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

Missing monsoon crashes Indus Valley Civilization

Posted on August 17, 2016 by

19 March 2014 Withering monsoon may have doomed past Asian society. NewScientist. The Indian summer monsoon abruptly weakened 4200 years ago. The ensuing drought may have led to the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilization, which flourished around the Indus … Continue reading →

Posted in Extreme Weather, Planetary Boundaries | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Missing monsoon crashes Indus Valley Civilization

Climate change impacts on energy, water, and land use in the U.S.

Posted on August 15, 2016 by

Hibbard, K., et al. 2014: Ch. 10: Energy, Water, and Land Use. Climate Change Impacts in the United States: The Third National Climate Assessment, U.S. Global Change Research Program, 257-281. http://nca2014.globalchange.gov/report/sectors/energy-water-and-land [ Excerpts from this 25 page document, charts/tables: best … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy Climate Change | Comments Off on Climate change impacts on energy, water, and land use in the U.S.

Clouds may not curb global warming as much as hoped for

Posted on August 12, 2016 by

The following article, Clouds Play Lesser Role in Curbing Warming, Study Finds, is from climatecentral.org Analysis of the first seven years of data from a NASA cloud-monitoring mission suggests clouds are doing less to slow the warming of the planet than … Continue reading →

Posted in Global Warming | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Clouds may not curb global warming as much as hoped for

Promoting soil health in agriculture at U.S. House hearing 2014

Posted on August 8, 2016 by

Preface.  At last, many years after I first published “Peak soil: Why biofuels destroy ecosystems and civilizations” in 2007, Congress had a hearing to educate House members on why preserving topsoil is so essential for food production for future generations.  … Continue reading →

Posted in Biomass, Peak Topsoil, Pesticides, Soil, U.S. Congress Infrastructure, Water Pollution | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Promoting soil health in agriculture at U.S. House hearing 2014

Twice as many El Niños in 21st century

Posted on August 7, 2016 by

Expect more drought, flooding, and other crazy weather In Nature Climate Change, doi.org/q4c, researchers predict that  El Niños will become twice as common, about once a decade in the future versus every 20 years the past century. Another recent study … Continue reading →

Posted in Extreme Weather | Comments Off on Twice as many El Niños in 21st century

Global warming spreads disease in the arctic

Posted on August 5, 2016 by

[ A summary of the spread of disease in the Arctic  in the August 2014 issue of Scientific American follows ] Pathogens moving northward: Aleutian Islands, Alaska. A distemper virus that infects seals in the North Atlantic ocean now attacks … Continue reading →

Posted in Disease | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Global warming spreads disease in the arctic

Plants are sucking streams dry thanks to more CO2

Posted on August 4, 2016 by

Slezak, M. October 24, 2015. Carbon emissions make Earth greener but are also drying it out. NewScientist. Source: Ukkola, A. M., et al. October 19, 2015 Reduced streamflow in water-stressed climates consistent with CO2 effects on vegetation. Nature Climate Change 6, … Continue reading →

Posted in CO2 and Methane, Peak Water, Water | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Plants are sucking streams dry thanks to more CO2

Humans driving species to extinction 1,000 times the natural rate

Posted on July 11, 2016 by

[ According to a paper published in Science the current rates of extinction are 1000 times the background rate. This estimate is higher than previous estimates is due to a more sophisticated analysis. Other extinction news: 2017-1-18 World’s primates facing … Continue reading →

Posted in Biodiversity, Extinction | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Humans driving species to extinction 1,000 times the natural rate

Tokyo earthquake will cost somewhere from $1 to $4 trillion and likely soon

Posted on July 6, 2016 by

If a disaster is capable of crashing the world financial system, an earthquake in Tokyo is surely one of them. Tokyo, with over 33 million people, is the epicenter of finance and politics in Japan. In geologist Peter Hadfield’s 1995 … Continue reading →

Posted in Disasters, Earthquakes | Tagged , | Comments Off on Tokyo earthquake will cost somewhere from $1 to $4 trillion and likely soon

Cascadia subduction zone 9.0 earthquake will cost hundreds of billions of dollars and many lives

Posted on July 5, 2016 by

[ Would a several hundred billion dollar earthquake shake the global financial system enough to bring on a world-wide depression?  It’s not just the costs of repair, but the indirect costs, such as destruction of the Ports of Seattle and … Continue reading →

Posted in Disasters, Earthquakes | Tagged , , | 1 Comment