultural change toward more sustainable, ethical, and cooperative ways of living [20].

We recognize that stories are not merely vehicles for specific messages but are embedded in cultural contexts that shape their meaning, resonance, and impact. As codifications of lived experience, they can carry multiple interpretations depending on the social location of both teller and listener. Thus, the co-creation of mutualistic narratives must be responsive to diverse cultural contexts and lived realities, acknowledging both the multiplicity of meanings and the uneven power dynamics that influence whose stories are heard and valued.

Furthermore, to address planetary challenges, we must first transform stories that shape human behavior. This involves co-creating hopeful, mutualistic narratives that highlight interdependence, care, and stewardship, helping communities reframe their relationship with nature and inspire collective action for a just, sustainable future.

(a) From Crisis to Hope:

Much discourse around climate change and environmental degradation has been framed in terms of crisis and catastrophe, which can lead to feelings of anxiety, despair, and helplessness. Fear-based “polycrisis” narratives may capture attention, but they may contribute to the growing mental health crisis by fostering anxiety and despair, exacerbating a sense of helplessness and fatalism [21]. Similarly, using fear-based narratives to motivate action may be counterproductive, as they induce avoidance behavior or emotional numbing rather than positive action [22].

With growing cynicism and pessimism, people are less likely to care about the environment and less likely to act to protect it [23]. This underscores the importance of restoring optimism as a powerful motivator for social cohesion and engagement towards environmental solutions [24,25]. Moreover, shared positivity (i.e., resonant purpose with others) makes life more meaningful [26] (Figure 2).

Thus, while it is important to acknowledge the severity of these challenges, Earthrise advocates for a shift toward more hopeful narratives to inspire real change—focused on solutions and grounded in connection and shared action. These narratives can inspire resilience and motivate people to engage in positive actions, rather than becoming paralyzed by fear or cynicism. Optimistic, forward-looking stories not only strengthen social cohesion and collaboration for positive environmental behaviors [27] but also promote emotional well-being [28] and better overall health [29,30].

(b) Shifting Worldviews and Behaviors

Narratives not only shape how people perceive the world but also influence how they behave. Stories that emphasize the interconnectedness of all life and the need for stewardship of the Earth can motivate people to adopt more sustainable practices in their everyday lives. In this way, stories act as tools for changing worldviews and influencing societal norms. They allow people to envision new possibilities, encouraging shifts in mindset that can lead to sustainable behavior change.

For example, when narratives emphasize interconnectedness, highlighting the symbiotic relationship between humans and nature, they can promote a sense of responsibility for environmental stewardship. Research has shown that stories with emotionally resonant themes—such as care for future generations or love for the planet—are more likely to motivate pro-environmental actions than fear-based messaging [31,32].

These emotionally resonant and relational experiences are also associated with physiological and psychological benefits. Research in psychoneuroimmunology and environmental psychology demonstrates that nature connection can reduce stress responses, increase vagal tone, and promote neuroplasticity—strengthening the biological basis for empathy, compassion, and behavior change [33,34].

Moreover, marketing and behavioral studies indicate that messages framed around positive social norms—such as portraying sustainable actions as widely accepted and aligned with shared values—are more effective in encouraging behavior change [35]. For instance, storytelling that portrays individuals adopting sustainable lifestyles as part of a collective movement taps into social identity and promotes behavior change [36]. These narratives enable individuals to see themselves as active participants in a larger, values-driven movement toward planetary well-being.

(c) Expanding Perspectives by Weaving Narratives:

By incorporating diverse perspectives into the planetary health movement, we can create more inclusive and holistic stories that reflect the diversity of human experiences and knowledge systems. For example, Indigenous worldviews emphasize reciprocity with nature and respect for all living beings (Box 2).

Box 2. A Dakota Elder teaching. 

