As a new year begins, there are many stories about how much global heating has occurred over the past year. An image represents something, often a real-world object or scene, while a graphic represents data or information. Following are some recent graphics that illustrate increasing environmental damage. So sure, human-caused global warming is happening. But … Continue reading Environmental Images and Graphics
Category: Risk
The Crucified of the Earth
I was recently made aware of a slightly different way of thinking about the flight of the family of Jesus from Bethlehem. A farmer who fled from the war in Guatemala into Honduras in the early 1980s, meaning he was a refugee, told Chris Hedges that when the family left Bethlehem, “It was on this … Continue reading The Crucified of the Earth
Climate Abandonment Areas
First Street has released a new report about climate migration explaining this complex issue. Over 3.2 Million Americans Have Left High Flood Risk Neighborhoods Creating “Climate Abandonment Areas." You can download the report here: https://report.firststreet.org/ I've been concerned about how climate migration patterns might affect the Midwest for a long time. This graphic shows my simplistic … Continue reading Climate Abandonment Areas
Middle East Polycrisis
(c)2023 Jeff Kisling, AI Noise It's overwhelming to even try to keep up with everything happening in the world. It all seems to devolve into a cloud of noise. New York Times reporter David Ignatius writes of his recent experiences in the West Bank. I appreciate storytelling such as this as a way to help … Continue reading Middle East Polycrisis
It’s Official, We are now Living in “Bomb Time”
The story "The Emperor Has No Clothes" came to mind as I've been learning about hypernormalization and absurdity. These concepts describe how we cope with a reality that is too complex and chaotic to understand or change. We accept the lies and illusions that are presented to us, even when they contradict the facts and … Continue reading It’s Official, We are now Living in “Bomb Time”
Polycrisis Center
The news these days presents us with an ever-growing list of global disasters. It feels like we are drowning. Polycrisis is a relatively new term that refers to these risks and, importantly, how they are interconnected. Some global risks that have developed in just the past few months are the war in the Middle East, … Continue reading Polycrisis Center
Resilience deficit 4. Increasing water stress and population growth
GAR Special Report 2023: Mapping resilience for the Sustainable Development Goals Increasing demand on water resources Map 6 shows how population and economic growth, combined with the impacts of climate change, are rapidly increasing demand on water resources. That means that by 2050, the total population in countries with critical water stress is expected to … Continue reading Resilience deficit 4. Increasing water stress and population growth
Resilience deficit 3. Forced displacement and negative education outcomes
This is a continuation of a discussion of how to identify and plan to mitigate the threats to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Countries face multiple threats that divert attention and resources from the SDGs and are called resilience deficits. There was a consensus that it would be impossible for developing countries to … Continue reading Resilience deficit 3. Forced displacement and negative education outcomes
Resilience deficit 2. Increasing drought risk and food insecurity
As the increasingly severe global consequences of environmental devastation crash through social, economic, and political systems, more attention is being paid to their interrelationships, the multiple polycrises. This continues the global systemic risk and polycrisis series documented in the Global Assessment Special Report on Disaster Risk Reduction 2023 (GAR). The report discusses the risks that … Continue reading Resilience deficit 2. Increasing drought risk and food insecurity
Understanding Risk to People, the Planet and Prosperity
This is a continuation of the series related to the Global Assessment Special Report on Disaster Risk Reduction 2023. We are in a time of accelerating, interconnected disasters, i.e., polycrisis. A category four hurricane just made landfall in Florida; heat records are broken nearly daily around the world. Glaciers are melting, huge wildfires are burning … Continue reading Understanding Risk to People, the Planet and Prosperity
Polycrisis Center 