How did we get here?

October 4, 2026 Editorial Staff The Great Transition

THE STORY BEGINS WITH ONE QUESTION

How did we get here?

What did we build, what did it give us, what did we fail to anticipate — and what are we learning now?

A story about human evolution.

From:

ISOLATED PARTS

to

MASS PRODUCTION

to

GLOBAL NETWORKS

to

INTERDEPENDENT SYSTEMS

to, potentially,

REGENERATIVE SYSTEMS.

And there is a strong factual foundation for that narrative. Global natural-resource extraction has roughly tripled over the past five decades, and UNEP projects that without significant changes it could increase another 60% from 2020 levels by 2060.

At the same time, WHO estimates air pollution contributes to roughly seven million premature deaths annually.

FAO estimates that the unpriced environmental, health and social costs associated with today’s agrifood systems exceed $10 trillion annually.

But another story is unfolding simultaneously.

Renewable capacity additions reached a record roughly 800 GW in 2025, with solar accounting for more than three-quarters of additions; renewables supplied about 34% of global electricity generation.

The consequences of scale:  The consequences of yesterday’s design versus the possibilities of today’s redesign.

  • Energy.
  • Food.
  • Finance.
  • Healthcare.
  • Transportation.
  • Media.
  • Housing.
  • Manufacturing.
  • Technology.

The remarkable achievement was scale.

The unintended problem was that the consequences also scaled.