Pipe Ceremonies, Sweat Lodge Ceremonies, and other kinds of ceremonies continue “to ask the natural powers of Creation—that’s the Creator, the Grandfather Sun and Grandmother Moon, and the Star People—that have been with us ever since the Earth was born. When you’re doing ceremonies, you’re protecting water, you’re protecting the land, you’re protecting the natural resources, and you’re protecting the trees, you’re protecting all of Creation”.

Shared by Dakota Elder Wakįyą Hokšida (Thunder Boy) Calvin Pompana (1944–2023), Sioux Valley Dakota Nation, in personal communication in recorded transcripts to Dr. Yvonne Vizina, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, 2022

These perspectives offer powerful alternatives to the dominant narratives of extraction and consumption, and they are already making invaluable contributions to the cultural changes needed to overcome the environmental challenges of the Anthropocene [37]. This can also provide space for expansive perspectives and inspiration that is more capable of evoking deeper emotional connection and spiritual meaning.

(d) Finding change narratives that resonate universally: The answer is Love

It is important to understand what motivates people in identifying the most effective messaging strategies to motivate people for collective action. In search of messaging strategies capable of mobilizing a majority of people for climate change, a marketing coalition, in partnership with the Yale Program on Climate Communication, conducted a survey of nearly 58,000 people across 23 countries [38]. They found universal values and desires for environmental action that a sizable majority of people around the world share. The strongest motivating factor was love—love for our children, for others, for our world, and the desire to protect it for the next generations. This transcended culture, education, or political ideation. We should not be surprised that love is a universal driving energy, nor should we shy away from it. The more we center our goals with love, the stronger, deeper, and wider our collaborations can be, making our actions more meaningful and effective. And that is why we also have a strong focus on the inner resources and universal principles needed for social change and why spirituality is integral to planetary health, not a side issue.

Ultimately, co-creating ‘new’ narratives that recognize universal values while incorporating diverse perspectives, including ancestral wisdom, is essential for moving forward with a focus on renewal, regeneration, joy, and well-being of all life (Figure 3).

5. Inner Development and Cultural Capacities: Emotional Resources for Personal and Collective Social Transformation

Cultural change depends on individual transformation widespread enough to drive systemic changes. It is therefore essential to understand and promote the values and character strengths necessary to advance mutualism, social responsibility, and environmental stewardship. This includes ways of developing attitudes and emotional intelligence for personal and collective well-being—compassion, empathy, kindness, and love [39]. At the same time, it requires an understanding of attitudes that undermine—the selfishness, greed, apathy, authoritarianism, narcissism, and social dominance orientation [40,41,42,43]—and how these personality features develop in early life and coalesce in large groups [15].

Earthrise emphasizes the importance of developing cultural capacities and fostering inner awareness as key factors in motivating ethical and sustainable behaviors. This involves cultivating emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and moral wisdom, which are essential for promoting values and actions that align with planetary health goals.

These emotional assets not only benefit individuals [29,30] but also build more cohesive communities, wiser societies [16] with less polarization [44], and a stronger sustainability culture [30,45,46,47,48]. In other words, ‘inner’ transformations are an important basis for shared ‘outward’ transformation [45] (Figure 4).

(a) The Inner Development Goals (IDGs)

We support the Inner Development Goals (IDGs) framework, an emerging initiative aimed at fostering personal and collective development in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [49]. By addressing the inner dimensions of human development—such as emotional, social, and spiritual aspects—the IDG framework seeks to cultivate the skills and qualities necessary for achieving sustainability and societal well-being. The IDG framework consists of five key dimensions [50]:

• Being: Relationship to self, emphasizing presence, awareness, and mindfulness.
• Thinking: Fostering critical and creative thinking skills.
• Relating: Caring for others and the world by building emotional intelligence and social connectivity.
• Collaborating: Social skills to encourage cooperation and co-creation.
• Acting: Enabling change by inspiring proactive engagement with sustainable practices.

