~ Idea 500 ~ 22 November 1995
The United Nations has done a tremendous job in paving the way to our entry into a new century and millennium. It has done it with its vast statistical global services covering practically every aspect of humanity and of the Earth, with its several world conferences on fundamental global issues, its stock-takings in yearly reports on the state of the world in many sectors, its stock-takings during the 50th anniversaries of the UN and of several of its agencies, and the holding of world celebrations on global issues, values and achievements. (see Introduction to the Third One Hundred Ideas.)
In addition, the UN has received the invaluable help and pioneering work of a number of Independent World Commissions of Eminent Personalities, on important world issues requiring attention. Here is the list of these commissions:
The World Commission on North-South Relations headed by former Chancellor Willy Brandt of Germany,
The World Commission on Disarmament headed by Mr. Olof Palme, former Prime Minister of Sweden.
The World Commission on the Environment headed by Mrs. Gro Harlan Brundtland, Prime Minister of Norway.
The World Commission on Global Governance, headed by Mr. Ingvàr Carlsson, former Prime Minister of Sweden.
The World Commission on Funding of the United Nations, headed by Ms. Hazel Henderson, US economist,
The World Commission on Population and the Quality of Life, headed by Mrs. Maria de Lourdes Pintalsigo, former Prime Minister of Portugal,
The World Commission on Art and Culture, headed by former UN Secretary General Javier Pérez de Cuellar,.
The World Commission on Education in the 21st century, headed by Jacques Delors, former President of the European Economic Community,
The World Commission on the Oceans, headed by Mario Soares, the Prime Minister of Portugal*.
I recommend that in 1999 or 2000, the UN General Assembly should hold a special session or convene a World Conference on our entry into a new century and millennium, to review the conclusions and recommendations of all the above preparatory work, unprecedented in human history and design a core vision of what our Earth and humanity should aim at and look like in the future.
*For further subjects on which I recommend the establishment of new world commissions, see Index "World Commissions New Proposals". Former heads of states, former heads of UN agencies and philanthropists may wish to create such commissions.

~ Idea 501 ~ 23 November 1995
It would be good if all human beings would express, write down their basic beliefs, commitments and dreams for their own lives and for a better world. It could be done at several points of life: as a child, as a youth, as a couple, at parenthood, at grand-parenthood, at retirement, even at the moment of death.
We should also leave behind us a record of our wisdom, beliefs, joys and achievements, a testament to those who will follow. I did that when I left to my children the books Most of All They Taught Me Happiness and What War Taught Me About Peace, to the religions New Genesis, Shaping a Global Spirituality, to the world The Birth of a Global Civilization, to educators my World Core Curriculum, to women my novels Sima Mon Amour and First Lady of the World, and to the United Nations my Testament to the UN.
And I continue to do it every day, in these 2000 ideas for a better world and other writings, correspondence, journal and numerous speeches.

~ Idea 502 ~ 24 November 1995
During my half a century of world service I have seen these three basic phases in human history since the end of World War II:
1945 to the early 1970's: a comprehensive, unprecedented period of Humanism (avoid wars, prevent early childhood deaths, increase the well-being of all humans, defend universal human rights, put an end to colonialism and apartheid, increase literacy, longevity and good health, etc.)
1970's: while the agendas of the preceding period were still incomplete and were overtaken by the world population explosion, a new major world concern came to the fore: the Environment (UNESCO's World Biosphere Conference in 1968 and the UN World Conference on the Environment in Stockholm in 1972), in other words: we humans on one side and the Earth and nature around us.
1980's: the new phenomena of the depletion of the ozonosphere and menacing climatic changes made the Earth priority No. 1 of our concerns and reduced humanity and economic development to second place.
This represents a fundamental change in the evolution of this planet. From now on the world will never be the same. This is why we should no longer speak of the need for World Government, but of Earth Government, the wise management, saving and preservation of our planetary home of which we are an integral part and whose further evolution now depends largely on us.
The UN Charter of 1945 does not use the words Earth, nature, natural resources and the environment. Why? Because at that time we considered the Earth to be unlimited in resources for a relatively small world population. The western countries also saw, and still see humanity as separate and superior to the natural world. This view has accomplished miracles for the human race. But humanity must now change its course, dominant objectives, values and institutions if we want to prevent disasters in the evolution of the Earth and of the human race.

~ Idea 503 to 505 ~ 25 to 27 November 1995
Once it is conscious of the imperative need for proper Earth government, humanity will have to respond to the following complaints by the Earth:
Idea 503 "Why did I have to take all of a sudden a population increase from
25 November 1995 2.5 billion people in 1952 to 5.6 billion today*, more than a doubling in less than fifty years?"
We could answer as an excuse: It happened out of sheer ignorance. After the war the rich countries and the United Nations wanted to prevent the early death of innumerable children in the poor countries. They died young because of epidemics, bad health conditions, malnutrition and hunger. But having no population statistics for the world and for most of these countries, we did not tell the parents that they would no longer need to give birth to an average of six children per family to have at least two of them left to till the land and to take care of their old age. Until 1952 we did not even know what the world population was! When the UN organized for the first time in human history decent world statistics and world censuses, we discovered that women did not have more children, but that children no longer died early (the mortality rate per year fell from 34 per thousand to 14 per thousand). When this was discovered it was too late, the children were born and a young population is highly reproductive. The UN warned nations and humanity by means of world population conferences and every other possible means that a population explosion was upon us. But religions and other factors opposed it. Nevertheless, these efforts saved you from 2.2 billion more humans on your surface by the year 2000. Instead of 8.3 billion human beings in that year we will be only 6.1 billion.
Idea 504 The Earth:
26 November 1995 "Yes, but I hear that at the present rate you will be 8.5 billion** in the year 2050 and stabilize only at 11 billion around the year 3000. You still increase by 86 million*** more people every year. You will end up by destroying me."
Our answer:
"We continue to do our utmost. Each year the figure of population growth decreases by a few more millions."
Idea 505 The Earth:
27 November 1995 I have another major complaint, namely while there is a population explosion in the poor countries you have also triggered off a wild overconsumption explosion in the already high-consuming rich countries. In the latter, an individual consumes 30 times more of my resources than in the poor countries. From my point of view, namely the damages you do to my body, your world population statistics are wrong: while the developing countries count 4.4 billion people, the rich countries' 1.2 billion should be multiplied by 30, i.e. they represent 36 billion people."
* 1998: 5.9 billion
** 1998: 9.3 billion and stabilizing at 10.7 billion in the year 2200.
*** 1998: 80 million

