The Cascade Institute is a Canadian research centre addressing the full range of humanity’s converging environmental, economic, political, and technological crises.

Its director is Thomas Homer-Dixon, an award-winning scholar and author with deep experience in using complexity science to anticipate, analyze, and respond to global threats.

The FAN initiative describes the situation: Two hundred years of economic and complexity growth have added immensely to human welfare and security. It has shaped our world-views and expectations of the future. Yet there is widening concern that the conditions that...

The mission of the Global Challenges Foundation is "to prevent, or at least reduce the likelihood, of a catastrophe that would cause the death of over 10% of humanity, or cause damage on a similar scale." Their website offers analysis and research, partnerships, and...

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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

by Cat Tully in School of International Futures…I want to help us unstick from this present, apply a practical set of approaches to help our communities navigate...
Mar 24 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 2025

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...
Mar 20 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

by Maria Popova in The Pocket…“Love quiets fear. And a sweet and powerful positive obsession blunts pain, diverts rage, and engages each of us in the greatest,...
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...