Earth System

Evolution of the Polycrisis: Anthropocene Traps that Challenge Global Sustainability

In this article, the authors, inspired by the polycrisis, identify and explore potential 14 traps affecting humanity in the global human context, brought about by the trajectory of our increasing complexity and influence on the Earth system. These traps are then categorized as global, technological, or structural traps and then further assessed to produce statistical […]

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Predicament: Our Intertwined Crises. In: Toward Social-Ecological Well-Being

In this chapter, the author examines the ongoing unsustainability crisis, connecting various dimensions of sustainability while linking planetary health with inequality and cooperation. Environmental crises such as climate change, ecosystem degradation, and biodiversity loss are shown to significantly degrade human health. The widening gap in both domestic and global inequality over the past four decades

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Earth Beyond Six of Nine Planetary Boundaries

The authors present an updated analysis of the planetary boundaries framework, revealing that human activities have pushed Earth beyond six of the nine critical environmental thresholds that define a safe operating space for humanity. These transgressed boundaries include climate change, biosphere integrity, land-system change, freshwater use, biogeochemical flows, and novel entities. The study emphasizes that

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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, it will trigger cascading disruptive change in the global economy, national politics, investment markets and geopolitical security.” Gilding predicts that

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The Era of Global Risk: An Introduction to Existential Risk Studies

This edited volume argues that humanity has entered a fundamentally novel era of existential risk. These risks range from global-scale natural disasters (like volcanic super-eruptions) to anthropogenic environmental destabilization (like climate change and loss of biosphere integrity), and from calamities that spread rapidly around our highly networked planet (like viruses and cyber threats) to the

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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 they’re ultimately far more important. The original title of the article was “Let’s Avoid ‘Trigger Fixation.” The Globe and Mail

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The Human Ecology of Overshoot: Why a Major ‘Population Correction’ is Inevitable

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 that constitutes the most globally significant ecological phenomena in 250 000 years of human evolutionary history. He concludes that humanity is exhibiting the dynamic of

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Global Polycrisis: The Causal Mechanisms of Crisis Entanglement

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 a theoretical framework to explain the causal mechanisms currently entangling many of the world’s crises. In this framework, a global crisis arises when one or

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

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 systemic risks, defines polycrisis and existential risk, and discusses the distressing impacts of climate change on our global trajectory. “Current forecasts suggest that unless we

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The Fundamental Issue – Overshoot

Interviewed by Nate Hagens, William E. Rees argues that overshoot is a fundamental issue underlying all environmental problems. Our economy is premised on unlimited growth but the global human ecological footprint exceeds by 100% the biocapacity of Earth, and we are reaching a tipping point where nature will restore balance. He thus argues we must

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