~ Idea 506 to 519 ~ 28 November to
11 December 1995
The Earth would have other complaints, she could ask for example:
WHY EACH MINUTE
Idea 506
28 November 1995 do you destroy 21 hectares (52 acres) of my tropical forests (38 million acres a year) after having destroyed most of the forests in your "rich" countries?
Idea 507
29 November 1995 do you consume 35.725 barrels of oil to run around in cars and circle around me in airplanes?
Idea 508
30 November 1995 do you let 50 tons of fertile soil be wasted or blown off my cropland?
Idea 509
1 December 1995 do you add 12,000 tons of carbon dioxide to my atmosphere, to the air you breathe?
WHY EACH HOUR
Idea 510
2 December 1995 do you let 685 hectares of productive dryland become desert?
Idea 511
3 December 1995 do you spend 120 million dollars on military expenditures, a trillion a year?
Idea 512
4 December 1995 are 55 people poisoned and 5 killed by pesticides?
Idea 513
5 December 1995 are 60 new cases of cancer diagnosed in the United States alone, over 5,000,000 cases each year with 20,000 cases leading to death, because of the thinning of my ozonosphere which protected you from the ultra-violet rays of the sun?
WHY EACH DAY
Idea 514
6 December 1995 do 25,000 people die of water shortage and contamination?
Idea 515
7 December 1995 are 10 tons of nuclear waste generated in 420 nuclear plants?
Idea 516
8 December 1995 do 250,000 tons of sulfuric acid fall as acid rain in the northern hemisphere, killing lakes and devastating remaining forests?
Idea 517
9 December 1995 are 60 tons of plastic packages and 372 tons of fishing nets dumped into the seas by commercial fishermen, killing fishes, sea birds and sea mammals?
Idea 518
10 December 1995 does every five hours a species become extinct on my surface?
WHY DURING A HUMAN LIFETIME
Idea 519
11 December 1995 do you dump so much garbage and waste on me: while the average is 150 times of the weight of a person in a poor country over a lifetime, why does the average American leave behind a mountain of waste 4,000 times his own weight?
And the Earth could go on. She could say:
"I regret to have no figures on what you dump into the seas and oceans which cover 71 percent of my body and contain the largest number and longest living of my species. The tonnage of poisons, chemicals, colors, decayed materials and radioactive elements which flow into my world ocean through my arteries, the rivers, must be staggering. Soon will come the day when fishes and seafood will no longer be edible."
I heard her also murmur:
"I almost wish that you humans would put coloring materials in the exhausts of your cars and airplanes to see what you add to the air which goes into your lungs and which I made so pure for you. Thank God, it begins to show in the form of smog over your cities."

~ Idea 520 to 521 ~ 12 to 13 December 1995
As a former UN official I would comment:
Dear Earth. you are not the only one to complain. Humanity has its own miseries which remain major challenges to proper human and Earth government. After all, humans are your children, the flesh of your flesh, we are living Earth, our body is 70 percent water and 30 percent earth. Thus, we cannot consider that there is proper Earth government and justice
Idea 520
12 December 1995 when no decent physical lives have been assured to all 5.6 billion inhabitants of the planet: one billion still suffer from hunger; the average income of the 560 million people of the poorest countries is 300 dollars a year; in the better-off poor countries it is 900 dollars a year; while in the rich countries it is 21,600 dollars a year:
Idea 521
13 December 1995 when no good mental lives have been provided to all the world's people: there are still 900 million adult illiterates, 130 million children without schooling and 100 million children abandon school prematurely.

~ Idea 522 to 524 ~ 14 to 16 December 1995
Idea 522
14 December 1995 God or the cosmic forces would intervene at that point and exclaim: "You forget us, the past and the future, the universe and eternity: how could you consider this planet to be properly governed
Idea 523
15 December 1995 when you let die valuable ways of life and beliefs such as the simple and frugal lives of hundreds of millions of rural people, small family businesses, small village communities, the spirituality of hundreds of millions of people, local art and cultures, the ways of life in harmony with nature of 300 million indigenous people around this globe?
Idea 524
16 December 1995 when no or little attention is given to the long term future of this planet. There is not a single Ministry of the Future in any government. The Iroquois are wiser than you: they do not take any decision without considering its potential effects on the seventh generation, which means in five hundred years."

~ Idea 525 ~ 17 December 1995
When I was reading the above, coming from Costa Rica and flying over the United States, seeing from the air its sooner or later uninhabitable cities, its Earth devouring highways, superhighways and freeways with millions of cars running in all directions to work more, build more, invent more, produce more, sell more, advertise more, make more profit, and consume more, when I saw the blankets of yellow-brown polluted atmospheres, I thought for myself that the time would soon come when Americans will leave their country in order to live and survive in clean air and more Earth-conscious countries like Costa Rica and other undestroyed countries. Alas, these countries are now themselves imperiled by the imported ideals of producing more, selling more, consuming more, making more profits and are losing their sound habits as a result of advertisement.
I was very sad. What I saw below me was not progress, it was destruction, an all-out war against the Earth, an evolutionary aberration of the human species, a headway towards abyss. This was World War III, a more devastating war than any other in human history.
Note: See the important book World War III, Population and the Biosphere at the End of the Millennium by Michael Tobias, Bear and Co. Publishers, Santa Fe NM 87504-2860.

