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This report identifies hazards that, when combined with corresponding vulnerabilities and exposures, could lead to global and existential catastrophes. It aims to gather governance insights on risk cascades through a review of the literature, an expert survey, and consultations with experts.
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 as a totalizing description of the present era and its existential problems, and those who speak of a polycrisis “as a technical concept with which
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, interdisciplinary scenarios to capture the complexity and unpredictability of global risks.
Stress Testing in a World of Compound Risks and Polycrises Read More »
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.
We’re on the Brink of a ‘Polycrisis’-How Worried Should We Be? Read More »
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 humanity is entering “the Great Unravelling” in which compounding crises threaten the vital systems of human civilization. Unravelling environmental threads include global warming, biodiversity and
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 not new, polycrisis has taken on a new meaning and new urgency as governments, think tanks and ordinary citizens try to get their heads around
How to Deal with a World of Polycrisis? Read More »
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 quickly; to be effective for a context of continual mega-crises, complexity, and insecurity; and to fully align with the resulting societal and policy challenges. The
Research and Innovation to Thrive in the Poly-crisis Age Read More »
David Henig and Daniel M. Knight argue that anthropology has much to offer in the conceptualization and study of polycrisis, drawing on a disciplinary “toolkit that includes historicity, temporality, scalarity and intersectionality, which adds much needed texture to the polycrisis theory” (p. 4). The authors consider the nature of crisis as an abrupt disruption versus
Polycrisis: Prompts for an Emerging Worldview Read More »
The authors discuss how Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) have limited capacity to navigate complex, interconnected global crises. They advocate for the integration of transdisciplinary approaches, including socio-technical transitions and diverse stakeholder perspectives, to chart sustainable pathways through the polycrisis.
The article considers the novelty and utility of the polycrisis concept, alongside the difficulties of addressing the polycrisis. It concludes that “the growing use of the term polycrisis is in itself encouraging. It demonstrates that, although the problems that form the current polycrisis are neither new nor surprising, our perception of them is changing. A
The Good News Hidden inside Today’s ‘Polycrisis’ Read More »
