Multiple global crises are worsening one another to produce what many policymakers, scholars, and commentators call a “polycrisis.” This website is a hub that helps this emerging community better understand and address the intersecting crises affecting humanity.
LATEST RESOURCES
Why So Much is Going Wrong at the Same Time
Addressing critiques of the polycrisis concept from the political right and left, Thomas Homer-Dixon argues that the world is in a polycrisis generated by novel and unprecedented conditions, as measured by total human energy consumption, ...
Mitigating Global Warming is Not Our Only Problem: Are We “Sleepwalking” Towards a Global Polycrisis?
William White argues that climate policy around the world is lacking in dimensions of “should” (clear analysis of what must be done), “could” (the power to implement solutions), and “would” (the actual use of that ...
The Polycrisis: An Introduction
This webinar addresses the origin and definition of the term 'Polycrisis'; the environmental, social, political and economic factors contributing to the Polycrisis; and the risks arising from the accumulation, interaction, and worsening of those contributory ...
Polycrisis? What Polycrisis?
Alistair Benn argues that the polycrisis, with its overwhelming notion of multiple inter-related crises, is an illusory product of social media technologies that overload users with "shock after shock" and create a false impression of ...
The Great Disruption has Begun
Paul Gilding argues that the world has reached "a multi-system tipping point" that will bring "the Great Disruption": "a destabilisation of the global climate system at a scale that is so chaotic, unpredictable and costly, ...
Capital as Force for Good: Solutions to Close the SDG Gap
Noting that the world is failing to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this report explores six key solution areas to bridge the gap, encompassing policy, public sector activity, technology, infrastructure, private industry, and financial ...
Hawaii Wildfires Expose Need for Resilience in a Polycrisis World
Joseph Fiskel argues that the Maui wildfire reveals just how unprepared communities are to face polycrises. In response, he advocates systems thinking and greater resilience: “Rather than simply ‘bouncing back’ from crises, a resilient organization will ...
Let’s Avoid ‘Trigger Fixation’
The authors argue that a trigger event can’t start a crisis by itself; some underlying stress or stresses must also be operating. They contend that leaders should pay far more attention to these stresses, because ...
The Polycrisis
Ville Lähde explores various considerations involved in the coining of new terms and concepts, such as polycrisis. He highlights in particular the difference between those who speak of the polycrisis as a totalizing description of ...
Try our guided tour of essential themes in the polycrisis discussion and key texts in the Polycrisis Resource Library.
This map charts the emerging community of scholars and practitioners working on polycrisis and closely related topics.