~ Idea 526 ~ 18 December 1995
But at the word evolution my eternal optimism took over again. I remembered that in a manuscript I had with me, The Art of Living, Volume I Our Lives in the Magnificent Scene of Creation, I had a hopeful answer to the above predicaments. Here it is:
"Humanity will now enter a fascinating new period of evolution: Superimposed on Darwin's theory of the survival of the fittest through competition, to Mendell's law of heredity, to the genetic codification of our experiences through DNA and RNA, we are now blessed with the birth of a global, planetary consciousness which makes us recognize our false avenues, wrong values and errors. A new philosophy, anthropology, economics, sociology, values system, ethics, morality, spirituality, education, politics will be born at the end of this century. We are still in the kindergarten of that period, but we are in it. Henceforth, less and less will we wait until we burn our fingers before we react, as we did with the population explosion and the environment.
A few years ago, I suggested to Erika Erdmann, the Librarian and research aide to Nobel Prize winner Roger Sperry, and to Professor Leonide, a reputed French anthropologist, to create a world association of long-term evolutionary scientists. My hunch was that these scientists were becoming more optimistic as a result of the birth of global, planetary consciousness which makes us aware of our mistakes and problems and helps us solve them. It proved correct as their survey revealed. The theory of "chaos" according to which the universe and human life make no sense is being abandoned. The new theory is that on any planet having life in the cosmos one species sooner or later evolves to a point of gaining a total knowledge of the planet it lives on. It will then be in its power either to continue evolution or to bring it to an end. The first course will require that former, obsolete values will be replaced by new ones which take evolution into account. These new values are a major new evolutionary imperative. They need urgent scientific study.
In my view, humanity has reached that stage on Planet Earth: we must revise our basic values, current beliefs and objectives and acquire a new evolutionary wisdom which respects the laws of nature and of the cosmos. If nature has produced the incredible, sophisticated variety of innumerable living species around us, each one a true miracle, it is simply not possible that the human species is not a miracle too, perhaps the most advanced of all.
The future of the Earth will be bright and life will not become extinct if we decide so on the eve of a new century and millennium. We can enter a thrilling, transcendent new global, cosmic phase of evolution, if the human species understands its momentous, incredibly important evolutionary role."

~ Idea 527 to 547 ~ 19 December 1995
to 8 January 1996
To the preceding I added a list of 21 basic segments of human life on this planet to be reconsidered and rethought from scratch as we enter the 21st century:
Idea 527 a new political system for planet Earth
Idea 528 a new economics
Idea 529 a new education
Idea 530 a new media and communications
Idea 531 a new democracy
Idea 532 a new global leadership
Idea 533 a spiritual Renaissance and inter-religious cooperation
Idea 534 a non-violent human society
Idea 535 a well preserved planet
Idea 536 a decent well being for all humans
Idea 537 a stabilization of the world population
Idea 538 right human settlements on the planet
Idea 539 the disarmament, demilitarization, denuclearization and global
security of the planet
Idea 540 a new science and technology
Idea 541 a new anthropology, sociology and new ways of life
Idea 542 a new human biology
Idea 543 a new philosophy, cosmology and long-term view of evolution
Idea 544 a new world ethics and justice
Idea 545 a new world psychology
Idea 546 a new science and art of planetary management
Idea 547 a new art and culture

~ Idea 548 ~ 9 January 1996
In response to these challenges, in addition to the work of the UN and its world conferences, a multitude of initiatives of people's movements (the non-governmental organizations in the world represent 250 million people) and thinkers are springing up all around the world, to mention but a few of them:
The independent world commissions, the peoples' assemblies parallel to the UN Conferences, the yearly State of the World Forum in San Francisco, the United Religions Initiative, think-tanks like the Club of Rome on the Limits of Growth, the Club of Budapest on Planetary Consciousness and the Club of Tokyo to save the Earth and Humanity. These are all manifestations of the birth of a global brain and consciousness to the human species, probably the most important aspect of the phenomenon of globalization.
All of the above points to the urgency and absolute need for a proper Earth government.
This should become the priority item on the agenda of world affairs on the eve of the 21st century and millennium. The poor countries who have been waiting for world justice should be the first to request it after 50 years of promises from the rich countries.
There is no shadow of a doubt that the present political and economic systems are no longer appropriate and will lead to the end of life evolution on this planet. We therefore absolutely and urgently need new ways. The less we lose time, the less species and nature will disappear.
Faced with this momentous challenge we must remember these words by Henry Thoreau: "For every thousand people hacking at the branches of evil, only one attacks the roots. Attacking the roots is unpopular." Well, we must conceive a people's awakening, insurgence or revolution which will make attacking the roots popular.

~ Idea 549 ~ 10 January 1995
Oliver Holmes, the US author, wrote:
"A mind that is stretched to a new idea never returns to its original dimension."
Please dear reader, all heads of states, all businessmen, all inhabitants of this Earth stretch your minds to the primacy of our Mother Earth and of a better world for a humanity to be limited in numbers.

~ Idea 550 ~ 11 January 1995
One of the mishaps in the history of the 19th and 20th centuries was that humanity embarked upon economics (oikos, nomos, in Greek, the organizing, management of the home) before ecology (oikos, logos, the knowledge, the science of our home, the Earth). The proper balance between the two has yet to be found. It is the whole agenda of our future. The concept of "sustainable development" is a first step in the right direction. But there is more to it: we, as humans must cooperate with the Earth, our Mother, and make it an even better, more beautiful home and success. We can plant flowers where there are not any now.

~ Idea 551 ~ 12 January 1995
Often the invisible shapes the visible. Thus when a child inflates a balloon, the invisible air will shape the balloon.
It is the same with the invisible energies of humans: the invisible forces of our brain, (nowadays a global brain) can decide to make this Earth a paradise and as a result we will shape it into a paradise.

~ Idea 552 ~ 13 January 1995
Perhaps, out of my passion for life and for this miraculous Earth, a new theory of evolution can be shaped, namely that with our recently acquired tremendous human knowledge of the universe and of our planet we will henceforth be more than the mere preservers and savers of the Earth, but will be her instruments, her most advanced evolutionary agents, her children endowed with the evolutionary task to make it an even more astonishing planet and cosmic evolutionary success, perhaps the most advanced, ultimate masterpiece of the universe and God. Since each species born from nature is a miracle, we are certainly a miracle too.

~ Idea 553 ~ 14 January 1995
The preceding will require not only a global, planetary and cosmic consciousness and education, but also an evolutionary consciousness and education (see Our Place in Time of the tables of the World Core Curriculum for education and the Framework for World Media Coverage in volume I of the first 500 ideas).

~ Idea 554 ~ 15 January 1995
We need a peaceful revolution by all the peoples of this planet, a true quantum jump into a new civilization, peaceful, global, just, demilitarized, deprofitized, well preserved, continuing to evolve planet.

~ Idea 555 ~ 16 January 1995
Perhaps this is the message, the dream which Jesus and all other great emissaries of the universe, brought us from outer-space. Now, at long last, science and religion, all the religions, all nations, all human entities and institutions, all humans can cooperate in this prodigious task.

