Earth System Archives

Interconnected Disaster Risks: Turning Over a New Leaf

The 2025 Interconnected Disaster Risks report, Turning Over a New Leaf, calls for transformative societal changes to address escalating global crises. It outlines five essential shifts: rethinking waste, realigning with nature, reconsidering responsibility, reimagining the future, and redefining value to prioritize planetary health over economic growth. The report introduces the Theory of Deep Change, advocating […]

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Collapse: What It Is — And What To Do

In this episode, Sarah Wilson delves into the concept of societal collapse, exploring its roots and possible responses. She weaves together Western and Indigenous perspectives, discussing theories such as Moloch theory, the influence of the Church, and critiques of technological elitism. The conversation emphasizes viewing crises as opportunities for transformation, advocating for the spread of

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Planet in Polycrisis

In this episode, Thomas Homer-Dixon, Executive Director of the Cascade Institute, and Manjana Milkoreit, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oslo, explore the growing risks of global polycrisis. Through the lens of complexity science, Homer-Dixon explains how tightly coupled human and Earth systems are increasingly vulnerable to self-amplifying cascades—interlinked crises driven by energy use, environmental

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A Logic For The Future

Stephen Heintz and Kim Stanley Robinson explore the concept of the polycrisis and the urgent need for comprehensive reform of global governance. In an era marked by interconnected political, economic, technological, and environmental challenges that transcend national borders, current institutions are proving inadequate. This dialogue reflects on historical moments of transformation and argues for a

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Planetary Boundaries, Polycrisis and Politics in the Anthropocene: Climate Pathways, Tipping Cascades and Transition to Sustainable Peace in Integrative Geography

This chapter explores the impacts of the “great acceleration” in human development and its impact on planetary boundaries and the polycrisis in the Anthropocene. Using an Integrative Geography perspective, it links human-nature relationships, growth limits, and global expansion to crises and geopolitical conflicts, highlighting interconnected risks. The chapter calls for sustainable peace by balancing human

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The Global Polycrisis and Health Inequalities

The authors use the polycrisis lens to examine how interconnected global crises—economic, environmental, health, and political—intensify health inequalities. They argue that polycrisis amplify these inequalities and suggest strategies to mitigate their impacts, outlining pathways for future research.

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Interconnected Crises: Climate Change, Biodiversity Loss, Poverty

The authors explore the intertwined crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and poverty, emphasizing how these issues amplify one another and create a vicious cycle that threatens ecosystems, livelihoods, and global stability. They advocate for integrated approaches to address these interconnected challenges.

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We live in times of multiple entwined crises – but our policy responses aren’t keeping up

The authors discuss the inadequacy of current policies in addressing interconnected crises like biodiversity loss, climate change, and pollution. Drawing on two IPBES assessment reports, they argue that while these reports offer effective policy options for transformative change, progress in implementing these solutions remains insufficient.

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Managing and Mitigating Future Public Health Risks: Planetary Boundaries, Global Catastrophic Risk, and Inclusive Wealth

The authors argue for a more integrated framework to understand existential risks by bridging two dominant paradigms: Planetary Boundaries and Global Catastrophic Risks. Using the COVID-19 pandemic as a case study, the authors analyze how pandemics reveal the interconnectedness of public health, environmental degradation, and global systems. They critique the fragmentation between the Planetary Boundaries

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