Spaceship Earth metaphor
The "Spaceship Earth" metaphor portrays our planet as a delicate vessel navigating the vastness of space, emphasizing the interconnectedness of all life forms and the necessity for global cooperation in safeguarding Earth's resources. This analogy is commonly used by environmentalists, economists, and scientists to parallel the systems required for survival on Earth with those needed aboard a spaceship, such as air, water, food, and waste management. Originating from the insights of figures like R. Buckminster Fuller and popularized by economist Barbara Ward in her 1966 book, the metaphor highlights the vulnerabilities of our shared existence and the pressing need for a unified approach to governance and resource management. Ward argues that the contemporary structure of national sovereignty can hinder global solidarity, suggesting that a collective identity as passengers on "Spaceship Earth" is crucial for overcoming conflicts and achieving sustainable living. Additionally, economist Kenneth E. Boulding contrasts the "cowboy economy" of exploitation with a more sustainable "spaceman" economy, advocating for a closed-loop system that prioritizes resource maintenance and quality living. Overall, the Spaceship Earth metaphor serves as a call for a deeper commitment to environmental stewardship and global citizenship in the face of shared challenges.
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Spaceship Earth metaphor
IDENTIFICATION: Figure of speech portraying the planet Earth as a fragile vessel in the vast expanse of space
In using the Spaceship Earth metaphor, environmentalists and others emphasize the interrelationships of all living things on the planet and the need for worldwide cooperation in protecting Earth’s resources.
Environmentalists, economists, scientists, and others have used the Spaceship Earth metaphor, which in essence compares the systems needed for the survival and continuation of the diverse life-forms on Earth to the systems needed on a spaceship to ensure the survival of the occupants. Major environmental systems needed for survival on Earth include air, water, food, shelter, economic goods and services, and disposal, security from violence, and governmental justice, law, and order. Similar environmental systems are needed on a spaceship: sufficient air supply, clean water, adequate food, protection from outer space, adequate goods and services, effective waste disposal, recycling of used materials, and enforcement of appropriate safety rules and regulations by captain and crew.
In her book Spaceship Earth (1966), British economist Barbara Ward indicates that she borrowed the comparison of Earth to a spaceship from the visionary American inventor R. Buckminster Fuller. Ward argues that science and technology have created an intimate, spaceshiplike worldwide network of communication, transportation, and economic interdependence. This has resulted in a planetary fellowship, a close world with the vulnerability of a spaceship. Inequities in power and wealth breed violence, which damages the general welfare in the crowded spaceship. Ward asserts that the divisions fostered by conflicting belief systems should be replaced with planetary unity, rational rules for survival, and common world institutions, policies, and beliefs, because such a worldwide system of order and welfare is needed if humankind is to avoid nuclear annihilation. According to Ward, the current system of national sovereignty is a divisive tribal system that stands as a major barrier to the system of planetary loyalty, patriotism, and citizenship needed for adequate living on Spaceship Earth. The instinct to kill strangers from other tribes or nations must be replaced by the vision of a single community on a spaceship carrying a single human species.
Kenneth E. Boulding, who was an economist and college professor, makes even more specific arguments in his essay “The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth,” which was first published in 1966. Boulding labels the open-earth economy of exploitation, extraction, consumption, depletion, pollution, and violence the “cowboy economy” and calls it a “fouling of the nest” system. In order to sustain the human species, according to Boulding, the Earth needs a closed “spaceman” economy in which the planet is seen as a single spaceship; maintenance of resources and conditions for long-term quality living should be top priorities on Spaceship Earth.
Bibliography
Boulding, Kenneth E. “The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth.” 1966. In Valuing the Earth: Economics, Ecology, Ethics, edited by Herman E. Daly and Kenneth N. Townsend. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1993.
Jasanoff, Sheila. “Heaven and Earth: The Politics of Environmental Images.” In Earthly Politics: Local and Global in Environmental Governance, edited by Sheila Jasanoff and Marybeth Long Martello. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2004.
Lindahl, Therese, et al. "Titanic Lessons for Spaceship Earth to Account for Human Behavior in Institutional Design." NPJ Climate Action, vol. 3, no. 56, 2 July 2024, doi.org/10.1038/s44168-024-00135-z. Accessed 23 July 2024.