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 world around us and affecting our ability to act…
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.”
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 trailer parks and other redeveloping communities nationwide.
The Strategic Foresight Book
from The Strategic Foresight Book by IFRC Solferino Academy…Effective strategic foresight is an ongoing process. Developing the ability to monitor trends, understand how they interact and influence each other, and imagining
how they might develop over time, is a powerful addition to our strategy design and decision making. Foresight should also be deeply participatory, drawing on our
connections to communities all around the world to ensure that the projects, plans and organisation we aspire to be reflects their hopes for the future.
The impossible math of philanthropy
by Hans Taparia and Bruce Buchanan in The New York Times…With one hand they generate supernormal profits by plundering society, and with the other they dole out a few crumbs to “save the world.” But they never will. The math simply doesn’t work.
Resilience revisited 011: Resilience as ‘capacity to embrace uncertainty’
by Tamzin Ractliffe on LinkedIn…Perhaps true resilience emerges when we stop asking “How certain are we?” and start asking “How adaptively can we respond?”
What should philanthropy do about the US freeze on aid?
by Benjamin Bellegy in Alliance Magazine…We can worry that some philanthropies might reorientate their giving to align with the new zeitgeist, for instance divesting from issues such as climate or social justice.
An emerging third option: Reclaiming democracy from dark money & dark tech
by Otto Scharmer in Medium…In short — the key to the profound changes that our current polycrisis is calling for lies in the cultivation of the social soil. Every one of us can be (and is) a gardener or farmer of that soil. In our forthcoming book Presencing we outline the core practices for doing so.
Yuen Yuen Ang argues that we need a fundamentally different way of thinking about our biggest global problems
by Yuen Yuen Ang in Interest.co.nz…The polycrisis is paralyzing only for those who are attached to the old order. For those who are not, it offers what I would call a “polytunity” to usher in new paradigms that invert the way we think about the development process, the sources of solutions, and the role of the state.
A ‘second tree of life’ could wreak havoc, scientists warn
by Carl Zimmer in The New York Times…Research on so-called mirror cells, which defy fundamental properties of living organisms, should be prohibited as too dangerous, biologists said.
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...
Jul
18
2025
What this climate scientist wants you to know about human nature
by Kate Marvel in Atmos…I don’t know which of these worlds is more likely. Science says that as long as human beings emit greenhouse gases by cutting down trees...
Jul
17
2025
The world economy is on the brink of epochal change
by Mark Blythe in The Atlantic…Capitalism’s operating system is due for a major upgrade. How that turns out depends on enormously consequential political...
Jul
16
2025
Counter-hegemony and polycrisis I: how to eat and how to think
by Raj Patel in The Journal of Peasant Studies…Through examining twentieth-century counter-hegemonic movements, particularly the Italian mondine and the Black...
Jul
15
2025
Experts: Which climate tipping point is the most concerning?
from Carbon Brief…I am particularly worried about tipping points that involve the biosphere and humans due to breaching thresholds for heat or drought that then...
Jul
14
2025
BRICS in 2025
by Tim Sahay and Kate Mackenzie in Phenomenal World…There are now two competing global models of energy and influence: one based on fossil fuels, one on green...
Jul
11
2025
The business of betting on catastrophe
by Susan Erikson in MIT Press… World Bank pandemic bonds paid out only after death tolls passed a threshold. They’re part of a booming market where investors turn...
Jul
10
2025
Global drought hotspots report catalogs severe suffering, economic damage
by United Nations press release…Food, water, energy crises, human tragedies in 2023-2025 detailed in sweeping analysis by U.S. National Drought Mitigation Center...
Jul
09
2025
Droughts worldwide pushing tens of millions towards starvation, says report
by Fiona Harvey in The Guardian…Water shortages hitting crops, energy and health as crisis gathers pace amid climate breakdown
Jul
08
2025
Thinking long-term about infrastructure
by School of International Futures…75 years is a long enough period of time for the world to change in ways that are unanticipated. For this reason, scenarios...
Jul
07
2025
They asked an A.I. chatbot questions. The answers sent them spiraling.
by Kashmir Hill in The New York Times…Generative A.I. chatbots are going down conspiratorial rabbit holes and endorsing wild, mystical belief systems. For some...