In TedX with Al Gore……In a blistering talk, Nobel Laureate Al Gore looks at the two main obstacles to climate solutions and gives his view of how we might actually solve the environmental crisis in time. You won’t want to miss his searing indictment of fossil fuel companies for walking back their climate commitments — and his call for a global rethink of the roles of polluting industries in politics and finance.
RISD’s center for complexity developing design manual for maintaining life on earth
by Tim Maly on RISD.org…RISD’s Center for Complexity (CfC) has served as a think tank bringing together transdisciplinary experts and academics with real-world practitioners and policy makers. This summer the group is expanding its nuclear security research to include other threats to the planet and human civilization. Here CfC Senior Lead Tim Maly discusses the insights they have uncovered.
The actual risks of generative AI – extended quotes
by Peter Leyden in The Great Progression….I would say that probably even 10 years from now, if you want to get the most objective and comprehensive advice or information on any subject, you’re going to consult a machine, not a human being.
Canada in the year 2060
by Anne Shibata Casselman in Maclean’s….“Some years we’re going to have to restrict water and essentially ration it. And there’ll be other years when we’ll perhaps be one of the few places in the world that can still produce food reliably.”
Degrowth: The awakening of consciousness before an alternative
by Juan Ignacio Marin in Resilience.org….It is important to emphasize that the ideals of degrowth do not advocate a defense of economic poverty, but rather call for sufficiency. The emphasis on the true meaning of the term consumption — distinguishing it from consumerism — seeks to introduce a change in our way of life that reflects sufficiency, what we truly need.
Climate-changing human activity could lead to 1 billion deaths over the next century, according to new study
by Jeff Renaud in Phys.org…..”If you take the scientific consensus of the 1,000-ton rule seriously, and run the numbers, anthropogenic global warming equates to a billion premature dead bodies over the next century. Obviously, we have to act. And we have to act fast.”
We are witnessing the first stages of civilization’s collapse
by Michael T. Klare in The Nation….Will our own elites perform any better than the rulers of Chaco Canyon, the Mayan heartland, and Viking Greenland?
How Musk, Thiel, Zuckerberg, and Andreessen—four billionaire techno-oligarchs—are creating an alternate, autocratic reality
by Jonathan Taplin in Vanity Fair…..In an excerpt from his new book, The End of Reality, the author warns about the curses of AI and transhumanism, presenting the moral case against superintelligence.
Yep, it’s bleak, says expert who tested 1970s end-of-the-world prediction
by Gaya Herrington in The Guardian…A controversial MIT study from 1972 forecast the collapse of civilization – and Gaya Herrington is here to deliver the bad news
Trevor Hancock: A polycrisis is greater than the sum of its parts
by Trevor Hancock in Times Colonist…..Today’s crises, they wrote, “simultaneously span natural, political, economic and technological systems, because they’re driven by a multiplicity of underlying ‘systemic risks.’ ”
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...
Dec
06
2023
Overshooting earth’s boundaries: an interview with Bill Rees
by Rachel Donald in World Sensorium Conservancy….Our impact on the planet cannot be understated. We have thrust Earth into a new geological period, destroyed the...
Dec
06
2023
Weaving solidarity and hope: stories of regeneration and resilience
From Global tapestries of alternatives…..we learn that art is an important mode of everyday resistance that can offer healing possibilities from the trauma of...
Dec
06
2023
Rivers and water systems as weapons and casualties of the Russia‐Ukraine war
By Peter Gleick in Earth’s Future……Among the consequences of the conflict have been both direct and indirect effects on civilian populations,...
Dec
05
2023
Beneath the polycrisis is the singular dilemma of humanity called capitalism: the thirty-seventh newsletter (2023)
by Vijay in Tricontinental….Dilemmas of humanity abound. There is little need to look at statistical data to know that we are in a spiral of crises, from the...
Oct
15
2023
The blue dollar economy
Dollarization of the Argentine economy, which appeared an eccentric wish only a few months ago, now dominates media headlines and dinner table discussions and has...
Oct
10
2023
The tragedy on the financial horizon is closer than you think
In September 2015, then Bank of England Governor Mark Carney gave a landmark speech on the “Tragedy of the Horizon.” The concept was simple: climate change creates...
Oct
10
2023
Spaces for Growth: Learning our Way out of a Crisis
By Graham Leicester and Maureen O'Hara In normal times we tend to go about our lives oblivious to the structures, institutions, processes and shared values that shape...
Oct
10
2023
Why 2% is the most dangerous number no one is talking about
We’ve had a summer from hell, with July 2023 temporarily claiming the title of hottest month on record. But while the klaxons of Earth’s climate system have riveted...
Oct
10
2023
Finding the trickle
Idah Murithi shares a captivating tale of a young girl’s journey to restore a river and educate her community about the power of collective action in safeguarding...
Oct
10
2023
The bold idea to move millions to climate havens
The race against time to plan for climate migration has begun. In 2022, climate change and climate-related disasters led nearly 33 million people to flee their homes...