~ Idea 556 ~ 17 January 1995
We had in recent years world conferences on the Earth's population, on the biosphere, on the environment, on climate, on the ozonosphere, on outer-space, on the seas and oceans, on the deserts, on water, on new forms of energy, on food and many other global subjects as reported in these 2000 ideas. There are still some missing, especially on the atmosphere, (the air we breathe), and the total global condition of the Earth, i.e. a synthesis or holistic view of all the above.
But most important of all would be a world conference on proper Earth government, on the contribution of humanity to the further evolution of planet Earth, to make it the ultimate success of the cosmic forces of the universe.

~ Idea 557 to 564 ~ 18 to 27 January 1996
How would I see the agenda, the task of such a world conference? The task is so gigantic, so mind-boggling, that perhaps humanity would have to conceive several preliminary world conferences before holding a final one on proper Earth government in the next century. Here are my proposals, in addition to not giving up:
Idea 557
18 January 1996 Since business was first to globalize itself world-wide, far beyond governments and religions, and since corporations are now for all practical purposes ruling the world, we should give them the opportunity, even request them to hold
a World Conference on Proper Earth Government through the Free Market System
The world business community should be asked to answer how they would take care of the above complaints of the Earth, of humanity, of the past and of the future, how they would provide for a well preserved planet and the well-being of all humanity, the five basic harmonies and the long-term evolution of the planet.
Such a conference would bring together the heads of the major world corporations, banks and stock exchanges, the World Bank, the IMF, the GATT, the new World Trade Organization, the International Chamber of Commerce and similar organizations
Idea 558
19 January 1996 Since the United Nations is the only world-wide, universal organization at present available, since it had fifty years of valuable experience, since it paved the way to proper Earth government and had many significant successes, instead of putting it on the defensive, ceaseless criticism and reduction, humanity should honestly ask itself if the best way is not to consider a second generation United Nations upgraded by a true quantum jump into a proper Earth preserving and well-being and justice ensuring organization for our planet.
I would therefore propose
a World Conference on proper Earth government through a second generation United Nations for the 21st century
Such a conference would have at its disposal a host of proposals and ideas for the strengthening of the UN made by various UN bodies and outside organizations, including my own in these 2000 ideas
Idea 559
20 January 1996 The star-performance, often called "miracle" of the American States in the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia 200 years ago which put an end to a similar political chaos in North America between numerous independent states at the time could be repeated in
a New Philadelphia World Convention for the Creation of the United States of the World
It would review the state of world democracy and would have to add to the system of balance of power the new dominant power of business.
"Philadelphia II" is a project of US Senator Mike Gravel who proposes a convention for the writing of a charter for a Global Constitution.
Idea 560
21 January 1996 a World Conference of all world federalist and world government associations and movements to propose a federal constitution for the Earth.
Idea 561
22 January 1996 The world has recently witnessed another political miracle, similar to the American miracle in Philadelphia: the birth of the European Union of 16 European countries which have finally put an end to their antagonisms and wars, decided to unite and cooperate and have abolished the borders between them. Every European can now settle anywhere in the Union, can elect a European Parliament at the same time as he elects his National Parliament and can have his government condemned by a supra-national European Court of Human Rights when his basic rights are violated. Also the European Union has its own European budget and tax system and is not dependent on national contributions as is the United Nations. In 1990 the European Economic Community had already a budget of 7.4 billion dollars, ten times the UN budget. This example is so hopeful, so powerful that I recommend to the European Countries to convene
a World Conference for the creation of a World Union on the pattern of the European Union.
Idea 562
23 January 1996 About ten years ago or more, I suggested to President Bush that in view of the creation of the European Union, the American countries from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego should create an all American community and future union. He listened to me but instead of creating that community in a common joint effort of all American countries, the US negotiated separate trade agreements first with Canada, then with Mexico and now the Latin American countries created their own Mercosur (the Southern Latin American market) and the future of an American community and future union is in doubt.
The continental approach to a world community and union remains an important avenue. One could conceive five continental unions: the European Union, an American, an African, an Asian, and an Australian Union. A World Union could be constructed as a super-structure and common political system of the five continents. I therefore propose
a World Conference of the planet's five continents on a Proper Earth Government through continental unions and a World Union.
Idea 563
24 January 1996 A very novel approach to the organization of humanity and its proper relations with the Earth is to follow the biological models offered by the formation and admirable functioning of numerous communities of cells, bacteria and living species observable in nature and now well studied. This is a tremendously advanced science which opens up the most interesting and promising vistas. A bio-political science can and should now be rapidly developed on its basis. It would offer a very needed political revolution of the Earth political system and science. It would include the bio-regional approaches already existing in certain areas such as the Arctic Forum and the big river basins and mountain chains cooperative agreements mentioned in these 2000 ideas. The prophetess of this new field is the Greek-American evolution biologist, Elizabet Sathouris who launched in the early 1980's the Gaia hypothesis in her book, Gaia: the Human Journey to Cosmos.
I therefore recommend the holding of
a World Conference on Earth and Human Government through new bio-political modes patterned on examples from nature.
Idea 564
25 January 1996 Last, but not least, humanity has reached a point when we must consider our human presence, past, present and future on this particular planet in the universe. We have now a tremendous information on the universe in which we live. In addition to our total consciousness of our Earth and its global evolution we are now also acquiring and developing a cosmic consciousness of the universe. This is the greatest of all our advances in human history. But the mysteries of infinity and eternity still escape us and will remain outside human and scientific grasp. This has the result of bringing together the spirituality or basic "faiths" of all religions and science. God, the gods or the Great Spirit or Spirits and their emissaries, prophets and human incarnations like Jesus gave humanity at its early stages a cosmic, universal, all-encompassing faith or feeling for the mysteries of the cosmos, for the norms of love and for the miracle of life and norms of behavior between all humans and with other species and nature. These messages or "revelations" should not be neglected. They contain some of the profoundest answers to human behavior, fulfillment, and survival. Great was our astonishment in the environmental crisis to discover the wisdom and rules of behavior towards nature dictated by the Great Spirit to the indigenous people of this planet. The world's 5000 religions are filled with incredible wisdom regarding human morality, belief in life, environmental adaptation, survival and future evolution. This is strongly coming to the fore at this time as manifested in the following:
1. the dream and plan of my compatriot Robert Schuman from Alsace-Lorraine to see the European Union, which started with a coal and steel community followed by an economic community, followed by a political union, culminate in an all spiritual European Union including the Eastern European countries especially "Holy Mother Russia".
2. the creation in 85 countries, including as a third party in the United States, of the Natural Law Party based on the premise that the laws of nature should guide humans in their political behavior and organization. There is only one step to recognize that natural laws are in reality cosmic laws.
3.the San Francisco Initiative to create a United Religions Organization similar to the United Nations also born in that city, where all religions of the world would cooperate, define what they have in common, provide their wisdom on human behavior and morality, and right relations with nature, and the creation of God. In the process they will hopefully reduce and progressively give up their fundamentalism in favor of a global spirituality the same way as nations in the United Nations have reduced the national fundamentalism called sovereignty. May God help us that
a World Conference be convened on proper Earth government through what the world's religions have in common in terms of universal, global spirituality and world-wide human experience.
Idea 565
26 January 1996 I apologize for the above proposals of preliminary world conferences to the great author and prophet of world government, Emery Reves, who wrote in his famous book, The Anatomy of Peace, in 1945, that
"There is no 'first step' toward world government. World government is the first step." I regret that his classical book is out of print. Now that the cold war is over, it should be republished by a major publisher as a renewed world best-seller available in many languages.*
Another great classic of world government, the book Planethood by Ken Keyes and Ben Ferencz (see Introduction to my second hundred ideas) is being republished by the World Federalist Movement.
* 1997: It is now available from the World Federalist Movement.

