Polycrisis in the anthropocene: An invitation to contributions and debates

Polycrisis in the anthropocene: An invitation to contributions and debates

by Michael Lawrence in Cambridge University Press…The popularity of the term polycrisis suggests a growing demand for new thinking
about the world’s intersecting crises, but loose and haphazard uses of the concept impede knowledge
generation. The special issue, “Polycrisis in the Anthropocene,” aims to close the gap.

7 Structural Shifts:

by Indy Johar in Dark Matter… Furthermore, it is also becoming increasingly apparent that as we shift away from our current material economy — a system that has generated abundance for some segments of society and scarcity for others — we are entering an era marked by greater scarcity. This transition could potentially lead us towards a novel concept of abundance. However, this journey is not without its challenges. As we begin to encounter the limitations inherent in our economies, particularly the rise of net-zero-sum scenarios, the risk of conflict and war further escalates.

Has the “Polycrisis” overwhelmed us?

Has the “Polycrisis” overwhelmed us?

by Mark Leonard in Project Syndicate…Today’s global crises are not only competing for policymakers’ finite attention; they are increasingly feeding one another in unpredictable ways. Add the uncertainty around this year’s high-stakes elections in the United States and elsewhere, and you have a recipe for a Davos meeting defined by angst and paralysis.

The 100-Year extinction panic is back, right on schedule

by Tyler Austin Harper in The New York Times…Climate anxiety, of the sort expressed by that student, is driving new fields in psychology, experimental therapies and debates about what a recent New Yorker article called “the morality of having kids in a burning, drowning world.” Our public health infrastructure groans under the weight of a lingering pandemic while we are told to expect worse contagions to come. The near coup at OpenAI, which resulted at least in part from a dispute about whether artificial intelligence could soon threaten humanity with extinction, is only the latest example of our ballooning angst about technology overtaking us.

Friction is growing

by Bill McKibben in Resilience.org…The past decade of global natural catastrophes has been the costliest ever. Warmer temperatures have made storms worse and contributed to droughts that have elevated wildfire risk. Too many new homes were built in areas at risk of fire.

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