The one-sentence summary

In order to address the polycrisis of climate, food security, biodiversity, pollution and inequality we need to stand further back to gain perspective, dig deeper to see the root causes, and join up every element of the challenge.

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WHAT THE BOOK SAYS

  • The book maps out the challenge ahead and explains that we need to gain agency at the Global System Level. Energy efficiency is often cited as a form of progress, but because of the Jevons Paradox, it actually makes it worse. This is named after William Stanley Jevons who, in the 19th century, noticed that as coal efficiency improved it led to rising, not falling demand and use.
  • This is also called the rebound effect. It is one of the most critically important and under-appreciated concepts for all climate strategists and politicians to understand. Only when the inputs are constrained do efficiency improvements stand to make quality of life and the environment better rather than worse, but the oil companies resist this, which is why we need a high enough and increasingly universal carbon price.
  • Failure to understand this is also a fatal flaw in the international community’s assessment of its carbon-cutting plans. It doesn’t work to add up the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of each country as though their carbon trajectories are independent. They are not, because in the total system demand and supply move on the path of least resistance to maximum extraction and coal reliance.
  • The polycrisis has three layers. The outer layer contains the elements that are easiest to see and will be the direct cause of problems if they can’t be sorted out. They include climate, energy, population, food, biodiversity, pollution and disease. Positive feedback loops and tipping points are particularly concerning here, because once set in train they can’t be reversed. They even reinforce each other as cascading tipping points.
  • The fossil fuel companies would have us believe that we have ever-rising energy needs, but we don’t – we have falling energy needs but rising energy consumption desires. The gap is needless energy consumption and there are many examples, including SUVs, rising air travel, billionaires indulging in space hobbies, and the pointless purchasing of material goods that don’t add quality to our lives.
  • The food system is fraught with problems. There is massive surplus production and the average human consumes nearly twice the protein they require to be healthy. There is enough nutrition to go round but the market economy doesn’t make it available or affordable to millions. To address this outer layer of issues, we need to reduce total energy demand, put a rapidly increasing price on carbon, increase renewable energy supply, store and transport it properly, reduce meat and dairy consumption and production, and much more.
  • The middle layer of the polycrisis is all about politics, media, business, inequality, economics and growth, technology and education. Techno-optimism is a problem here, claiming that technology will drive change and that we are making progress, but this abdicates responsibility and creates a misleading narrative of no behavioural change. To address it, we need more honest, transparent and joined-up political discourse, a media and business community to match, an economic framework connected to the wellbeing of people and the planet, ecocide laws that have teeth, and a shrinking gap in equality.
  • The core of the polycrisis is all about thinking and values. 23 Inner Development Goals cover what is needed:
  1. Being (inner compass, integrity and authenticity, openness and learning mindset, self-awareness and presence).
  2. Thinking (critical thinking, complexity awareness, perspective skills, sense-making and long-term orientation)
  3. Relating (appreciation, connectedness, humility, empathy and compassion).
  4. Collaborating (communication skills, co-creation skills, inclusive mindset and intercultural competence, trust and mobilization skills)
  5. Acting (courage, creativity, optimism and perseverance)

WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT IT

  • This all boils down to a respect for all people, the environment and, crucially, the truth. The author concludes that the truth is the single most critical lever and shows how a single case of dishonesty in politics, media or business tells us that we can never trust that person or institution again.
  • ESG (Environmental and Social Governance) looked like a positive step at first but now has 160 bills in 37 states against it in the USA and is often so superficially assessed that it can be worth nothing at all.
  • One of the most powerful questions that can be asked of businesses is: ‘If the world economy started transitioning towards sustainability, would this be a net threat or opportunity for this business?’ If it’s a threat, then it is an urgent priority to change the business model otherwise all actions will be hopelessly conflicted.
  • The super-rich should actually be called the over-rich. As of August 2024, the richest 10 people in the world had $1.7 trillion and unless we tackle spiritual poverty among these people we can never eradicate physical poverty.
  • “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” James Baldwin, American writer and civil rights activist, 1962

WHAT YOU HAVE TO WATCH

  • This is a comprehensive review of the issues that confront the planet, and practical suggestions about what we can do about it.