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

Limits to growth: Oil & Gas Fracking sand

Posted on August 6, 2020 by

Preface.  Below is an excerpt about fracking sand from Beiser’s 2018 book “The World in a Grain. The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization”. In 2022 fracking sand has gotten so expensive it’s a factor in why production … Continue reading →

Posted in Limits To Growth, Oil & Gas Fracked, Peak Sand | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

A billion new autos by 2030 will kill climate change

Posted on July 27, 2020 by

Preface. The article below argues that electric cars aren’t going to replace gas and diesel vehicles enough to lessen greenhouse emissions. The average electric vehicle requires 30 kilowatt-hours to travel 100 miles — the same amount of electricity an average … Continue reading →

Posted in Automobiles, Climate Change | 13 Comments

Methane apocalypse? Not likely.

Posted on July 24, 2020 by

Preface. The four articles below explain why methane from permafrost or hydrates are not likely to erupt abruptly and send Earth into a hothouse hell.  In addition, here are some posts debunking Guy McPherson who believes the world will end … Continue reading →

Posted in CO2 and Methane, Methane Hydrates | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Climate change impacts on agriculture

Posted on July 6, 2020 by

Preface. There are three articles below on this topic.  Plus these articles in the news: Nakagawa T et al (2021) The spatio-temporal structure of the Lateglacial to early Holocene transition reconstructed from the pollen record of Lake Suigetsu and its … Continue reading →

Posted in BioInvasion, Drought & Collapse, Extreme Weather, Food production, Heat, Peak Topsoil, Soil, Water, Where to Be or Not to Be | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Climate change impacts on agriculture

15 Nations that Collapsed because of Drought: will we be the 16th?

Posted on May 28, 2020 by

Preface.  Another repercussion of drought may be the Muslim religion as Fleitmann (2022) proposes below. This post began with 10 civilizations that collapsed due to drought (below), and I’ve added 5 more. Will the American South West be #16? Lynn … Continue reading →

Posted in Collapsed & collapsing nations, Drought & Collapse | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

World’s Oceans are losing Oxygen rapidly

Posted on May 25, 2020 by

Preface. Yikes, add deoxygenization to your list of worries. Oxygen levels in the world’s oceans declined by roughly 2% from 1960 and 2010. The decline was largely due to climate change, though other human activities such as nutrient runoff from … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate Change, Extinction, Mass Extinction, Planetary Boundaries | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Abrupt Impacts of Climate Change

Posted on May 22, 2020 by

Preface. This is a summary of the National Research Council 2013 study of abrupt changes of climate change. Related: 2019-12-6. Research reveals past rapid Antarctic ice loss due to ocean warming.  “…the sensitive West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapsed during a … Continue reading →

Posted in Planetary Boundaries | Tagged | 1 Comment

Nuclear waste will last a lot longer than climate change

Posted on May 19, 2020 by

Preface. One of the most tragic aspects of peak oil is that it is very unlikely once energy descent begins that oil will be expended to clean up our nuclear mess. No one wants the spent fuel! New Mexico is … Continue reading →

Posted in Nuclear Waste, Planetary Boundaries | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

How a pandemic or bioweapon could take civilization down

Posted on April 23, 2020 by

Preface.  I just listened to a 3.5 hour podcast on pandemics and bioweapons with the best up-to-date coverage I know of, and more interesting to listen to than reading a book or article.  Just one of many scary problems: synthetic … Continue reading →

Posted in Biowarfare, Infrastructure, Interdependencies, Pandemic | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Fall of Indus valley & Akkadian civilizations from climate change

Posted on April 20, 2020 by

Preface. Any civilization or region that survives energy decline must then survive climate change for many centuries. As far as the wind systems that collapsed the Akkadian empire, it’s already happening: “Greenhouse gases are increasingly disrupting the jet stream, a … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate Change, Collapsed & collapsing nations | Tagged , | Comments Off on Fall of Indus valley & Akkadian civilizations from climate change