Category Archives: Polycrisis

Google AI: A polycrisis is a single situation where multiple, distinct global crises occur simultaneously and interact in ways that amplify each other, making the overall damage significantly worse than the sum of its individual parts. Instead of dealing with isolated, sequential emergencies, a polycrisis features intersecting networks of stress across economic, geopolitical, ecological, and technological systems.
Core Characteristics
Causal Entanglement: A crisis in one system (e.g., a geopolitical conflict) directly triggers or worsens a crisis in another system (e.g., energy prices and global food supply chains).
Feedback Loops: The compounding effects bounce back and forth between systems, creating highly volatile and unpredictable domino effects.
Systemic Overwhelm: Because the crises are deeply linked, they cannot be successfully resolved one at a time, frequently paralyzing traditional governance and risk-management strategies

‘The oil we eat’. Following the food chain back to iraq

Posted on August 25, 2026 by

Source: The Oil We Eat – How Our Food System Depends On Oil and How Fragile It Makes Our Food Security Preface. Even though this article was published in 2004, it is still true today, only worse. This article will … Continue reading →

Posted in Overpopulation, Peak Food, Peak Topsoil | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Vanishing open spaces: population growth and sprawl in America

Posted on August 18, 2026 by

  Preface.  Before the fossil fuel age began, up to 90% were farmers. The end of the brief blip of oil production will send us back to that time (if we aren’t so far into overshoot we go back to … Continue reading →

Posted in Overpopulation, Peak Food, Soil | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Admiral Rickover 1957: Energy Resources & Our Future

Posted on August 11, 2026 by

Preface. I’ve shortened and reworded this prescient speech.  You can see all of it at “Energy resources and our future” – remarks by Admiral Hyman Rickover delivered in 1957″ archived at http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2011/ph240/klein1/docs/rickover.pdf and resilience.org has a speech by Congressman Roscoe … Continue reading →

Posted in An Overview, By People, Dependence on Oil, Energy Slaves, Limits To Growth, Military, Nuclear Waste, Other Experts, Overpopulation, Overshoot, Peak Oil | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

The Green New Deal is not a solution for the real problem: Overshoot

Posted on August 4, 2026 by

Preface.  Seibert & Rees’ paper is important and well-written, without unintelligible scientific jargon.  It explains overshoot in just 13 pages, and covers the most important issues we face and real solutions. It explains why the Green New Deal is a … Continue reading →

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Energy, Water, & Climate Change are interdependent

Posted on July 7, 2026 by

Preface. This is a very long post with summaries of two GAO reports on interdependencies of energy, water, and climate change from 2014 and 2012, which are still true today. While cheap and plentiful oil remains, these problems can be … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate Change, Energy Infrastructure, Energy Production, GAO Government Accountability Office, Interdependencies | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Energy, Water, & Climate Change are interdependent

Climate Change dominates news coverage at expense of other existential planetary boundaries

Posted on June 23, 2026 by

Preface. Almost all environmental stories in the media are about greenhouse gases. Yet there are dozens of others in the meta/polycrisis and existential boundaries (Rockström 2009). Overpopulation is the driver, but the severity and magnitude is made possible by fossil … Continue reading →

Posted in Acidification, Biodiversity, BioInvasion, Climate Change, Critical Thinking, Peak Oil, Planetary Boundaries | Tagged , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

Book Review “The Outlawed Ocean” by Ian Urbina

Posted on June 2, 2026 by

Preface. This is a book review of Urbina’s “The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier.”  So many fishermen are enslaved for years, yet another reason to pay more for local fish at higher prices.   Globally, so many fish … Continue reading →

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Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future

Posted on May 26, 2026 by

Preface. This is another “Scientists Warnings to Humanity” by many famous scientists, including Paul & Anne Erlich, John Harte, Peter Raven, and Mathis Wackernagel. Some of the challenges they point to are loss of biodiversity and consequent 6th mass extinction, … Continue reading →

Posted in Biodiversity, Extinction, Overshoot, Scientists, Scientists Warnings to Humanity | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Why did everyone stop talking about Population & Immigration?

Posted on March 31, 2026 by

Preface. This post summarizes the top 26 reasons why population growth was abandoned the past 50 years. Further reasons can be found in Beck & Kolankiewicz (2000) “The Environmental Movement’s Retreat from Advocating U.S. Population Stabilization” and Weisman’s “Countdown: Our … Continue reading →

Posted in Biodiversity, Climate Change, Deforestation, Disease, Overpopulation, Pesticides, Pollution, Population, Transportation, Water Pollution, Wildfire | Tagged , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

The insect apocalypse will kill billions more people than climate change

Posted on March 10, 2026 by

  Preface. Below are excerpts from two articles on why and how the extinction of insects could lead to our own extinction and many other species. Although climate change is more deadly now, an insect apocalypse will kill far more … Continue reading →

Posted in Biodiversity, Extinction, Scientists Warnings to Humanity | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments