Reasons for hope in 2025

by Suzette Brooks Masters in Fulcrum…My way of not giving in to despair and apathy amid all this uncertainty is to look for sources of hope, to find in uncertainty itself reasons for hope. Happily, once you look for the places where hope and imagination live, you find it in ample supply. As part of the research I conducted for Democracy Funders Network’s Imagining Better Futures for American Democracy report, I talked to dozens of visionaries who were imagining and creating new and better ways of being with one another, with nature, with technology, and with the planet. The final section of that paper, titled Inspiration, is my curated compilation of examples of what better futures could look like in real life and in the imagination. Whenever I feel the pull of pessimism, I turn back to those examples.

A food apocalypse is coming; There is no plan to feed Britain in a crisis

by James Rebanks in UnHerd…The answer is to be ready, with a more resilient and secure food system before something goes wrong. We need an inspired farming system that’s largely confined to our own island, and which we can rely upon in a crisis. There is no food security unless we can feed people locally in an emergency.

Certainty is boring

by Jeanette Bronee in her blog…We may never know exactly what to do to meet the future and its constantly changing reality, but aligning with what matters becomes our North Star. To avoid getting stuck on the hamster wheel of FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt), we must learn to pause more. These moments of pause allow us to reconnect with our intention and align with our strategy, giving us the courage to move forward with clarity and confidence. After all, change and growth are essential to life—that’s why certainty is boring.

The next financial crisis: Insurance

by Robert Kuttner in The American Prospect… Increasing damage from fires, hurricanes, and floods will destabilize a lightly regulated industry—and spill over into broader financial markets.

Braiding indigenous and western knowledge for climate-adapted forests: An ecocultural state of science report

by Cristina Eisenberg et al…Our ecocultural state-of-knowledge report brings
together Indigenous Knowledge (IK) and Western
Science (WS) to support climate and wildfire adaptation
strategies for forest landscapes. This report builds
on federal directives to respectfully and intentionally
braid IK and WS knowledge systems in a Two-Eyed
Seeing approach that informs climate- and wildfireadaptation strategies to conserve our public forests.

Is the world becoming uninsurable?

by Charles Hugh Smith on Substack…This is not an abstraction, though many are treating it as a policy debate. As noted previously here, the insurance industry is not a charity, and insurers bear the costs that are increasing regardless of opinions and policy proposals. Insurers operate in the real world, and their decisions to pull out of entire regions, reduce coverage and increase premiums are all responses to soaring losses.

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...
Feb 14 2025

Creative but disorganised: why philanthropy won’t solve the polycrisis

by Barry Knight in Alliance Magazine…‘There are massive problems; climate, conflict, the economy are chief among them. Our international system for dealing...
Feb 13 2025

Strategic foresight toolkit for resilient public policy

from OECD…..A Comprehensive Foresight Methodology to Support Sustainable and Future-Ready Public Policy

Feb 12 2025

Playing with Time: Introducing a foresight practice to build hopeful futures through transformative stewardship

by Cat Tully in School of International Futures (SOIF)…My hope is that I inspire you to join in: to act, connect, support, and become part of a global movement...
Feb 11 2025

Rolling out the doughnut

in Beshara Magazine…We talk to Leonora Grcheva of the Doughnut Economics Action Lab about how Kate Raworth’s innovative economic theory is being translated into...
Feb 10 2025

Philanthropy and digital civil society: Blueprint 2025

by Lucy Bernholz in Blueprint 2025…Philanthropy and Digital Civil Society: Blueprint is an annual industry forecast about the ways we use private resources for...
Feb 10 2025

Futures Lab

in Futures Lab report in Horizon 2045…We look for evidence of the future that’s coming and in some cases is already here.

Feb 07 2025

From risk to resilience: Wildfires and the insurance industry’s climate reckoning

Doug Parsons interviews Dr. Carolyn Kousky in America Adapts the Climate Change Podcast…Carolyn shares insights on how the industry can respond to these...
Feb 06 2025

China’s ageing population: A demographic crisis is unfolding for Xi

by Laura Bicker in BBC…Over the next decade, about 300 million people, who are currently aged 50 to 60, are set to leave the Chinese workforce. This is the...
Feb 05 2025

Anthropocene under dark skies: The compounding effects of nuclear winter and overstepped planetary boundaries

by Florian Jehn in EGU…The analysis of global catastrophic events often occurs in isolation, simplifying their study. In reality, risks cascade and...
Feb 04 2025

Climate models can’t explain what’s happening to Earth

by Zoë Schlanger in The Atlantic…Global warming is moving faster than the best models can keep a handle on.