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

Invasive species unchecked by climate

Posted on March 5, 2012 by

Philip Hulme of the Bio-Protection Research Centre, Lincoln University, New Zealand writes in the 3 Feb 2012 issue of Science: Climate change is likely to devastate native species and biodiversity. But ironically, invasive alien species — which are a threat … Continue reading →

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Colder winters

Posted on February 28, 2012 by

Brahic, C. 7 Feb 2012. Melting Sea Ice could trigger colder winters.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Cold winters in Europe and North America may be due to declining sea ice, which warms the arctic air blowing cold … Continue reading →

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Wildfire

Posted on February 16, 2012 by

Evans, E. July 26, 2016. Fire seasons are becoming hotter, drier and longer. Los Angeles Times. Over 29,000 wildfires have scorched more than 2.6 million acres of land already this year. Last year’s fire season was the most severe on … Continue reading →

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Extinction can happen over hundreds of thousands of years

Posted on February 4, 2012 by

Also see this warning from phys.org: 2010-6-23. Lin Edwards. Humans will be extinct in 100 years says eminent scientist. ScienceDaily (Feb. 3, 2012) — A painstakingly detailed investigation shows that mass extinctions need not be sudden events. The deadliest mass … Continue reading →

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Fungi killed most of world’s trees during runaway greenhouse Permian Extinction

Posted on January 7, 2012 by

Marshall, M. 20 Aug 2011.  Mass-extinction fungi could turn on trees again. NewScientist. “During Earth’s biggest mass extinction 250 million years ago, usually tame soil fungi ran amok, decimating most of the world’s trees. A repeat is possible, if climate … Continue reading →

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Loss of Top Predators

Posted on January 7, 2012 by

James A. Estes, et al. 15 Jul 2011.  Trophic Downgrading of Planet Earth. Science vol 333. Before men, large predators and herbivores had huge influences on nature across land, ocean, and fresh water ecosystems.  Their loss has a “trophic cascade” … Continue reading →

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Climate Change: creatures collide, compete, parasitize one another

Posted on January 6, 2012 by

Climate change models of biodiversity loss are underestimating future extinctions, because as animals move around they compete and parasitize each other.  Already animals and plants that can’t handle increasing temperatures are moving to cooler places. Some can’t move fast enough … Continue reading →

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Stephen Meyer: The Extinction Crisis is Over. We Lost.

Posted on January 3, 2012 by

Stephen M. Meyer. Apr/May 2004. End of the Wild.  The extinction crisis is over. We lost.  Boston Review. Stephen M. Meyer is a professor of political science at MIT and the director of the MIT Project on Environmental Politics and … Continue reading →

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Acid Oceans: how sea life is affected

Posted on January 3, 2012 by

April 30, 2014 Ocean acidity is dissolving shells of tiny snails off U.S. West Coast Biologists have found the first evidence that acidity of continental shelf waters off the U.S. West Coast is dissolving the shells of tiny free-swimming marine … Continue reading →

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Mass Extinction in Oceans is happening NOW

Posted on December 22, 2011 by

ScienceDaily (Aug. 20, 2012) — Life in the world’s oceans faces far greater change and risk of large-scale extinctions than at any previous time in human history, a team of the world’s leading marine scientists has warned.  The researchers compared … Continue reading →

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