~ WEBINAR EVENT SERIES CO-SPONSORS ~
The FAN Initiative, Millennium Alliance for Humanity and Biosphere, The Resilience Project & The New School at Commonwealth
Ghastly Discussions & Response
Global polycrisis: The causal mechanisms of crisis entanglement
Multiple global crises—including the pandemic, climate change, and Russia’s war on Ukraine—have recently linked together in ways that are significant in scope, devastating in effect, but poorly understood. Dr. Michael Lawrence, a Fellow at the Cascade Institute Read...
From polycrisis to metacrisis: a short introduction
Our world shows signs of multi-systemic breakdown. In this context, polycrisis names an entanglement of interconnected crises that affect one another. Metacrisis, by contrast, identifies foundational conditions that generate these crises. Just as symptoms signal an...
The planetary politics of everyday life
The pervasive narrative surrounding the ecological transition in advanced liberal democracies, particularly in France, has hit a brutal reckoning with reality. Far from a smooth, technocratically managed glide path towards sustainability, the transition project is...
Casual Loop Diagrams handbook
This handbook explains how to read and draw a causal loop diagrams (CLD)–a systems mapping technique that helps us to think through our mental model of a system, increase our understanding of a system, and communicate our knowledge to others. It clarifies some common...
“Putting America First” — Undermining health for populations at home and abroad
Finally, it’s important to acknowledge the ways in which retrenchment of global health research and support is in keeping with attacks on health research and higher education more generally. The retraction of NIH grants, for example, has jolted U.S. academic medical...
Climate crisis on track to destroy capitalism, warns top insurer
The world is fast approaching temperature levels where insurers will no longer be able to offer cover for many climate risks, said Günther Thallinger, on the board of Allianz SE, one of the world’s biggest insurance companies. He said that without insurance, which is...
Bioregionalism in practice: Weaving local solutions in a global context
In a world where the globalized economy has failed to bring peace and prosperity, many of us are feeling the call to reconnect - with each other, with place, and with the living systems that sustain us. Now more than ever, there is a growing need to root our lives in...
If you want peace, prepare for war—an ancient lesson Canada must remember
Already, Canadians in every walk of life are discussing privately how they’re prepared to protect our homeland. True, in any violent contest between Canada and the U.S., we can’t possibly win in a conventional sense. But we can ensure in advance that an authoritarian,...
Welcome to the chaoscene
In the future, real communities – people near you who can actually help you reliably access food, water, warmth, electricity, repairs, early warnings against disasters, etc – will again become increasingly important. Our future will be in part ever newer, as we enter...
Bioregioning: the defining practice of regenerative cultures
“A bioregion can be determined initially by use of climatology, physiography, animal and plant geography, natural history and other descriptive natural sciences. The final boundaries of a bioregion, however, are best described by the people who have lived within it,...
Systems Thinking For Social Change
A Practical Guide to Solving Complex Problems, Avoiding Unintended Consequences, and Achieving Lasting Results Systems Thinking for Social Change enables readers to contribute more effectively to society by helping them understand what systems thinking is and why it...
Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future
Corey J.A. Bradshaw, Paul R. Ehrlich, Andrew Beattie, Gerardo Ceballos, Eileen Crist, Joan Diamond,Rodolfo Dirzo, Anne H. Ehrlich, John Harte, Mary Ellen Harte, Graham Pyke, Peter H. Raven1 William J. Ripple, Frédérik Saltré Christine Turnbull, Mathis Wackernagel and Daniel T. Blumstei
An international group of 17 leading physical and social scientists, including OMEGA Advisory Board member Joan Diamond, have produced a comprehensive yet concise assessment of the state of civilization, warning that the outlook is more dire and dangerous than is generally understood.
The paper has generated over a thousand media articles and interviews which suggests that public interest is extremely high despite competing news– insurrection, inauguration, and pandemic.
This Ghastly study has been covered in media organizations including CNN World, Reuters, The Guardian, International Business Times, Taipei Times, The Irish Times, and the University of California among many others.
See full article published by Frontiers in Conservation Science, 13 Janurary 2021.