Nils Gilman and Jonathan Blake think hard about planetary institutions, subsidiarity and an ecological Cold War. I read them closely and I argue with them, sometimes in the same paragraph.
How the word moved
In April 2025 Gilman's avocado politics said to improve daily life first and do the ecological transition after. My answer was to make the ecological choice the default, which is planetary design in a nutshell. In September 2025 I picked up his ecological Cold War. By February 2026 their book Children of a Modest Star was on my syllabus, read right next to Bratton.
In my words
"Blake and Gilman offer arguments for new planetary institutions with the power to regulate and enforce carbon emission reductions"
from The Planetarity Syllabus. Governing the Planet, Part 1, 10 Feb 2026
Related
- Related Planetary Subsidiarity - their concept, and a useful one.
- Related Planetary Design - my reply to Gilman's avocado politics.
- Related Petrostate - Gilman's axis of petrostates.
- Related Benjamin Bratton - I read the three of them together.