A Time of Great Consequence: A Manifesto for Bridging Knowledge and Action

We are living in a time of great consequence. We act as if we are not.

Never before have we seen with such clarity how human activity is reshaping the Earth system and the conditions on which life depends.

The global transformations unfolding in our own lifetimes have no parallel since the end of the last ice age. The rate of atmospheric change over the last century alone, in terms of rising CO₂ concentrations, has no precedent in the past 800,000 years, long before the emergence of our own species.

Never before have we understood so much about the drivers of these transformations or anticipated their cascading consequences for people and the planet. Yet our collective response remains profoundly out of step with what we know.

The roots of this inertia lie in a set of mutually reinforcing conditions, including economic inequality, social fragility, deepening political divisions and institutions increasingly at odds with the sociocultural and environmental realities of the present. Our knowledge is also fragmented, undermining our ability to respond decisively to these changing realities.

No single knowledge system can meet the challenges of our time alone. Humanity's response depends on bringing together the full spectrum of knowledge – scientific, humanistic, cultural, Indigenous, professional, and lived – to match the scale, speed, and complexity of the transformations now underway.

This moment demands more than observing and understanding the unprecedented changes transforming our world. It demands a fundamental reorientation of how humanity learns in solidarity across knowledge systems, deliberates across differences, and acts together with purpose and urgency.

Our response must bridge knowledge systems.

Modernity expanded the human capacity to understand the world by promoting the expansion of knowledge through specialized disciplines, institutions, professions, and domains of expertise. Specialization enabled extraordinary depth and richness of understanding. However, the infrastructures that sustain this system can also reinforce divisions not only in terms of how knowledge is produced, organized and communicated, but also in regard to how it is funded, rewarded, and governed. This limits our ability to respond effectively to the crises imperilling our interconnected world.

These crises cannot be fully understood nor addressed within the bounds of any single scientific discipline. Safeguarding interdependent social and natural systems – atmospheres and oceans, forests and food systems, economies and energy systems – requires interrelated and increasingly better integrated knowledge systems.

None of the most pressing challenges of our era is adequately intelligible through a single lens. Climate change, the loss of biodiversity and cultural diversity, growing social and economic inequalities, the mixed vulnerabilities and benefits of artificial intelligence – all reflect a great many interdependencies, just as all are better understood through intersecting knowledge systems.

Each disciplinary contribution sheds its own distinct light on these problems; together they can illuminate crises and suggest potential policy solutions in more complete ways. Bridging knowledge systems is how humanity becomes capable of responding to the myriad challenges facing our interconnected world.

However, integrating knowledge systems is not sufficient on its own.

Our response must enable immediate collective action grounded in shared purpose.

Knowledge does not apply itself. Evidence deepens understanding, but it does not determine what matters, what is just, whose interests should prevail, or how the costs of action – or inaction – should be shared. When knowledge fails to guide action, the obstacle is rarely a lack of evidence. It is often a failure of interpretation, trust, legitimacy – or the lack of a shared purpose.

Knowledge traditions are living cultures that carry worlds. They preserve histories, relationships, memories, and insights that no single disciplinary contribution can fully contain. They are also the foundation for anticipating futures. Like all human knowledge systems, these traditions are dynamic, internally diverse, intergenerational, and historically situated. Their value lies not in offering universal solutions, but in opening up wider ecologies of experience and understanding to diverse groups.

This moment calls us to cultivate shared understanding through and across differences, enabling collective action without expecting cultural sameness. All knowledge traditions – from social sciences, physical sciences, and the humanities to the arts, law, and Indigenous knowledge systems – have long cultivated diverse modes of understanding. They question assumptions, illuminate histories, interpret cultures, and expand the horizons of collective imagination through which societies make sense of the world and define priorities. They also shape the public debates through which societies question power relations, negotiate differences, deepen mutual understanding, and build trust.

Yet for knowledge to be consequential, our institutions must learn with the people they serve.

Our response must build institutions that learn, anticipate, and adapt to changing realities.

Needs and contexts are hardly uniform across all nations, cultures and political systems. To make our understanding consequential, we must prioritize generating locally relevant knowledge while creating the conditions for sharing insights across boundaries. Institutions are pivotal to each of these priorities. They connect knowledge with action, local experience with global understanding, and the choices we make today with the lives of generations to come. Institutions shape what societies know, whose voices count, how choices are made, and what futures can be envisaged.

