The view from Nairobi-Washington

by Tim Sahay and Kate Mackenzie in Phenomenal World…It is good for Southern elites to win such technology investments. But while the New Washington Consensus delivers full employment and trillions in deficit-financed welfarism and public investments in the North, the Nairobi-Washington vision for which Ruto is a stand-in is insufficient for fostering prosperity across the South—where debt-stressed countries with soaring joblessness are imposing class war austerity and privatization, amid Western intransigence in delivering touted financial architecture reforms.

Canada’s 2023 wildfires outsmoked global aviation, yet emissions go uncounted

by Liz Kimbrough in Mongabay….The climate crisis appears to be driving this trend toward more extreme fire seasons. Higher temperatures caused by climate change dry out the landscape and make forests more susceptible to fire. The researchers point out that Canada and other northern regions are warming up about twice as fast as the rest of the world.

The Strategic Foresight Book

by Ben Holt of IFRC Solferino Academy in The Strategic Foresight Book….Strategic foresight is a practical way to explore emerging issues and uncover new options for action. It helps us anticipate challenges, engage with uncertainty and sharpen our decision making. It is also a powerful way to connect with communities and imagine new possibilities.

How ocean warming is warping the world

by David Wallace-Wells in The New York Times….The vastness is also growing — not just because of melting Arctic and Antarctic ice, which could raise global sea levels by several feet this century and many more in the millenniums to come, but also because of what is known as “thermal expansion.” Heat expands the volume of water too and to date is responsible for at least one-third of all sea-level rise.

The disruption nexus

by Roman Krznaric in aeon.com….Polycrisis. Metacrisis. Omnicrisis. Permacrisis. Call it what you like. We are immersed in an age of extreme turbulence and interconnected global threats. The system is starting to flicker – chronic droughts, melting glaciers, far-Right extremism, AI risk, bioweapons, rising food and energy prices, rampant viruses, cyberattacks.

The climate is the economy

by Nitish Pahwa on Slate.com…Intensifying hurricanes, floods, and heat waves are wreaking havoc across the country—and on all of our bank accounts.

More in this tag

Jul 06 2023

Global polycrisis: The causal mechanisms of crisis entanglement

by Dr. Michael Lawrence at The Cascade Institute….. In this framework, a global crisis arises when one or more fast-moving trigger events combines with...
Sep 24 2024

Yuval Noah Harari on the eclipsing of human intelligence

Sean Illing of The Gray Area interviews Yuval Noah Harari…If the internet age has anything like an ideology, it’s that more information and more data and...
Sep 24 2024

How rising global heat connects catastrophic floods on four continents

by Scott Dance in The Washington Post…At this time of year, that flood potential amped up by global warming can become especially evident.

Sep 18 2024

Scaling: The state of play in AI

by Ethan Mollick in One Useful Thing…With continued advancements in model architecture and training techniques, we’re approaching a new frontier in AI...
Sep 18 2024

Facing global risks with honest hope

From (ASRA) Accelerator for Systemic Risk Assessment report Facing global risks with honest hope….Transforming Multidimensional Challenges into Multidimensional...
Sep 18 2024

Superbugs ‘could kill 39m people by 2050’ amid rising drug resistance

by Kat Lay in The Guardian…Child deaths from infections see ‘remarkable’ decline but AMR fatalities of over-70s likely to rise by 146%, study finds Analysis:...
Sep 16 2024

Global trends are polarizing us: Can democracy handle it?

by Richard Heinberg in resilience.org….Today the world faces historically unique stresses that are likely to be increasingly polarizing for many societies. These...
Sep 12 2024

National resilience guidance: A collaborative approach to building resilience

In National resilience guidance, a paper by FEMA.gov…This Guidance is intended to help all individuals, communities, and organizations understand our nation’s...
Sep 12 2024

Publication: Extreme temperatures and the profitability of large European firms

by Bellocca, Gian Pietro Enzo, et al in e-Archivo…The lack of a clear negative effect of extreme temperatures over firm’s profitability points out one of...
Sep 12 2024

A few rules for predicting the future by Octavia E. Butler

by Octavia E. Butler in Common Good Collective…So why try to predict the future at all if it’s so difficult, so nearly impossible? Because making predictions is...
Sep 12 2024

The U.S. needs to pay more attention to electronic warfare

by Steven Glinert in Noahpinion…Electronic warfare (EW) is a bit of a sleeper in the US arsenal. The US invented its modern form and has used it to great effect...