The Coming Second Copernican Revolution

The article argues that a new "planetary" worldview is emerging from astrobiology and Earth-system science, offering an alternative to the current path toward disaster in the Anthropocene. It frames this as a second Copernican revolution, comparable to the one that reshaped European politics and culture after Copernicus. It traces the idea to Vladimir Vernadsky's 1926 concept of the biosphere as an active geophysical force and to James Lovelock's work with NASA in the early 1960s. It notes that the first planet around a sun-like star was found in 1995, orbiting 51 Pegasi about 50 light years away.