The term polycrisis is not and won’t be uncontested. Nor will its companion term, “resilience,” which we also use. Over time, both terms will be adopted as forms of greenwashing. They will become overused just as “sustainability” became overused.
“If you could win the popular imagination, you change the game”: Why we need new stories on climate
People without much sense of history imagine the world as static. They assume that if the present order is failing, the system is collapsing, and there is no alternative. A historical imagination equips you to understand that change is ceaseless. You only have to look to the past to see such a world, dramatically different half a century ago, stunningly so a century ago.
Davos man must pay
The World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, has always been more than a little problematic. But in recent years, the annual gathering of the rich and powerful has become an increasingly wasteful exercise in vanity.
The best way to deal with shocks is by combining diverse responses
Humankind’s best chance to deal with looming turbulences and crises is by diversifying response strategies
The verbs of resilience
The clusters are focused on building regenerative capacity, sensing emerging risks, responding to disruption, and learning and transformation.
So we’re in a polycrisis. Is that even a thing?
A lot of the folks trying to sound profound in the hallways at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week had just the word: “Polycrisis.” That’s what we’re in, apparently.
An even deadlier pandemic could soon be here
A pelican suspected to have died from H5N1 avian influenza on a beach in Peru in December.Credit…Ernesto Benavides/Agence France-Presse, via Getty Images
Why are so many Americans dying right now?
According to one tabulation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 300,000 additional Americans have died over the past three years whom we would not have expected to in more normal times. David Wallace-Wells Link to full article in The New...
New accelerator for systemic risk assessment launches, Ruth Richardson named executive director
“This moment of intersecting crises calls each one of us to act courageously and passionately to safeguard our future,” said Ruth Richardson, incoming Executive Director of ASRA.
Omega Resilience Awards seeking fellows in India who are responding to the polycrisis
The Omega Resilience Awards' partner organization in India, StartUp!, is actively screening and interviewing candidates to become the first ORA India Fellows. The Omega Resilience Awards (ORA) provides fellowships, research grants, and media creation to support new...
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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...
Mar
24
2025
After Spaceship Earth
An expansive look at the contemporary artists confronting, challenging, and reimagining R. Buckminster Fuller's techno-utopianism to envision sustainable futures...
Mar
24
2025
Playing with time: Introducing a foresight practice to build hopeful futures through transformative stewardship
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Mar
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2025
Future Signals – what we’re watching for in 2025
From Nesta…Our annual series about the trends and developments that are set to shape the coming year
Mar
21
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The militia and the mole
by Joshua Kaplan in Propublica…A Freelance Vigilante: A wilderness survival trainer spent years undercover, climbing the ranks of right-wing militias. He didn’t...
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2025
The turbulent world of resilience: 2 Interpretations and themes for transdisciplinary dialogue
by Susanne Moser, et al. in Climatic Change…In this paper we have tried to delineate – from a workshop and a literature review – fundamental differences in...
Mar
19
2025
Zero-problem philanthropy
by Christian Seelos in SSIR…Moving away from endless problem-solving and toward creating healthy context.
Mar
18
2025
Octavia Butler on creativity, the power of our obsessions, and how we become who we are
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Mar
17
2025
Strategy 2030 mid-term review and forecast
From IFRC Solferino Academy…As we reach the midpoint of Strategy 2030, we are entering a new humanitarian era. A complex mass of emerging trends is changing the...
Mar
17
2025
Looking Forward
by Steven Ascher in his film Looking Forward…“W.H. Auden called the postwar era, ‘The Age of Anxiety.’ It seems we’re in another one now.”
Mar
14
2025
Empowering residents to drive the redevelopment of a trailer park
from Habitat for Humanity Cost of Home report…Rosensweig adds that Southwood has the potential to be a model for sustainable and equitable redevelopment of both...