This framework seeks to emphasize and provide tools for holistic development—that achieving sustainable development requires not only external changes in policies and systems but also internal transformation in individuals. This involves fostering qualities like empathy, resilience, and self-awareness. The IDGs are designed to complement the SDGs by addressing the personal growth necessary for implementing sustainable practices. They focus on the “inner capacities” needed for effective, empathetic leadership, collaboration, and innovation. The IDGs encourage the integration of inner development into education, organizational cultures, and community initiatives to create environments that support holistic growth. The goal of the IDG movement is to promote global collaboration by inviting a wide range of stakeholders—including educators, researchers, and practitioners—to collaborate in implementing practices that enhance inner development.

(b) The Role of Contemplative Practices

Spiritual practices, such as mindfulness, meditation, and contemplative reflection, play a central role in fostering these capacities [51,52]. By helping individuals cultivate compassion, gratitude, humility, and resilience, these practices enable people to engage more meaningfully with the challenges of planetary health.

The Earthrise community seeks to value and center contemplative practices within all our activities—acknowledging many have roots in holistic, relational ways of being that have long existed across cultures but have been marginalized by dominant materialistic paradigms. Self-awareness, mindfulness, and the ability to recognize and understand one’s own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are associated with improved relationships, greater empathy, and compassion for others and for the natural world [48,53,54,55,56,57,58,59]. By extension, and of relevance to the planetary health agenda, nature connection is linked to altruism, volunteering, and other pro-social behaviors and pro-environmental actions [60,61,62]. In short, contemplative practices are not only beneficial for individual emotional and physical health, but they also encourage individuals to take responsibility for their actions and to work toward the common good, both for their communities and for their environment. Such practices can deepen eco-affinity—a love and care for nature that emerges from embodied eco-awareness—and serve as a driver of sustained, regenerative eco-action.

While individual self-awareness and emotional capacities are central to collective flourishing, we acknowledge that structural and material conditions shape the capacity for such practices. Efforts to shift consciousness will ideally flow on to systemic efforts to reduce inequality and ensure that the conditions for care and connection are accessible to all. It is also essential to approach these practices with humility and reflexivity, recognizing that efforts toward transformation, however well-intentioned, can inadvertently reproduce self-righteousness or cultural blind spots. Genuine self-awareness involves a continual process of confronting assumptions, biases, and blind spots, both individually and within communities.

(c) Importance of Education and Environments that Support Capacity Building

Education in general plays a critical role in shaping the values, attitudes, and behaviors of future generations. We advocate for educational frameworks (including cultural change in higher education) that integrate emotional intelligence, cultural competency, and spiritual development as part of a holistic approach to planetary health. Schools, universities, and communities can all contribute to creating environments that support individual and collective capacity building.

This approach aligns with the growing body of research on the importance of psychological well-being and emotional resilience in addressing environmental challenges. Studies have shown that individuals who experience a sense of purpose, connection, and emotional well-being are more likely to engage in pro-environmental behaviors [63]. Creating supportive environments that foster competence, autonomy, and relatedness can promote happiness, hope, and engagement in social and environmental justice actions [64,65]. By promoting environments that support these qualities, the Earthrise community seeks to build a culture of care, responsibility, and engagement that can drive transformative social change. This is particularly important in early life to encourage healthy life-long attitudes and behaviors [66,67].

(d) Encouraging Deeper Consciousness:

Providing environments for a more expansive sense of consciousness can influence how people perceive and interact with the world (Box 3). When people cultivate a broader, more interconnected perspective, they can better understand their relationship with nature and their impact on planetary health [68,69]. Shift from an ego-centric to an eco-centric worldview can inspire empathy, compassion, and responsibility toward the environment and future generations [70]. Theories of transformative learning [71] emphasize that deeper consciousness allows for profound shifts in thinking, enabling individuals to challenge ingrained assumptions and adopt more holistic, integrative worldviews. Expanding consciousness is important for tackling complex global problems by integrating multiple perspectives—scientific, spiritual, and cultural [68,69,72]. A greater focus on more meaningful aspects of life may help people engage with the world not just intellectually, but also emotionally and spiritually, deepening their commitment to sustainable living and planetary stewardship.