Institutions become transformative when they learn together with the communities they support, listening across differences, remaining accountable to those affected by their decisions, anticipating emerging challenges, and adapting as conditions change.

Responsibility extends across all societal institutions – from schools and universities to government agencies and international organizations; from scientific, cultural and religious institutions to other private sector organizations that make up civil society. None can make the difference on their own. Together, they must cultivate imagination, accountability, and an ethos of planetary belonging, while learning in step with the communities they impact and serve across sectors, cultures, generations, and knowledge systems. Whether governing artificial intelligence, restoring ecosystems, transforming food systems, preparing cities for climate risk, or educating present and future generations, lasting responses require institutions that can learn continuously, anticipate emerging challenges, and adapt as conditions change.

For human capacities to be mobilized at the scale required in our era of great consequence, we must renew our institutions to learn with the people they support and impact.

Our shared commitment

Our understanding of the forces transforming the Earth system clearly exceeds our capacity to mobilize this knowledge wisely, collectively, and at the scale and speed required to address these challenges. There is nothing inevitable about this situation. It reflects a trajectory of development that could have unfolded differently – and one that can still support just, resilient and flourishing futures.

The signatories of this Manifesto therefore recognize that meeting the greatest challenges of our era requires more than generating new knowledge. It requires the synthesis of human wisdom across diverse knowledge traditions, the capacity to learn and act across systems of understanding, and the reorientation of institutions to be capable of mobilizing knowledge and generating collective action for the common good of people and planet.

We seek a world in which diverse knowledge systems strengthen rather than diminish or compete with one another; where institutions are agile and accountable to their communities; where education cultivates imagination, responsibility, and planetary care; and where people act together across differences to shape just and flourishing futures.

To accomplish this vision, we commit to:

● bridging knowledge systems, expanding humanity's capacity to understand and navigate an interconnected world;

● shaping the conditions by which diverse communities can deliberate, learn and collaborate across differences in knowledge, values, and interests, building trust and shared purpose;

● renewing institutions so that they learn with the communities they serve, connecting knowledge with action, while cultivating imagination, responsibility, foresight, and planetary belonging.

This is not the work of any one institution, sector, nation, or generation. It is a responsibility shared across all of them. We call upon all organizations who share our priorities to join us in delivering on this vision at all achievable scales.

Posterity will remember neither what we knew nor what we promised. It will remember whether we had the courage to act in our time of great consequence when we had a chance to make a difference.

This Manifesto has been written by the BRIDGES Coalition in UNESCO’s Management of Social Transformations (MOST) programme, the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory, Arizona State University and The Club of Rome.

Lobna Jeribi, Founder, Solidar Tunisi, Southern voice network.

Najat Vallaud Belkacem, former Minister for Education, France.

Prof. Dr. Ilona M. Otto, Professor in Societal Impacts of Climate Change. University of Graz.

Derek Walker, Future Generations Commissioner for Wales. 

Kim Stanley Robinson, American science fiction writer. 

William J. Ripple, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Oregon State University , Director, Alliance of World Scientists.

Carlos Lopes, Professor, Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance, University of Cape Town.

Janez Potocnik, Co-chair UNEP International Resource Panel.

Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and member of the Club of Rome.

Kristie L. Ebi, Ph.D., MPH. Professor, Center for Health and the Global Environment (CHanGE) University of Washington.

Mercedes Bustamanti, Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Brasília.

André Hoffmann, Vice-Chairman, Roche Holding AG; Co-Chair, World Economic Forum.

Steven Hartman, Founding Executive Director, UNESCO-MOST BRIDGES.

Carlos Álvarez Pereira, Secretary General of the Club of Rome.

Peter Schlosser, University Vice President and Director General, Global Futures Laboratory.

