GTI Forum
Contribution to GTI Forum Memoirs of Global Engagement
May 2025
Scholars and activists reflect on the how and why behind their efforts.
Gilberto Gallopín
Gilberto Gallopín is an independent scholar based in Argentina, and Associate Fellow at Tellus Institute. He has worked throughout the world on a wide spectrum of issues pertaining to sustainable development: ecological systems analysis, integrated scenarios, global modeling, environmental impact assessment, and development policy. He has previously held senior positions at the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Stockholm Environment Institute, International Center for Tropical Agriculture, International Institute for Sustainable Development, and International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). He has also served as a professor at the University of Buenos Aires and Executive President Fundación Bariloche. He has published numerous articles and books. He holds a PhD in Ecology from Cornell University.
Selected Publications
GTI Forum
Contribution to GTI Roundtable Reflections on Journey to Earthland
An exchange on the book Journey to Earthland: The Great Transition to Planetary Civilization
November 2016
Interview
April 2015
Global futures pioneer Gilberto Gallopín discusses the origins of contemporary global scenario analysis, the ways worldviews can influence our sense of the future, and how the scenario approach offers a powerful way to envision unconventional tomorrows and guide actions today.
Other Key Docs
April 2002
Great Transition: The Promise and Lure of the Times Ahead examines the possibilities for a sustainable and desirable world. The essay describes the historic roots, future perils, and alternative pathways for world development and advances the Great Transition path as the preferred route, identifying strategies, global actors, and values for a new agenda.
Other Key Docs
November 1998
This paper analyzes the prospects for sustainability within the confines of Conventional Worlds scenarios. The shift to more sustainable forms of development must at least begin at this level, although we will likely need more fundamental social changes to complete the transition to a sustainable global society. The paper introduces social and environmental targets as well as strategic policies for reaching them. It shows both the great potential for progress and the daunting challenges within a growth-driven development paradigm.
Other Key Docs
November 1997
This paper introduces scenario methods and a framework for envisioning global futures. It depicts contrasting world development scenarios, all compatible with current patterns and trends, but with sharply different implications for the quest for sustainability in the twenty-first century. Three broad scenario classes are depicted—Conventional Worlds, Barbarization, and Great Transitions—which are characterized by, respectively, essential continuity with current patterns, fundamental but degenerative social change, and fundamental and progressive social transformation.