Box 3. A very short story from the Earthrise community. 

We are like the little fish looking for the mysterious ocean,

not realising that not only are we in it, and of it,

but that we are co-creating the very magic of its own consciousness.

We are the ocean. It is experiencing itself AS us.

6. Diverse Perspectives to Enrich Worldviews: Bridging Science and Spirituality for Expanded Awareness

One of the central themes of Earthrise is the convergence of scientific discovery and spiritual knowledge. By integrating these two ways of knowing, the project seeks to expand worldviews and enrich understandings of planetary health. Science offers critical insights into the physical processes that govern Earth’s systems, while spirituality provides a framework for understanding the deeper emotional and existential connections that humans share with nature.

In an era of political polarization and cultural fragmentation [73], fostering inclusiveness is essential for creating a shared vision of planetary health. Our community seeks to harmonize diverse perspectives by synthesizing common universal values—such as compassion, care, and respect for life—that transcend cultural and religious boundaries.

These values are shared by many spiritual traditions and provide a foundation for building a more ethical and sustainable relationship with the planet [74], supporting processes of healing—both within individuals and across communities—as we repair our relationship with the Earth. By encouraging dialogue and collaboration across different faiths, disciplines, and cultures, the Earthrise community fosters a sense of unity and collective purpose in addressing environmental challenges. This inclusiveness is essential for creating social cohesion and ensuring that solutions to planetary health issues are equitable and just.

In recent years, there has been growing recognition within Western academic, policy, and environmental sectors of the value of ancestral wisdom, Indigenous knowledges, and diverse faith perspectives in addressing environmental challenges [37,75]. This shift acknowledges that while many local and Indigenous communities have long recognized the value of these knowledge systems, dominant paradigms in industrialized societies have historically marginalized or dismissed them. Encouragingly, there is increasing integration of Indigenous perspectives into educational systems, including the rise of land-based learning courses in post-secondary institutions and greater engagement of cultural knowledge keepers in public education in Canada. These efforts not only connect learners with Indigenous ways of knowing but also help bridge worldviews through experiential and relational learning.

More ‘relational’ worldviews, including those of Indigenous peoples, are of enormous value in influencing Western individualistic and ‘transactional’ ideologies towards more sustainable worldviews [76,77]. Indigenous cultures offer worldviews that are deeply rooted in ecological stewardship and reciprocity. These perspectives emphasize the importance of living in harmony with the natural world and recognizing the interconnectedness of all life [77].

By incorporating these diverse perspectives into the planetary health movement, we create a more inclusive and holistic approach to environmental justice and sustainability.

7. Connection and Community: Building Relationships

The recognition that human well-being is deeply interconnected with the health of the natural world is at the heart of the planetary health movement. Meaningful relationships with other people and with nature promote a sense of belonging, compassion, and care [78,79]. These relationships foster a “unitive” awareness of the interdependence of all life [68], inspiring individuals and communities to take action for co-beneficial solutions that align with the rhythms and patterns of nature, healing the separation between humans, cultures, and the natural world. The Earthrise initiative emphasizes the importance of fostering connectedness, coherence, and community as essential components of planetary health (Figure 5).

(a) Connection with nature: By strengthening emotional connections between individuals and the natural world, we seek to create a culture of care that motivates people to protect the environment. Emotional experiences of awe, wonder, and reverence for nature can inspire people to take actions that contribute to the health of the planet and promote collective well-being.

Stronger relationships with nature, especially in children, have lifelong implications for physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing, as well as altruistic actions to protect the environment. Nature exposure in childhood predicts adult emotional intelligence, creativity, and pro-environmental behaviors [80,81,82]. Children with greater experiential nature exposure are more likely to react to signs of environmental harm [83] and protect the environment in the future [84,85].

