Learning resource

The World Lost the Climate Gamble. Now it Faces a Dangerous New Reality

The authors reflect on the decade since the 2015 Paris Agreement and conclude that humanity has failed to avert dangerous climate change, with global warming set to exceed 1.5°C and enter an overshoot phase within years. This escalation increases the frequency and severity of extreme events and risks triggering tipping points in major Earth systems […]

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Highlights from the Extreme Heat and Agriculture Report

This report explores the impact of extreme heat on agricultural producers and on crops, livestock, fisheries and aquaculture, and forests worldwide. Drawing on recent scientific evidence and country case studies, it highlights the independent and compound risks posed by extreme heat, underscores the urgency of mitigation, and presents pathways to strengthen resilience and sustainability across

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Understanding and Measuring Polycrisis

This article features an interview by Antoine Le Bec with researcher Louis Delannoy from the Stockholm Resilience Centre about the concept of polycrisis and its growing relevance for understanding an increasingly unstable world. Delannoy defines polycrisis as the convergence and amplification of multiple crises that increasingly reinforce one another rather than diminish. He emphasizes that

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We’re In a New Everything-Is-Connected Epoch. But What to Call It?

In this article, Thomas L. Friedman draws on the concept of the “Polycene”, a new epoch characterized by the convergence of multiple accelerating forces, including artificial intelligence, climate change, geopolitical realignment, and social transformation. Friedman argues that humanity has moved beyond the binary frameworks that structured the Cold War and post–Cold War eras into a

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Mapping the Hope Attractor: A Conversation with Thomas- Homer Dixon

In this conversation, Thomas Homer-Dixon introduces the Cascade Institute’s Polycrisis Core Model (PCM), a novel framework designed to map and analyse interactions among 11 critical global systems, each with multiple potential future states. The model employs cross-impact balance (CIB) analysis to evaluate over four million internally consistent scenarios, ultimately identifying 11 distinct “attractor” states. These

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Coping with Polycrisis and Systemic Risks: New Approaches to Assessment and Governance

In this webinar, hosted by the World Academy of Art and Science and its EXTRA initiative, experts explored the interconnected nature of global crises and the systemic risks emerging from complex, cascading interactions across ecological, social, and technological systems. Topics included food system vulnerabilities, equity-centered governance, resilience dividends and positive externalities, and the modeling of

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Savvy, Skeptical ‘Polycrisis Shoppers’ Are Browsing Your Aisles – Here’s What to Do

The author examines how the polycrisis is reshaping consumer behaviour and the food industry. Amid inflation, climate-driven crop failures, and global supply chain disruptions, a new type of consumer has emerged: the Polycrisis Shopper. These shoppers are hyperaware, price-sensitive, and pragmatic, abandoning brand loyalty in favour of value, transparency, and sustainability. They balance stockpiling with

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AI for a Planet Under Pressure

The report AI for a Planet Under Pressure examines the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to address the contemporary polycrisis by supporting research and decision-making across interconnected sustainability challenges. Synthesizing expert assessments and AI-supported analysis of over 8,500 publications, it evaluates AI’s role across eight critical domains: systemic shocks, Earth system dynamics, ocean stewardship, freshwater

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Tackling the Complex Links Between Climate Change, Conflict, and Health

The authors underscore the urgent need to address the interconnected threats of climate change, conflict, and health. They highlight how these threats not only cause direct harm, such as heat-related deaths and conflict-driven mortality, but also compound vulnerabilities by damaging health systems, disrupting essential services, and fueling cycles of instability. Fragile and conflict-affected states are

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