waterfall

Can a collapse of global civilization be avoided?

in

This 2013 article by Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich explores the possibility of global collapse. Environmental problems have contributed to numerous collapses of civilizations in the past. Now, for the first time, a global collapse appears likely. Overpopulation, overconsumption by the rich and poor choices of technologies are major drivers; dramatic cultural change provides the main hope of averting calamity. In Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

Image from Jocelyn Kinghorn at Creative Commons
log cabin in forest

Are we on the road to civilisational collapse?

in

In this article, collapse expert Luke Kemp says studying the demise of historic civilisations can tell us how much risk we face today. Worryingly, the signs are worsening. From the BBC.

Image from The Explorographer at Creative Commons
Resilience book cover

Resilience: Why Things Bounce Back

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In times of upheaval, why do some people, communities, companies and systems thrive, while others fall apart? That’s the question at the heart of an exciting new field, and an urgent new agenda for the 21st century. In Resilience, Andrew Zolli and Ann Marie Healy bring you important scientific discoveries, pioneering social innovations, and vital new approaches to constructing a more resilient future. You may never look at your world, your organization, or yourself the same way again.

Community Resilience Reader book cover

The Community Resilience Reader: Essential Resources for an Era of Upheaval

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The Community Resilience Reader: Essential Resources for an Era of Upheaval, Edited by Daniel Lerch, combines a fresh look at the crises humanity faces, the essential tools of resilience science, and the wisdom of activists, scholars, and analysts working on the ground.

National and global efforts have failed to stop climate change, transition our society from fossil fuels, and reduce inequality. We must now confront these and other challenges by building resilience at the level of communities. The Community Resilience Reader: Essential Resources for an Era of Upheaval (Island Press, 2017) combines a fresh look at the crises humanity faces, the essential tools of resilience science, and the wisdom of activists, scholars, and analysts working on the ground. From Post Carbon Institute, producers of the award-winning The Post Carbon Reader (Watershed Media, 2010), The Community Resilience Reader is a valuable resource for community leaders, students, and concerned citizens.

Collapse book cover

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

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Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond includes four sets of studies. Seven chapters discuss some of the clearest, most familiar, most striking examples of past collapses: the ends of Polynesian societies on Henderson and Pitcairn Islands, where everybody either did abandon the island or else ended up dead; the end of the Viking settlements on Greenland, which similarly disappeared completely; the disappearance of Anasazi settlements in desert areas of the U.S. Southwest; the decline and abandonment of Classic Maya cities in the Southern Maya lowlands, while Maya cities survived outside those southern lowlands; and the decline of Easter Island’s Polynesian society, famous for erecting giant stone statues.

Apologies to the grandchildren book cover

Apologies to the Grandchildren: Reflections on Our Ecological Predicament, Its Deeper Causes, and Its Political Consequences

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Apologies to the Grandchildren by William Ophuls is a collection of essays that throw light on questions of ecological collapse, the connection between the ecological crisis and the breakdown of liberal democracy, and what society will look like when we exhaust solar capital in the form of fossil fuels and must live once again on the daily and seasonal flow of solar income. This book illuminates the forces that will determine the long-term future of humanity.

Resilience thinking book cover

Resilience Thinking: Sustaining Ecosystems and People in a Changing World

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Resilience Thinking offers a different way of understanding the world and a new approach to managing resources. It embraces human and natural systems as complex entities continually adapting through cycles of change, and seeks to understand the qualities of a system that must be maintained or enhanced in order to achieve sustainability. It explains why greater efficiency by itself cannot solve resource problems and offers a constructive alternative that opens up options rather than closing them down. Written by Carl Folke, Stephen R. Carpenter, Brian Walker, Marten Scheffer, Terry Chapin and Johan Rockström.

Enlightenment Now book cover

Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress

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In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophesies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data: In 75 jaw-dropping graphs, Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West, but worldwide.

On the Future book cover

On the Future: Prospects for Humanity

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In On the Future: Prospects for Humanity, renowned scientist and bestselling author Martin Rees argues that humanity’s prospects depend on our taking a very different approach to planning for tomorrow. The future of humanity is bound to the future of science and hinges on how successfully we harness technological advances to address our challenges.

Panarchy book cover

Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Human and Natural Systems

in

Panarchy is the structure in which systems, including those of nature (e.g., forests) and of humans (e.g., capitalism), as well as combined human-natural systems (e.g., institutions that govern natural resource use such as the Forest Service), are interlinked in continual adaptive cycles of growth, accumulation, restructuring, and renewal. Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Human and Natural Systems brings together leading thinkers on the subject. Edited by Lance H. Gunderson and C. S. Holling.