waterfall

The Cascade Institute

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is a Canadian research centre addressing the full range of humanity’s converging environmental, economic, political, and technological crises. Using advanced methods for mapping and modeling complex global systems, Institute researchers will identify, and where possible help implement, high-leverage interventions that could rapidly shift humanity’s course towards fair and sustainable prosperity.

The Institute is located at Royal Roads University in British Columbia, a leader in training professionals to apply creative solutions to entrenched problems. Its director is Thomas Homer-Dixon, an award-winning scholar and author with deep experience in using complexity science to anticipate, analyze, and respond to global threats.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

woodland scene

Resilience.org

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supports building community resilience in a world of multiple emerging challenges: the decline of cheap energy, the depletion of critical resources like water, complex environmental crises like climate change and biodiversity loss, and the social and economic issues which are linked to these. Created by the founders of the Post Carbon Institute, Resilience.org functions as “a community library with space to read and think, but also as a vibrant café in which to meet people, discuss ideas and projects, and pick up and share tips on how to build the resilience of your community, your household, or yourself.”

Image from Yann Coeuru at Creative Commons
earth from space at night

FAN initiative

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The FAN initiative describes the situation: Two hundred years of economic and complexity growth have added immensely to human welfare and security. It has shaped our world-views and expectations of the future. Yet there is widening concern that the conditions that have underpinned this growth and the socio-economic stability that we have habituated to, and are dependent upon, is being increasingly undermined. Societies are likely to experience mounting socio-economic stresses from which there is no recovery, declining resilience, and rising risks of rapid large-scale breakdowns in global integration. The envisioned consequences are very challenging and quite possibly catastrophic.

Image from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center at Creative Commons
house in middle of yellow field

MAHB

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The MAHB mission is twofold:

  • Foster, fuel and inspire a global dialogue on the threat of collapse and how interconnected biogeophysical and socio-economic systems contribute to, and are affected by, the existential threats facing humanity
  • Develop and implement strategies for shifting human cultures and institutions towards practices that promote a future in which people can live peaceful and productive lives.
Image from faungg’s photos at Creative Commons
sunset

The Consciousness of Sheep website

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, hosted by Tim Watkins, focuses on the “three Es” (Economy, Energy, and Environment). The website is an offshoot from the book of the same title.

Global Challenges Foundation homepage

Global Challenges Foundation

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The mission of the Global Challenges Foundation is “to prevent, or at least reduce the likelihood, of a catastrophe that would cause the death of over 10% of humanity, or cause damage on a similar scale.” Their website offers analysis and research, partnerships, and education opportunities.

cedar forest

Post Carbon Institute

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Founded in 2003, Post Carbon Institute’s mission is to lead the transition to a more resilient, equitable, and sustainable world by providing individuals and communities with the resources needed to understand and respond to the interrelated ecological, economic, energy, and equity crises of the 21st century.

Image from Miguel Virkkunen Carvalho at Creative Commons
wildfire with clouds

blog

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On this blog, Nate Hagens writes: I’m a social critic, political/cultural commentator and artist. The modern industrial world is sleepwalking towards the cliff of economic and ecological ruin. Most are oblivious to the paradigm shift that is occurring, but some are starting to awaken to the false stories our culture has told itself. My objective is to highlight important news stories and essays to find the hidden truth behind what Joe Bageant called the American Hologram.

Image from sagesolar at Creative Commons
storm clouds over mountains

The Dark Mountain Project

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In 2009, two English writers published a manifesto. Out of that manifesto grew a cultural movement: a rooted and branching network of creative activity, centred on the Dark Mountain journal, sustained by the work of a growing gang of collaborators and contributors, as well as the support of thousands of readers around the world. The Dark Mountain Project is looking for other stories, ones that can help us make sense of a time of disruption and uncertainty.

Image from Ricardo’s Photography at Creative Commons

Centre for the Study of Existential Risk

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New and largely unstudied risks are associated with powerful emerging technologies and the impacts of human activity, which in the worst case might pose existential risks. The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk wants to reap the enormous benefits of technological progress while safely navigating these catastrophic pitfalls.

Image from Ania Mendrek at Creative Commons