~ Idea 566 ~ 27 January 1996
It is better to have unconventional, audacious, revolutionary ideas than to wait for dismal, painful, actual revolutions.
Since the above ideas will be considered revolutionary I can only repeat Schopenhauer's statement:
"Novel ideas are first ridiculed, then they are violently opposed, finally they are accepted as common sense."
Einstein said something similar: "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."
May the above ideas be considered as urgent common sense.

~ Idea 567 ~ 28 January 1996
The Earth has always been our main teacher. This is why humanity wants an ideal Earth. We must never cease to try and we will succeed. It is our most sacred task in the next century to give our children the best teachers, namely nature, the creation of God, Goddess Gaia, our beautiful Mother Earth. Blessed be the recently created World Party of Natural Law.

~ Idea 568 ~ 29 January 1996
I once heard someone say that when a human work of art is being destroyed we call it vandalism but when the Earth is being destroyed we call it development. It is a statement worth pondering.

~ Idea 569 ~ 30 January 1996
People should have ideas on any subject in the world. Everyone can at least have ideas on ways of living a happy, grateful life. But peace, the future of humanity and the saving of our beautiful Earth should be the top subjects.

~ Idea 570 ~ 31 January 1996
There will come a day when governments will appeal to the people over the media to consume less in order not to destroy our Earth. Together with population control, this will be one of the major government responsibilities. We have already a UN Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. We need also a Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Human Population and a Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Unnecessary Consumption.

~ Idea 571 ~ 1 February 1996
I wish that one or several great philanthropists, would create World Commissions of Eminent Persons on some global problems which still need pressing attention. Here is an up to date list of those recommended earlier in these 2000 ideas:
a World Commission on a New World Economic System
a World Commission on the Media and Advertisement
a World Commission on Democracy
a World Commission on a Spiritual Renaissance
a World Commission on a new course for Humanity and the Earth
a World Commission on the Total Denuclearization of the Planet
a World Commission on the Demilitarization of the Planet
a World Commission on Ethics
a World Commission on World Priorities and Resources
a World Commission on Consumption
a World Commission on the Use and Conservation of Natural Resources
a World Commission on Corruption
a World Commission on Visions of the Earth and of Humanity in the 21st century and 3rd Millennium
a World Commission on the Nation State and National Government Reform
a World Commission on the Inefficiency of the Present World Political System due to staggering costly duplications between 185 nation states
a World Commission on a World Budget and Taxation System
a World Commission on Global Philanthropy and World Prizes
Philanthropists and other world personalities or foundations and institutes might also take up subjects on which I have recommended the holding of further world conferences by the United Nations.*

~ Idea 572 ~ 2 February 1996
Readers should not be afraid by the 2000 ideas I come up with. In the Encyclopedia of World Problems and Potentials which I suggested a few years ago to be published by the International Union of World Associations in Brussels, 11,400 world problems are listed. This requires at least 11,400 ideas for their solution of which many can be found in that encyclopedia.

~ Idea 573 ~ 3 February 1996
All University students on the planet should be required to take basic courses in planetary, cosmic and evolutionary consciousness, in ecology or Earth Science and on the United Nations. No student should be allowed into business schools or Faculties of Economics in any university on Earth without having first taken a basic course in ecology.

~ Idea 574 ~ 4 February 1996
Our real capital is not Wall Street. Our real capital is the Earth. Economists and business people must therefore become the optimum, skillful managers of our oikos, the Earth, our home, and of the human species and all other species and living plants inhabiting it. This is their only salvation as a profession. But it presupposes that they must first study ecology and acquire the knowledge of our home and its natural, evolutionary laws before becoming its producers, managers, changers and superintendents under governmental supervision.

~ Idea 575 ~ 5 February 1996
I have already pointed out that it was historically a pity that economics (Greek oikos, nomos, the management of the home) was born before ecology (oikos, logos, the science, the knowledge of the home). Hence the difficulties in which the Earth, our home finds itself today as a result of human misinformed actions.
It is an even greater pity that the word ecumenics (oikos, mene, the inhabited home, the Earth and humanity) has been monopolized by religions instead of replacing the obsolete word politics (Greek polis), the management of a city. This is why I propose that the word politics be replaced by planetics, the art of managing our planet.
*1998: especially now that as a result of US pressure the UN can no longer convene any world conferences considered "useless and expensive" by the US government.

~ Idea 576 ~ 6 February 1996
I have pointed out before that as a major phenomenon of our recent history, business was the first to globalize itself world-wide, that governments did it reluctantly on a small scale and became the instruments or servants of big business, and that the religions, due to their fundamentalism did not cooperate and globalize themselves in a world alliance (see Idea 472).
But very recently a new phenomenon has appeared: the birth of a global human consciousness. Humans are becoming aware of the errors we are making, of the wrongness around us. This will surpass all other globalizations and become number one. It will be the new democracy, the next step of evolution expressed in the individual wills of the only true living cosmic units: individual human, live beings.