“Within BRIDGES we regard the Earth not solely as a planetary system, nor as a reservoir of resources, but as a web of meanings and interactions that is inherently multilayered and pluralistic. This is why the humanities and social sciences are crucial to any understanding of socio-ecological resilience. Bridging knowledge systems is the first step from understanding to action.” – Steven Hartman, Founding Executive Director, UNESCO-MOST BRIDGES Coalition

“The wisdom required to navigate our crises already exists everywhere, in the lived experiences of those on the frontlines. This manifesto is the choice, made in solidarity, to transform decision-making with that wisdom, as generations to come deserve.”– Carlos Álvarez Pereira, Secretary General, the Club of Rome

"Human ingenuity has transformed our world, creating extraordinary progress alongside unprecedented challenges. Now we must summon that same ingenuity to confront the consequences of our actions. We must accept our collective responsibility and change course while we can — working together toward a better future for people and the planet." – Peter Schlosser, University Vice President and Director General, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory, Arizona State University

“The barriers to knowledge are political, cultural and gendered, and for too long, that knowledge has been produced by a narrow circle and directed at everyone else. This manifesto names those barriers and commits us to placing the social sciences and humanities at the heart of how we govern, for the benefit of all.” – Najat Vallaud Belkacem, former minister for Education, France

“This is a much-needed initiative. We need to bring social sciences and diverse knowledge systems into the policy process to understand how the transformations ahead can support well-being for all, social justice, and social cohesion.” – Ilona M. Otto, Professor in Societal Impacts of Climate Change, University of Graz

“Future generations will judge us not by what we knew, but by what we did with that knowledge. This manifesto offers a compelling vision for bringing together diverse perspectives, strengthening our institutions and turning understanding into the collective action needed to build just and sustainable futures.” – Derek Walker, the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales

“Our moment is indeed a ‘time of great consequence’ and so it is very appropriate that this call to action has been articulated by UNESCO, the BRIDGES Coalition, the Club of Rome and the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory at ASU. Our response to climate change will define the generations now living and mark human and planetary history for hundreds of years. Given these sobering facts, there is an undeniable need for initiatives like this one.” – Kim Stanley Robinson, American science fiction writer

“We already know enough about many of the great environmental and social challenges facing humanity to act. The urgent task now is to bridge knowledge and action, bringing diverse forms of understanding together to help build a more just and sustainable future.” – William J. Ripple, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Oregon State University, and Director, Alliance of World Scientists

“Politically and environmentally, we are trapped by unintended consequences of our actions. Transformational change is truly essential. Education builds awareness and inclusive capacity; science creates evidence-based solutions. Together they drive effective climate action and equitable development, leaving no community behind.” – Mercedes Bustamante, Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Brasília

“Sustainability is not simply a technical challenge; it is fundamentally about how societies understand change, negotiate choices, and build institutions capable of acting on knowledge. Bridging disciplines and knowledge systems is therefore indispensable to achieving transformations that endure.” – Carlos Lopes, Professor, Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance, University of Cape Town

“We are the first generation in human history living in a single, tightly coupled human social-ecological system of planetary scope. Indebting future generations, financially, by depleting nature and overusing natural resources is irresponsible. More than an economic or a technological choice, this is an ethical choice. Bridging knowledge and action is thus a must.” – Janez Potocnik, Co-chair, UNEP International Resource Panel

“Policies can be technically sound and still fail when they overlook how people, institutions and cultures shape change. Bringing the social sciences and humanities into sustainability policymaking is essential to making transformation both effective and just.” – Lobna Jeribi, Former Tunisian Minister of Reforms; Founder, Solidar Tunisi, Southern voice network

“The structures of the knowledge systems of the past century are no longer fit-for-purpose for proactive, effective, and equitable management of the grand challenges of food, water, health, livelihood, ecosystem, and energy insecurity that are resulting from global environmental change. The tasks ahead are daunting but resilience and sustainability can be achieved through the commitments laid out in the call to action: bridging knowledge systems, facilitating coordination and collaboration across institutions and all levels of governance, and promoting equitable approaches to transformation. The call to action by UNESCO, the BRIDGES Coalition, the Club of Rome and the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory at ASU is timely and compelling.” – Kristie L. Ebi, Professor in the Center for Health and the Global Environment, University of Washington

“Science has told us what is happening to nature. What we lack is the shared purpose to act on it. That requires bridging knowledge, values and institutions, business and finance included. This manifesto is a timely call." – André Hoffmann, Vice-Chairman, Roche Holding AG; Co-Chair, World Economic Forum