Spaceship Earth is a world view term usually expressing concern over the use of limited resources available on Earth. A world view, (or worldview) is a term calqued from the German word Weltanschauung (pronounced //) meaning a look onto the world. It implies a concept fundamental to German philosophy and epistemology and refers to a wide world perception. ... Earth is the third planet in the solar system. ...

It may have been derived from a passage in Henry George's best known work, Progress and Poverty¹ (1879). From book IV, chapter 2: "It is a well-provisioned ship, this on which we sail through space. If the bread and beef above decks seem to grow scarce, we but open a hatch and there is a new supply, of which before we never dreamed. And very great command over the services of others comes to those who as the hatches are opened are permitted to say, 'This is mine!'" This article contains information that has not been verified and thus might not be reliable. ... 1879 (MDCCCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...

The phrase was also popularized by Buckminster Fuller, who wrote and published a book in 1963 under the title of Operating manual for Spaceship Earth². This quotation, referring to fossil fuels, reflects his approach: "[W]e can make all of humanity successful through science's world-engulfing industrial evolution provided that we are not so foolish as to continue to exhaust in a split second of astronomical history the orderly energy savings of billions of years' energy conservation aboard our Spaceship Earth. These energy savings have been put into our Spaceship's life-regeneration-guaranteeing bank account for use only in self-starter functions." In the U.S. postage stamp commemorating Buckminster Fuller and his contributions to architecture and science, some of his inventions are visible. ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1963 calendar). ... Operating Manual For Spaceship Earth ( ISBN 0525474331 ) is a short book by R. Buckminster Fuller, first published in 1963. ... Coal rail cars in Ashtabula, Ohio Fossil fuels, also known as mineral fuels, are hydrocarbon-containing natural resources such as coal, oil and natural gas. ...

In 1966 Kenneth E. Boulding used the phrase in the title of an essay, The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth³. Boulding described the past open economy of apparently illimitable resources, which he said he was tempted to call the "cowboy economy", and continued: "The closed economy of the future might similarly be called the 'spaceman' economy, in which the earth has become a single spaceship, without unlimited reservoirs of anything, either for extraction or for pollution, and in which, therefore, man must find his place in a cyclical ecological system". (David Korten would take up the "cowboys in a spaceship" theme in his 1995 book When Corporations Rule the World.) 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ... Kenneth Ewart Boulding (January 18, 1910 - March 18, 1993) was born in Liverpool, England, graduated from Oxford University, granted United States citizenship in 1948. ... Dr. David C. Korten is an author and leader within the anti-globalization movement. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

United Nations Secretary-General U Thant spoke of Spaceship Earth on Earth Day March 21, 1971 at the ceremony of the ringing of the Japanese Peace Bell: "May there only be peaceful and cheerful Earth Days to come for our beautiful Spaceship Earth as it continues to spin and circle in frigid space with its warm and fragile cargo of animate life."⁴ United Nations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... A large number of international organizations and other bodies have a Secretary General or Secretary-General as their chief administrative officers or in other administrative capacities. ... Maha Thray Sithu U Thant (January 22, 1909 – November 25, 1974) was a Burmese diplomat and the third Secretary-General of the United Nations, from 1961 to 1971. ... Earth Day is a name used by two different observances held annually in the (northern) spring, both intended to inspire awareness of and appreciation for the Earths environment. ... March 21 is the 80th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (81st in leap years). ... 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1971 calendar). ... The Japanese Peace Bell (cast on October 24, 1952) was a gift of the people of Japan (People of Nippon) to the United Nations on June 8, 1954 (despite that Japan had not yet been admitted to the United Nations). ...

See also

• Gaia Theory

Spaceship Earth Gaia hypothesis is a class of scientific models of the geo-biosphere in which life as a whole fosters and maintains suitable conditions for itself by helping to create an environment on Earth suitable for its continuity. ...

A Space-Funk Band Hailing from Orange, CT. The fans of the band are known as passengers. Grateful Dead:Deadheads :: Spaceship Earth:Passengers.

Notes

• Note 1: The text on wikisource differs from versions available here and here.
• Note 2: E.P. Dutton & Co., New York, copyrighted 1963 and 1971. An online copy is at http://reactor-core.org/operating-manual-for-spaceship-earth.html . The quotation is from Section 8: The regenerative landscape.
• Note 3: See http://dieoff.org/page160.htm .
• Note 4: See http://www.wowzone.com/mc-lee.htm .