~ Idea 577 ~ 7 February 1996
We should never forget that we are creatures, children born from the Earth and from the cosmos. We are 70 percent water and 30 percent earth. We come from the Earth and we return to the Earth as the Christians are reminded on Ash Wednesday each year.
The Canticle by St. Francis of Assisi says it beautifully:
CANTICLE OF CREATION
Be Praised Good Lord for Brother Sun
who brings us each new day.
Be Praised for Sister Moon
white beauty bright and fair,
with wandering stars she moves through night.
Be Praised my Lord for Brother Wind,
for air and clouds and the skies in every season.
Be Praised for Sister Water:
humble, helpful, precious, pure;
She cleanses us in rivers and renews us in rain.
Be Praised my Lord for Brother Fire:
He purifies and enlightens us.
Be Praised my Lord for Mother Earth:
abundant source, all life sustaining;
She feeds us bread and fruit and gives us flowers.
Be Praised my Lord for the gift of life;
for changing dusk and dawn;
for touch and scent and song.
Be Praised Good Lord for Sister Death
who welcomes us in loving embrace.
Be Praised my Lord for all your creation
serving you joyfully.
Year 1225 A.D.

~ Idea 578 ~ 8 February 1996
I just cannot understand that airlines show so many violent movies when they are afraid of terrorism and highjackings. Violence breeds violence. All airlines in the world should agree and pledge that they will not show violent films. The Director General of ICAO (the International Civil Aviation Organization of the UN) should obtain such a pledge. It should be part of a world plan and strategy against violence resulting from the world conference I propose in Idea 5.

~ Idea 579 ~ 9 February 1996
The Secretary General of the UN, all heads of UN agencies and all heads of states should have idea-men and idea-women because only ideas can bring about a better world. Some of my ideas could give birth to many more and better ones.

~ Idea 580 ~ 10 February 1996
Each head of state, head of institution and corporation should have indigenous advisors to advise them on the effect of their decisions and doings on the 7th generation. Also, the indigenous people in all countries which have a World Party of Natural Law should join that party, present candidates or vote for the candidates of that party.

~ Idea 581 ~ 11 February 1996
I recommend that as an outcome of the International Decade for Indigenous People, a World or United Nations specialized agency of indigenous people be created to give a voice to the 300 million indigenous people of this planet and to benefit from their wisdom and their understanding of the laws of nature.

~ Idea 582 ~ 12 February 1996
Indigenous people should request the return of stolen objects of art or heritage under the UN resolution on the return of stolen objects of art which I got adopted by the General Assembly years ago (see Idea 119).

~ Idea 583 ~ 13 February 1996
The UN should publish a yearly report on all people in the world who have donated land to municipal, state, national, continental and world parks to see their nature preserved for all times. Their names should be placed on a world list of Ecological Honors. A world prize should be given each year to the largest donor.

~ Idea 584 ~ 14 February 1996
I received from an old friend and pioneer of simple and frugal living, Vicki Robin, President of the Road Map Foundation in Seattle, a flyer proclaiming 29 November 1996 a Planetary Buy Nothing Day, a 24 hour moratorium on consumer spending, addressed especially to the people of the rich countries. I approve this idea enthusiastically and hope that it will be repeated every year.

~ Idea 585 ~ 15 February 1996
Expanding on the above idea there could also be an international fasting day. It would do good to our health. Money saved from this sacrifice could be sent to UNICEF to help feed hungry children and the homeless.

~ Idea 586 ~ 16 February 1996
Always see a human person first of all as a human being and not primarily as a national being.
Thus when I once accused the United States for exporting bad living and consumption habits to poor countries, Barbara Gaughen said to me:
"But you are marrying an American woman."
I answered: "No, I am marrying a wonderful, lovable woman."
And she smiled.

~ Idea 587 ~ 17 February 1996
I later quoted to Barbara Gaughen this statement of Socrates:
"I am not an Athenian, I am not a Greek, I am a world citizen."

~ Idea 588 ~ 18 February 1996
Barbara Gaughen later said:
"I do not consider myself as an American woman. I am first of all a mother. An American mother, a Chinese mother, a Russian mother are all primarily mothers. When it comes to war and peace, I would say: Mothers of the world unite for peace. Governments have no right to use our sons, the flesh of our flesh to become killers or to be killed by other sons of other mothers. It is our fundamental mother's right. It is all governments fundamental duty to solve their problems and conflicts by peaceful means."
I suggested to her to write a World Pledge of Allegiance of Mothers and to create a World Party of Mothers.

~ Idea 589 to 591 ~ 19 to 21 February 1996
Santa Barbara in California is one of the most beautiful, intelligently planned and cared for cities in the United States. Here are three examples which should be followed by other communities:
Idea 589
19 February 1996 a city ordinance does not allow advertisements beyond a modest size, simply indicating the name and purpose of a business, office or institution.
Idea 590
20 February 1996 on each green surface in the city trees are being planted. A "Santa Barbara Beautiful Awards" is given every month to the most beautiful business and home in the city.
Idea 591
21 February 1996 a good number of citizens donate or will their lands to the city to be preserved as parks or grounds never to be built on.

~ Idea 592 ~ 22 February 1996
Isn't it a strange planet where people value and admire more a forest of dead matter, oxygen consuming skyscrapers than a forest of live, oxygen producing trees?

~ Idea 593 ~ 23 February 1996
I think that no species has ever mistreated and destroyed the Earth as has the human species.

~ Idea 594 ~ 24 February 1996
More and more people from the US and highly industrialized countries will move to countries with good air and oxygen like the Central American Republics, and more and more poor people from Africa, Latin America and Asia will immigrate to the "rich countries" to fill manual and service jobs. A mixed united humanity will result.

~ Idea 595 ~ 25 February 1996
I just cannot understand that so many governments, nations, businesses, entities, institutions, religions, scientists, economists and all kinds of other professions and people can go on with their activities and objectives unperturbed, clinging to their beliefs and ideas and forgetting that all around us the Earth, its natural elements on which we depend, its climate, its seas and oceans, its oxygen, its vegetation cover and animal species are rapidly deteriorating or vanishing. No, I will never understand it.

