The Westphalian state system—i.e., the global division of power in to roughly 195 sovereign nation-states—is proving inadequate in the face of rapid globalization. As our world becomes increasingly integrated, the political tools of the past, which uphold division and absolute autonomy, cannot offer a viable vision for the future. This is particularly salient in the case of global climate change: our commitment to statehood and international competition is preventing us from seeing the ways in which we are deeply interconnected, effectively imperiling current and future generations. Indeed, how should we respond to the 200-250 million climate refugees that will be displaced in the next 50-70 years due to climate change? What duties of justice are they owed? In this project, I assess the social contract tradition in political theory which offers the main philosophical grounds for the contemporary state system. I argue that, for a number of different reasons, social contract theory fails to offer a desirable framework for the new global political order necessitated by globalization. A theoretical framework that recognizes the ways in which humans are fundamentally in nature, and thus widens the scope of justice, offers a more promising alternative for regulating global cooperation. Indeed, if we, the human race, see ourselves as a unified group playing a small part in the larger play that is the global ecosystem, then our vision will clear and we will begin to see the appropriate duties of justice that we owe to each other, nonhuman animals, and nature.