In a recent interview in the New York Times Magazine Al Gore says, “The monolith of apathy and opposition has begun to break up; and because social change, like climate change is nonlinear, the shift in public opinion may come about very suddenly.”

The tipping point may in fact already be at hand even in the error of shrinking space for civil society. The very contraction of this civil society space has infused global movements with a sense of urgency to address climate change, the inequalities of globalization, the brutal infringement of human rights in the name of the war on terror and the heightened violence against women and children as a strategy of war.

The evolution of global movements is taking place, new collaborations, new organizational structures and new alliances are creating are being experimented with against the backdrop of a sense of urgency. The consensus that this is the last chance to get the future right is being embraced by a wide range of social movements.

Gore observes in reference to climate change, ” The central challenge is to expand the limits of what is now considered politically possible. The outer boundary of what’s considered plausible today still falls far short of the near boundary of what would actually solve the crisis.”

Concurrent to this reality, are millions of people participating in global movements to eradicate poverty and inequality. This mass mobilization of global citizens is infact pushing the boundaries of what is plausible. Civil society in today’s democracy deficit is positioned (for better or worse) to lead elected governments to the “near boundary of what would actually solve the crisis”