~ Idea 596 ~ 26 February 1996
More brain power and imagination is spent on inventing, improving and promoting new technologies, communications and media than on improving the government of the Earth and of humanity. No wonder that the latter are in deep trouble. As Einstein said: "Perfection of means and confusion of ends seems to characterize our age."

~ Idea 597 ~ 27 February 1996
To keep their monopoly of power, business and the rich decry the mere idea of proper world government and depict it as a way to dictatorship. How about their own already existing dictatorship?

~ Idea 598 ~ 28 February 1996
I repeat my recommendation that a World Commission of Eminent Persons should be established to review the entire current situation of democracy in the world, the reasons, theory, promotion and methodology of democracy, of truthful information, of freedom of expression, and democratic decision making from the local level to the top of the world.

~ Idea 599 ~ 29 February 1996
Ways should be found to give at least a voice to the Earth which is being severely damaged and progressively destroyed. To the concept of democracy (government by the people from the Greek word demos) should be added the concept of Gaiacracy (government by the Earth from the Greek word Gaia, Goddess Earth). Indigenous elders should be allowed to speak in the United Nations or in a new Earth Organization in the name of the Earth, the air, the waters, the soils, the forests, vegetation, animals and all living species.
Only in fables do animals speak in courts. The universe was not created for humans alone. The universe was not created to make money. It was created for all living beings.

~ Idea 600 ~ 1 March 1996
Decide to be a Spiritual Person
Render others spiritual
Irradiate your spirituality
Treat every moment of your life
with divine respect
Love passionately your God given,
miraculous life
Be endlessly astonished at your brief,
breathtaking consciousness of the universe
Thank God every moment
for the tremendous gift of life
Lift your heart to the heavens always
Be a cosmic, divine being,
an integral, conscious
part of the universe
Contemplate with wonder
the miraculous Creation all around you
Fill your body, mind, heart and soul
with divine inspiration
Know that you are coming from somewhere
and that you are going somewhere
in the universal stream of time
Be always open to the entire universe
Know yourself and the heavens and the Earth
Act spiritually
Think spiritually
Love spiritually
Treat every person and living being with
humanness and divine respect
Pray, meditate, practice the art
of spiritual living
And be convinced of eternal life
and resurrection
Robert Muller

~ Idea 601 ~ 2 March 1996
Every person or entity on Earth required to pay taxes should receive with the tax forms a table showing what percentage of the taxes paid will go to the principal functions of government:
general administration
military expenditures
education
health and social security
transportation
the environment
world cooperation and peace
etc.
Each taxpayer should be asked what he thinks of that breakdown, indicate what he wants to be reduced and what he wants to be increased.
This would be a great new form of democracy, a way to hear the people's will. The results should be published nationally and internationally every year.

~ Idea 602 ~ 3 March 1996
I am glad that my idea expressed in October 1995 at the State of the World Forum of the US Gorbachev Foundation is being implemented: namely that world public opinion polls will be held by the Gallup Organization on major issues confronting humanity. Taxation and wasteful, duplicating colossal expenditures by 185 nations should be one of the topics.

~ Idea 603 ~ 4 March 1996
A UN World Security Organization should replace NATO, SEATO and all other regional security agreements or integrate them into a world supra-security system. Bilateral and regional security arrangements are a progress, but left alone they represent a further division of the world. Moreover they are much more expensive to the taxpayers than a straight, well conceived and coordinated world security system.

~ Idea 604 ~ 5 March 1996
At this stage of our wild so called economic development which pollutes the natural air of this planet and of our lungs, I recommend the urgent creation of a United Nations World Air Agency.

~ Idea 605 ~ 6 March 1996
For the same reason I recommend the creation of a United Nations World Water Agency.

~ Idea 606 ~ 7 March 1996
Since the Earth including humanity and no longer humanity alone has become the major preoccupation of the United Nations I suggest that it be renamed the United Earth Organization and reorganized accordingly.

~ Idea 607 ~ 8 March 1996
The UN should proclaim an International Day or Year of Arms Destruction. The destructions should take place in the presence of people in joyful celebrations.

~ Idea 608 ~ 9 March 1996
Wherever there is violent competition or major disagreement and conflict in the world, it must be replaced by reciprocal learning, understanding and cooperation. This is the great light brought to the world by the United Nations and its agencies. The UN is the biggest evolutionary progress since Darwin. It should become the world peace and non-violence organization par excellence. It should establish and foster neutral, trans-entities mediation instruments in as many fields as conceivable in all parts of the world and at all levels of society to help solve differences and conflicts and transform them into cooperation, positive achievements and further evolutionary progress.

~ Idea 609 ~ 10 March 1996
The world merits a yearly World Peacemakers and Peace Heroes Day. The United Nations should proclaim one and substantial, philanthropic aid should be given to them. Awards should be announced and celebrated in the UN General Assembly Hall.

~ Idea 610 ~ 11 March 1996
(my 73rd birthday)
Every person having reached the age of sixty or retirement should take the decision to give volunteer service to a better world during the rest of his/her life. Begin to write down ideas and dreams you would like to see fulfilled, and work on them. Soon you will discover, as I did, as the one-dollar-a-year Chancellor or the first UN University for Peace in Costa Rica, that you do not have the time to get old or sick. It produces miracles.

~ Idea 611 ~ 12 March 1996
We need a world association of radical thinkers, innovators and activists. The United Nations and its agencies and world conferences have done a wonderful job for peace and a better world and in warning humanity of impending perils such as the population explosion, the environment, the climate issue, etc. But progress achieved and implementation of its decisions are much too slow. If we let things continue at the present rate it will end in disaster, possibly the end of all life on this planet.
Audacious thinkers are accused for their extremism or exaggeration. But they might be much more realistic and needed than the diplomats and accommodators who might become the undertakers of this planet and of the human species. I have opened a file with the first names of good radicals: Jacques Cousteau* for the seas and oceans, General Lee Butler (US) and Helen Caldicott (Australia) for the total elimination of atomic weapons, Ralph Nader, the consumers advocate, Selma Brackman of the War and Peace Foundation who asks for the total elimination, not only of nuclear weapons but also of all nuclear energy plants, Garry Davis of World Citizens, Oscar Arias, the Nobel Prize winner who labors for the demilitarization of the planet, and myself who clamors for a proper Earth government. Please, other radicals, send me your name, cause and address.
*Alas deceased later during the year.

