Polycrisis Resource Library

The Polycrisis Resource Library is a growing collection of media that help to understand polycrisis, develop strategies to address polycrisis, and build a field of polycrisis analysis.

What a ‘Polycrisis’ is and What it Means for Business

Naomi Distefano

The article reports on a presentation by Dr. Alan Dupont, chief executive of Cognoscenti, at the Australasia Investor Relations Association’s 2023 annual convention. Dupont argued that, in an era of…

Global Polycrisis: The Causal Mechanisms of Crisis Entanglement

Michael Lawrence, Thomas Homer-Dixon, Scott Janzwood, Johan Rockström, Ortwin Renn, and Jonathan F. Donges

The authors translate polycrisis from a loose concept into a research agenda by providing the concept with a substantive definition, highlighting its value-added in comparison to related concepts, and developing…

The Global Polycrisis Reflects a Civilizational Crisis that Calls for Systemic Alternatives

Zack Walsh

Zack Walsh argues that the current level of globalization, number of systemic risks, and continued depletion of the Earth’s resources will generate some sort of societal collapse. He details these…

The Hard Right and Climate Change are Intimately Linked

George Monbiot

George Monbiot argues that a vicious cycle is emerging between the rise of the political right, roll-backs of environmental policy and protections, increased migration, and worsening discrimination against refugees. “As…

We’re on the Brink of a ‘Polycrisis’-How Worried Should We Be?

Simon Torkington

This press release for the World Economic Forum’s 2023 Global Risks Report summarizes its key findings and highlights its use of the term polycrisis.

Can Democracy Survive the Polycrisis?

George Soros

George Soros argues that there are three main sources of the polycrisis (in order of importance): artificial intelligence, climate change, and Russia’s war on Ukraine. AI poses a “mortal threat”…

Welcome to the Great Unraveling

Welcome to the Great Unraveling: Navigating the Polycrisis of Environmental and Social Breakdown

Richard Heinberg and Asher Miller

Asher Miller and Richard Heinberg define polycrisis as “the tangles of global environmental and social dilemmas that are accumulating, mutually interacting, and worsening” and argue that the present polycrisis indicates…

How to Deal with a World of Polycrisis?

Steffan Heuer

Steffan Heuer discusses the definition of polycrisis, some of the crises facing the world today, and the shortcomings of current approaches that target more immediate issues. “While the term is…

Global Polycrisis as a Pathway to Economic Transition

Zack Walsh

In this report for the Strategic Innovation Unit of the United Nations Development Programme, Zack Walsh argues that the underlying driver of the polycrisis is our unsustainable and unjust economic…

Research and Innovation to Thrive in the Poly-crisis Age

Sandrine Dixson-Declève, Kirsten Dunlop, Andrea Renda, Céline Charveriat, Pierre-Alexandre Balland, Darja Isaksson, Francisca Martins, Montserrat Mir Roca, Gitte Pedersen, Sylvia Schwaag Serger, Luc Soete, Špela Stres, Daria Gołębiowska-Tataj, Rainer Walz, Adrian Curaj and Ailin Huang

This report explores how Europe’s research and innovation (R&I) policy can make a decisive contribution to Europe’s ‘earthshot’—a future of well-being, peace, and sustainability. It calls for R&I to adapt…

About the Resource Library

The Polycrisis Resource Library includes resources that:

  • Comment on the polycrisis as a concept and as a present global reality
  • Undertake similar analysis using different—but related—concepts
  • Analyze crisis interactions among multiple global systems

Though not exhaustive, the Library strives to present a diverse representation of views on different aspects of the polycrisis discussion, and will be updated as that discussion evolves. Search for resources with the keyword search bar, or by using the drop-down menus to filter for type of resource, global systems addressed, and key themes.

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