Do we live on or are we part of a planet?
Rethinking democratic agency as everything is connected - Frederic Hanusch

Data collections about planet Earth form the basis for the interpretation of Earth system models, are thus the mouthpiece of the planet, and allow the projection of alternative future scenarios. In doing so, the models show how processes that operate at different scales and involve material flows produced by both animate and inanimate matter intertwines in complex and precarious ways. They trace how the anthroposphere, geosphere, and biosphere undergo mutually dependent changes under the influence of factors such as solar radiation, volcanic activity, and climate change. Accordingly, the research network Future Earth identifies in its Risks Perceptions Report (2020) the greatest threat to the well-being of future generations not in individual risk areas such as climate change, biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, food and water crises, as media coverage or politics regularly suggest, but in their feedback loops and interactions. The negative trends fuel each other and can create a risk that goes far beyond the sum of individual impacts. So, how can we envision a democracy that takes into account that everything is connected? We humans have to take responsibility for these entanglements and relations, because despite all the agency we attribute to trees, mountains and rivers, trees by themselves will never convene a “world parliament of trees” or become a political force out of their own. Rethinking agency is important for our democracies. When we look back in the history of democracy, one core factor making our democracies better was the process of inclusion. When those, who were assumed to have no agency and were primarily seen as a human resource for labor or reproduction, such as slaves, non-whites or women, were included in democratic decision-making, democracies democratized, reached a higher level of democracy so to say.