~ Idea 612 ~ 13 March 1996
The UN was created by the US and other nations after World War II. These parents of the UN should love their child, nourish its growth and recognize that it is a superior progress over them, as is the case in the flow of time of children over their parents.
I propose that in the year 2000 the City of San Francisco, birthplace of the UN, invite the UN's founding nations to a resounding birthday conference to salute and evaluate their child's progress, and give birth to a new, even better child to cope successfully with the world's problems of the 21st century and third millennium.

~ Idea 613 ~ 14 March 1996
To avoid a repetition of the world population explosion which was detected too late by the international community, Mrs. Julia Alvarez, Ambassador of the Dominican Republic to the UN, and I were able to get the UN to convene a world conference on aging in 1982. It revealed that by 2020, the aged population in rich and poor countries will create unprecedented problems for the social security systems of most countries.
From 1950 to today several years have been added to longevity in the poor and in the rich countries (from 40 to 60 years in the former and 60 to 70 years in the latter.)
Although the proportion of older people is highest in Western countries, the major growth of the world's older population &endash; from half a billion in 1990 to almost 1.5 billion people in 2050 &endash; will be in developing countries. By 2025, 72 percent of the world's older persons, about 858 million will be living in developing countries. By 2030, more than three-quarters of the world's older people will live in industrial regions &endash; more than half in Asia, more than a quarter in China alone.
Prolongation of life has been a great success of humanity. In the Roman Empire people lived an average of 24 years. In 1850 the average American died at the age of 45. By 1900 that figure had increased to 48. Now the average life span of an American is 72 and those over 85 are the fastest growing segment of the population. There are already 45,000 centenarians in the US. By 2020 there will probably be more than 250,000. In the next century lives of up to 120 to 140 years will not be uncommon.
The social security systems of nations must rapidly adapt to the situation created by the increased proportion of older persons aged 60 and above from 1 in 14 when the UN started its population work in the 1950's to 1 in 4 in the year 2000. Fortunately the retired are not counted in unemployment statistics.
There is urgent need to hold a second world conference on aging, since fifteen years have elapsed since the first one. The UN has decided to hold an International Year of Older Persons in 1999, but this is not enough. An intergovernmental world conference and a World Organization of the Aged must be added.

~ Idea 614 ~ 15 March 1996
Every head of State and Secretary General of the United Nations should be a Beethoven writing a symphony of peace or a Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel of praise to the Creator.

~ Idea 615 ~ 16 March 1996
We must congratulate the Boston Research Center for the 21st century which gives every year global citizens awards to individuals devoted to peace and to the birth of an authentic, transnational civic society. I suggested to them to honor once in a while global couples who work for the same objectives. There are several outstanding examples of them among the non-governmental organizations accredited to the United Nations.

~ Idea 616 ~ 17 March 1996
It is high time to consider the creation of a whole series of world universities on this planet in order to concentrate expenditures and world academic talent on the colossal, urgent, potentially terminal global problems facing humanity and the Earth. I recommend the urgent creation of such universities by the United Nations and by each of its specialized agencies and world programs.

~ Idea 617 ~ 18 March 1996
Instead of letting business and corporations wildly run ahead and progressively destroy our Earth, governments and thinkers should sit down and consider what a world government by private business and corporations would look like. The first discovery would be that freedom and democracy would disappear: the Earth and capital would be owned by capitalists and shareholders, i.e. by those who possess already capital and money and the rest of the people would not have a chance. All humans would be programmed by advertisement and marketing to buy what corporations decide. As for the Earth, it would be totally defenseless, neglected and brought to its ruin.

~ Idea 618 ~ 19 March 1996
I think that delegates to the United Nations should take less pride in what they obtain for their country than for what they obtain for a better world, including contributions of their country to a better world. At the end of their life, when looking back, it is the latter which will really count.

~ Idea 619 ~ 20 March 1996
How can we not love this beautiful planet above anything else? How can we not love the miracle of being alive as humans? Perhaps it is our loves which went wrong in the 20th century, the love for money, profit and wealth having become No 1.
As we enter the new century and millennium we must get our loves and values straight.

~ Idea 620 ~ 21 March 1996
The rainforests of this planet have acquired such a major importance for the survival of the Earth's diversity and production of oxygen that I suggest a strong coalition and common policy of all countries possessing such forests. They should say to the rich countries: we are ready not to exploit, to keep intact, and even to expand our rainforests, provided you, the rich countries compensate us for that sacrifice and through a Marshall Plan for forestry will aid to provide employment and well-being for our people in return for the oxygen we produce.

~ Idea 621 ~ 22 March 1996
The decision of Russia to pay its debt to the United Nations and to reduce military expenditures by the same amount should be imitated by all countries in default, especially the United States.

~ Idea 622 ~ 23 March 1996
One former US Ambassador to the UN, George Bush, became President of the United States. It would be even better if a former President of the Untied States became Secretary General of the UN, thus being upgraded from a country to the whole world and humanity. He would discover with dismay the ridiculous financial resources at his disposal of which his own country does not even pay its share.

~ Idea 623 ~ 24 March 1996
If I were Secretary General of the UN, I would notify the US government that if it does not pay its dues within a year, I would use my rights under the existing rules of procedure and place the following item on the agenda of the UN Security Council and of the General Assembly:
"Proposal to transfer the seat of the United Nations to the highest bidding, faithfully contributing member country of the organization."

~ Idea 624 ~ 25 March 1996
An American came up with this idea: that all US citizens who love or consider the UN to be important refuse to pay their taxes until the US pays its dues to the world organization.

~ Idea 625 ~ 26 March 1996
It was all right to select New York City as the seat of the United Nations after World War II at a time when humanity was concerned only with humanistic problems and not the Earth (the UN Charter does not contain the words Earth, nature, or resources, nor does it speak of the environment, a word coined by the UN only 25 years later).
Today, since the Earth and nature have become priority No. 1, it would be only proper to transfer the seat of the world organization to a major site of preserved, primeval nature.
The vast, international site of the University for Peace located in a demilitarized country in an area of thousands of acres of primeval tropical forests, a true paradise where one gains peace from nature itself, should be seriously considered. The costs would be very