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

Coal plants are causing water shortages in China

Posted on March 25, 2016 by

Wong, E. March 22, 2016. Report Ties Coal Plants to Water Shortage in Northern China. New York Times. China’s consumption of coal, a major contributor to climate change and the country’s horrific air pollution, is worsening a severe water shortage … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Energy Production, Peak Water | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Coal plants are causing water shortages in China

Nearly a third of cacti threatened with extinction

Posted on March 3, 2016 by

Illegal trade contributes to placing cacti among world’s most threatened species – IUCN Red List 05 October 2015 | International news release Gland, Switzerland, 5 October 2015 (IUCN) – Thirty-one percent of cactus species are threatened with extinction, according to … Continue reading →

Posted in Biodiversity | Tagged , | Comments Off on Nearly a third of cacti threatened with extinction

Chemicals banned in cosmetics

Posted on February 26, 2016 by

The environmental working group has this to say about cosmetics: “American families assume personal care products on the market today have been tested by the federal government. Unfortunately, the personal care products industry remains largely unregulated. The FDA does not … Continue reading →

Posted in Chemicals | Comments Off on Chemicals banned in cosmetics

U.S. Senate 2006 hearing on energy independence

Posted on February 10, 2016 by

[This is one of the most important hearings on U.S. Energy Policy I’ve read so far.  The title should have been Energy Dependence though. Senator Lieberman has many important points to make, too long to excerpt in this introduction, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Limits To Growth, U.S. Congress Energy Dependence, U.S. Congress Energy Policy | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

We’ll all be Flint Michigan someday: U.S. water infrastructure is falling apart

Posted on January 29, 2016 by

NRC. 2006. Drinking Water Distribution Systems: Assessing and Reducing Risks Committee on Public Water Supply Distribution Systems: Assessing and Reducing Risks.  National Research Council, National Academies Press. [ According to this Free National Research Council report, most water systems and … Continue reading →

Posted in Water Infrastructure, Water Pollution | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on We’ll all be Flint Michigan someday: U.S. water infrastructure is falling apart

Peak Aquifers: Very little Ground water is renewable, perhaps only 1.5%

Posted on November 16, 2015 by

Gleeson, Tom, et al. November 2015. The global volume and distribution of modern groundwater. Nature Geoscience. The water in aquifers and wells billions of people depend upon is mostly a non-renewable resource that could run out. Underground water is renewed … Continue reading →

Posted in Groundwater, Peak Water | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Peak Aquifers: Very little Ground water is renewable, perhaps only 1.5%

The Great Game and future wars over oil: Will China and the U.S. collide?

Posted on September 30, 2015 by

[ I don’t think we will go to war with China because it would be over before we started it — they’d start a cyberwar and take down our electric grid, and we can’t retaliate because their grid is run … Continue reading →

Posted in China and War, War & Violence | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Great Game and future wars over oil: Will China and the U.S. collide?

Energy generation water consumption

Posted on June 7, 2015 by

[ Notice how much water biofuels use, especially soybeans for biodiesel Alice Friedemann   www.energyskeptic.com  author of “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation”, 2015, Springer] Notes from “Working Document of the NPC Future Transportation Fuels Study. Topic … Continue reading →

Posted in Biofuels, Energy Production | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Energy generation water consumption

Climate-water impacts on electricity sector capacity expansion NREL 2014

Posted on June 5, 2015 by

NREL. 2014. Modeling climate-water impacts on electricity sector capacity expansion. To be presented at the ASME 2014 Power Conference Baltimore, Maryland July 28–31, 2014. National Renewable Energy Laboratory. 12 pages. Excerpts follow: ABSTRACT Climate change has the potential to exacerbate … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy Production | Comments Off on Climate-water impacts on electricity sector capacity expansion NREL 2014

Peak fossil fuels limits climate change to low-to-medium outcomes in IPCC report

Posted on June 4, 2015 by

Excerpts from 24 page:  Höök, M., Tang, X. 2013. Depletion of fossil fuels and anthropogenic climate change: a review. Energy Policy, 52: 797-809 Conclusion of paper: Fossil fuel constraints will limit anthropogenic climate impact towards the low-medium outcomes presented by … Continue reading →

Posted in ! PEAK EVERYTHING, But not from climate change: Peak Fossil Fuels, Climate Change, Supply Chains, Transportation | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Peak fossil fuels limits climate change to low-to-medium outcomes in IPCC report