BEYOND NET-ZERO: The Symbiotic Doctrine and The Problem of Planetary Equilibrium

Climate change is commonly approached as an environmental technical problem, centered on emissions metrics, carbon reduction targets, and net-zero pathways. However, this approach increasingly reveals its limitations as global efforts repeatedly fail to reverse the growing instability of the planetary system. This paper proposes an alternative perspective: climate change is not the root cause, but a symptom of a deeper systemic crisis, reflecting a breakdown in the feedback, resonance, and self-balancing capacities of human civilization. Drawing on the Symbiotic Doctrine, the paper analyzes climate change as a feedback crisis, in which delayed and distorted signals cause human decisions to rely continuously on outdated information, pushing the Earth system beyond its self-regulatory thresholds. At the same time, it highlights the failure of resonance between the short-term operational rhythms of economic and political systems and the long-term adjustment rhythms of planetary ecosystems, leading to growth illusions and misdirected technological solutions. On this basis, the paper critiques net-zero thinking as a static conception of balance, arguing that planetary equilibrium cannot be achieved through carbon accounting targets, but through the preservation of a living system’s capacity for dynamic balance. Rather than proposing specific policies, the paper introduces a symbiotic climate governance framework grounded in three pillars—feedback, resonance, and equilibrium—and opens a conceptual role for artificial intelligence as a reflective and early-warning instrument at the planetary scale. Ultimately, the paper argues that climate change does not question the limits of human technology, but serves as a test of the maturity of a civilization compelled to live with the planetary system on which it depends.