Highly disruptive and arbitrary policy decisions have been taken in recent times in countries from which much more maturity is expected and where democratic systems of checks and balances are…
The human world of the early 21st century is dominated by science, cities, and high technology. However, both our modern way of life and our way of thinking about the world…
Beneath all the glitter of big cities and luxury goods, our world today is deeply troubled by a wide range of serious problems, culminating in the existential crisis posed by…
Notwithstanding its many downsides, the era of neoliberal globalization had one significant claim to success: the growing wealth of once-poor countries, based largely on their ability to export into the…
If you’re anything like me, over the past few weeks since Donald Trump’s sweeping election victory, you’ve been engaged in deep and prolonged reflection about what it means that such…
Earth is universally identified as predominantly the planet of human beings, but actually human beings in their present form have a history of probably just about 0.1 million years (or…
“Polycrisis” is a word that has recently come into use to characterize the way crises in many different spheres – ranging from geopolitics and economics to climate and pandemic –…
Here is an AI-generated podcast based on the article The most important and unprecedented aspect of world in recent decades has been that for the first time there are human…
In 1992 an appeal by the Union of Concerned Scientists and about 1575 other scientists (including 99 of the 196 living Nobel laureates) issued as World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity,…
A hegemonic stalemate or a hegemonic vacuum opens up the path to a world where power could be more decentralized. Whether we call it “polycrisis,” like Columbia University Professor Adam…
On August 4th, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson stood in front of the American public and stated, “We Americans know, as do others though some may forget, the risk of…
The most important issue of the present-day world is that earth’s life-nurturing conditions are badly threatened. At a time when maximum efforts need to be made for protecting these life-nurturing…
Imagine a forest based community about 20,000 years back. Here an elderly lady is teaching younger community members some essentials of life. Neither she nor her pupils know any alphabets…
The polycrisis marks a historic inflection point in the story of civilization. Once we’re past a rapidly approaching moment, society won’t be able to maintain business as usual, even with…
There are several important challenges before the world to find solutions for diverse problems. However when it comes to identifying the most urgent concerns of our endangered world, three issues…
Economics is based on war against nature and theft from working people Economics sanctifies war against nature to create wealth and distribute it inequitably between people and nations. Economics encourages…
It is relatively easier to achieve wide agreement that those problems which threaten the basic life-nurturing conditions of earth—such as accumulation of weapons of mass destruction, climate change and other…
There is increasing concern among some of the most well-informed people and institutions of the world that the most important problems which together constitute a survival crisis are worsening. Of…
Two of the most important facts about the 21st century must be emphasized. Firstly, no other century in human history started with such serious, known, avoidable, man-made threats relating to…
Let’s admit it: We are indeed mad creatures. This should truly have been the time of our discontent. The northern hemisphere just experienced the hottest summer in recorded history, including month by…
How can we explain the explosive emergence of global awareness of the polycrisis over the past year, 2022-2023? Three years ago, almost no one had heard of the polycrisis. What…
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the resulting disruption of multiple global supply chains, policy think tanks have increasingly adopted the term polycrisis to signify humanity’s…
Editor & Author’s Preface: This piece doesn’t explain itself much, nor argue effectively (with citations and footnotes), but speaks to those who have already come to understand the situation in —…
How can we explain the explosive emergence of global awareness of the polycrisis over the past year, 2022-2023? Three years ago, almost no one had heard of the polycrisis. What…
The concept of ‘polycrisis’ is increasingly being used to designate the accumulation of compounding crises that human societies are facing, and that they are increasingly struggling to address and failing to…
This article is part of an ongoing collaboration between the United Nations Development Programme (Bureau for Program & Policy Support’s Strategic Innovation Unit & the Inclusive Growth/Chief Economist) and One…
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