There are no separate systems. The world is a continuum. Where to draw a boundary around a system depends on the purpose of the discussion.

We don't think a sustainable society need be stagnant, boring, uniform, or rigid. It need not be, and probably could not be, centrally controlled or authoritarian. It could be a world that has the time, the resources, and the will to correct its mistakes, to innovate, to preserve the fertility of its planetary ecosystems. It could focus on mindfully increasing quality of life rather than on mindlessly expanding material consumption and the physical capital stock.

A knowledgeable and courageous U.S. president could help enormously in leading the world's nations toward saving the climate.

Mesarovic and Pestel are critical of the Forrester-Meadows world view, which is that of a homogeneous system with a fully predetermined evolution in time once the initial conditions are specified.

The European nations take climate change very seriously.

It is in this space of mastery over paradigms that people throw off addictions, live in constant joy, bring down empires, get locked up or burned at the stake or crucified or shot, and have impacts that last for millennia.

There have been high crimes and misdemeanors, but they have been committed by the special prosecutor and the Congress, not the president.