(b) Connection with community: Strong communities are also essential for fostering social transformation. The Earthrise initiative advocates for creating spaces where individuals can come together to share their experiences, ideas, and visions for a more sustainable future. Communities of care provide support, inspiration, and motivation for collective action. Research shows that people are more likely to engage in pro-environmental behaviors when they feel connected to others who share their values, concerns, and social identities [86,87], especially when this creates optimism [24,25].

By creating networks of collaboration across disciplines, geographies, and traditions, we seek to build a global movement for planetary health that is grounded in shared values and collective purpose. By fostering a sense of community, Earthrise helps create the social infrastructure needed to support environmental justice and sustainability efforts, building community as a catalyst for social change.

8. Creative Emergence: Imagination as a Tool for Transformation

Imagination is essential for creative emergence, enabling new paradigms and narratives for social and environmental transformation (Box 4). In the context of planetary health, imagination actively empowers individuals and communities to envision more harmonious, equitable ways of coexisting with nature [11].

(a) Creating new possibilities: Imagination is an active tool that enables individuals and communities to envision more harmonious ways of living, coexisting with nature, and building fair societies [11]. The process of imagining alternative futures is essential to transcending outdated and harmful systems, allowing for radical rethinking of human-nature relationships and socio-political structures.

Box 4. A story from the Earthrise community. 

From a world that feels broken, we can create something more beautiful than it was before by telling a new story. Like the Japanese art of Kintsugi, which rebuilds shattered ceramic with gold, we can transform our fault lines into exquisite new creations, rejoined with stories of love to create something more profound for the experience. As we choose to change our own story, we can influence the shared stories of our consensus reality.

This is the story of the Universe: the shattering of the singularity into the seemingly infinite and expanding illusion of separation. Of love needing to create another to create the relationality of experience. Allowing the space between where love can grow, made more powerful through the gift of choice.

Can we move into an era of deeper awareness and a new kind of relationality, where our goals are always oriented towards love? Can we live in the understanding that we are creation in an active process of coming to know more of itself in the dance of evolution? As conscious beings, we feel a calling—and perhaps a responsibility—to make an active contribution to accelerating that evolution of consciousness. But it remains our choice: Will we choose to live a personal story of meaning and help make the world more beautiful? The only way to move into that new reality is to begin to tell its story.

Creative emergence relies on the recognition that solutions to complex planetary challenges cannot be derived from purely mechanistic thinking. As Albert Einstein is acknowledged to have said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them”. This notion reflects the limitations of traditional technocratic and reductionist approaches, which often fail to account for the deep interconnections between human well-being and ecological systems. By engaging in imaginative and creative practices, individuals and societies can step outside the confines of linear thought and explore more holistic, adaptive, and regenerative models for the future (Figure 6).

(b) Inspiring social movements: The expressive arts—literature, music, visual art, and more—play a critical role in social emergence. At the heart of systemic transformation is the ability to challenge entrenched norms and imagine new ways of organizing societies that are more equitable, just, and ecologically sustainable. Imagination, in this sense, becomes a form of activism—an essential tool for envisioning and designing systems that prioritize human and planetary well-being over short-term profit and exploitation. The fruits of creativity may be useful in solving problems, communication, and offering broad social value [88,89,90]. Indeed, the trajectories of notable social movements, those involving civil rights or social justice, for example, can be tied to imagination and creativity [91,92]. One example includes Martin Luther King’s galvanizing oration, certainly one of the most famous speeches in human history, which involved “having a dream” [93].

(c) Bridging the heart and mind: A key aspect of creative emergence is the integration of the intellectual and emotional dimensions of human experience. While scientific knowledge is essential for understanding the complexities of the Anthropocene, it is not sufficient on its own to inspire the kinds of deep, systemic changes that are needed. The arts and imagination provide a bridge between the heart and mind, allowing people to connect emotionally with the urgent need for transformation while also engaging in critical thinking and problem-solving.

