The Polycrisis
Ville Lähde
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…
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.
The Human Ecology of Overshoot: Why a Major ‘Population Correction’ is Inevitable
William E. Rees
Using an evolutionary ecology perspective, William E. Rees argues that modern techno-industrial society is in a state of advanced ecological overshoot. Fossil fuels have enabled a massive expansion of humanity…
Stress Testing in a World of Compound Risks and Polycrises
Gregory P. Hopper, Greg Rattray, Til Schuermann and Ben Power
The authors explore how to approach stress testing and stress scenario design in a world of polycrises and compound risks. The authors advocate for adopting “polyscenario” approaches that use multiple,…
A World of Debt – Report 2025
UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
This report highlights the surge in global public debt, aggravated by a series of cascading crises in recent years. It also underscores how the growing debt burden disproportionately impacts developing…
Polycrisis or Crises of Capitalist Social Reproduction
Kanishka Jayasuriya
Kanishka Jayasuriya argues that polycrisis is a helpful descriptive term for the novel, intersecting crises of the 21st century, but it should be understood as a political crisis arising from…
Leadership in the Polycrisis: How UK Defense Training Can Help Us Navigate a Future of Unprecedented Environmental Disruption
Laurie Laybourn and Matt Ince
The authors explore how leadership approaches in defense—focused on resilience, situational rehearsal, and initiative—offer insights for civilian leaders facing the polycrisis. Drawing on workshops and interviews with senior United Kingdom…
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…
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.
Let’s Avoid ‘Trigger Fixation’
Michael Lawrence and Thomas Homer-Dixon
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…