Integration is particularly important in addressing the psychological and emotional dimensions of the planetary health crisis. Many people experience feelings of anxiety, despair, and helplessness in the face of global environmental challenges, a phenomenon often referred to as “eco-anxiety” or “climate grief”. By engaging in creative practices, individuals can process these emotions in a constructive way, transforming despair into hope and paralysis into action (Box 5).

The arts also play a crucial role in cultivating empathy—a quality that is essential for fostering more compassionate and inclusive societies. In a world marked by political polarization and social fragmentation, empathy is key to bridging divides and building coalitions for collective action. Artistic expression, by engaging the imagination, can help people see the world from different perspectives, fostering a greater sense of shared humanity and responsibility for the planet.

Box 5. A story of sustainability from the Earthrise community. 

True sustainability will emerge from love—and with it, peace, wisdom, respect, and forgiveness. In a world ravaged by war and destruction, we fixate on our material resources and our physical climate. Yet, what we truly need is to develop our inner resources to heal the deeper spiritual climate and the relational crisis at the root of almost all our problems. Our material resources may be limited, but our inner resources are not. The only limits on these capacities are those we impose on ourselves—through attitudes and beliefs. But we have another powerful inner gift to overcome that—choice.

9. Conclusions

To truly address the challenges of the Anthropocene, a deeper, holistic approach is essential—one that unites human health, ecological balance, and social justice grounded in historical awareness. The Earthrise community embodies this vision, weaving together narratives of personal and collective transformation with creativity and spiritual insight. It emphasizes that the stories we tell about ourselves and the Earth are fundamental to creating new cultural realities, underpinned by the principles of co-creation, inner development, diversity, connectedness, and creative emergence.

We seek to reshape perceptions of environmental crises, moving away from fear-driven reactions to more hopeful, solution-focused mindsets that inspire collective action. Optimistic narratives can reshape our understanding of environmental issues, fostering social cohesion and motivating collective action. Individual empowerment through self-awareness and character development is essential for mobilizing communities toward sustainable practices. By incorporating diverse perspectives—especially from ancestral wisdom and Indigenous knowledge systems—we can enhance our understanding of interconnectedness and shared values. Recognizing the deep interweaving of these knowledge systems with histories of marginalization highlights the need for restorative inclusion and ethical collaboration.

Cultivating capacities like self-awareness, empathy, and resilience are vital in building sustainable communities. Deeper relationships with each other and the natural world promote belonging and a sense of interconnectedness for more eco-conscious behaviors. In this way, the Earthrise initiative contributes to a broader movement of healing people, communities, and planetary systems.

Creative emergence is at the heart of this transformation, supporting the regenerative processes essential for healing and renewal. The arts offer not only emotional expression but also innovative problem-solving and a means of connecting across cultures. By nurturing creativity and imagination, we unlock new pathways toward systemic change, envisioning futures that are harmonious, just, and sustainable.

By embracing these interconnected themes, Earthrise offers a transformative vision for planetary health, encouraging us to reimagine our relationships with ourselves, one another, and the planet. This collective journey toward transformation fosters a world where human flourishing is inseparable from the health and integrity of Earth’s ecosystems, grounded in mutual respect and historical consciousness, ensuring a thriving future for all forms of life.

Across the desolate, cratered dust of the moon’s horizon we see the infinite expanse of space—alive with mystery, awe, and with love. And there we see it rising: a blue ball of living light, half unseen but coming into view. Distant but so intimate and so loved. Inviting us to see ourselves in unity. From here, we can see that all things are connected. Not just in this moment, but across all of time—as we open our hearts to new potential.

The heart of humanity, like the Earthrise, is still not fully in view. But the part still unseen holds infinite promise as it comes into light. We went to the moon and discovered the Earth, just as we venture into the vastness of the Universe, to discover what lies within.

Adapted from “Earthrising” by Susan Prescott [94].