Stockholm Resilience Center. An international team of scientists has published a study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) showing that even if the carbon emission reductions called for in the Paris Agreement are met, there is a risk of Earth entering what the scientists call “Hothouse Earth” conditions. A “Hothouse Earth” climate will in the long term […]
Is this Peruvian city the most polluted on earth?
Source BBC. Residents of Cerro de Pasco, a city high in the Andes, say the soil is harming their children. Peru’s government has declared a health state of emergency for the region on three separate occasions, but has not accepted that mining activity is to blame… Video by Grace Livingstone and Jasmin Souesi.
Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know
By: Peter W. Singer, Allan Friedman | Oxford University Press Dependence on computers has had a transformative effect on human society. Cybernetics is now woven into the core functions of virtually every basic institution, including our oldest ones. War is one such institution, and the digital revolution’s impact on it has been profound. T he American military, which has no peer, is […]
Risk Governance and Resilience: New Approaches to Cope with Uncertainty and Ambiguity
By Ortwin Renn and Andreas Klinke This chapter will address the major functions of the risk governance process: Each of these stages is described in the light three aspects of resilience: adaptive management capability, coping capability, and participative pre-estimation, interdisciplinary risk estimation (including scientific risk assessment and concern assessment), risk characterization and risk evaluation, and risk management, including decision-making and […]
Stories of Resilience Courage and Spiritual Transformation
In the aftermath of Maria, Caribbean students at St. Thomas University create short story collection. On April 23, St. Thomas University will be unveiling a rich and diverse short story collection “Student Narratives on Hurricane Maria” written by Caribbean students displaced by Hurricane Maria. Nineteen students, mostly from Puerto Rico and one from the Dominican Republic, came together to share […]
Climate of Hope
The 2016 election left many people who are concerned about the environment fearful that progress on climate change would come screeching to a halt. But not Michael Bloomberg and Carl Pope. Bloomberg, an entrepreneur and former mayor of New York City, and Pope, a lifelong environmental leader, approach climate change from different perspectives, yet they arrive at similar conclusions. Without […]
Using water to create resilient cities
Source: UToday. European project CATCH, with the UT as one of its partners, wants to prepare cities for climate change and resulting extreme weather events – by putting water in the center of urban design. It’s starting with seven pilot cities, where new climate adaptation measures are being tested. Enschede is one of them. >>
Risk and Confidence Survey: taking the pulse of business. Spring ’18
Source: CNA Hardy. ‘Perfect storm’ of risk suppresses confidence Over the past six months there have been some dramatic changes in the risk landscape. Cyber and regulatory risk have pushed political and economic risk off the risk radar. As the frequency and severity of cyber risk increases and oversight, via the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) steps up, so […]
How to confront uncertainty in your strategy
By Chris Bradley, Martin Hirt, and Sven Smit | McKinsey&Company Lack of certainty about the future is the very reason you need a strategy. Instead, embrace probability. “Predictions are difficult, especially about the future,” quipped Yogi Berra (and, before him, physicist Nils Bohr). This rings especially true for those trying to run a strategy process. Uncertainty is not only everywhere in […]
Worsening Worldwide Land Degradation Now ‘Critical’, Undermining Well-Being of 3.2 Billion People
Source: Ipbes. Worsening land degradation caused by human activities is undermining the well-being of two fifths of humanity, driving species extinctions and intensifying climate change. It is also a major contributor to mass human migration and increased conflict, according to the world’s first comprehensive evidence-based assessment of land degradation and restoration. The dangers of land degradation, which cost the equivalent […]
GDPR goes live
Source: Airmic. EU members states are now entering the final countdown to the EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), which apply from 25 May 2018, bringing a huge change in data protection. All organisations should be familiar with the main provisions of the GDPR. However, organisations must act now, asking themselves how the GDPR apply to them and take practical steps […]
Catastrophic risks: How can we assess and manage them?
By Ortwin Renn, Klaus Lucas, Armin Haas, Carlo Jaeger. Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies. Many catastrophic risks are major threats to the wellbeing of society. Such risks are called systemic risks. They threaten the functionality of vital services to society such as electricity production, water supply, climate stability, cyber security and amny others. With the assisatnce of complex models we may […]
A new posture for cybersecurity in a networked world
Source: McKinsey&Company. By Thomas Poppensieker (Munich) and Rolf Riemenschnitter. As the dangers mount, current approaches aren’t working. Cyberrisk management needs a root-and-branch overhaul. Until recently, financial firms and governments were the primary targets of cyberattacks. Today, with every company hooking up more and more of their business to the Internet, the threat is now universal. Consider the havoc wreaked by three recent […]
The Arctic is sending us a powerful message about climate change. It’s time for us to listen.
Source: World Economic Forum. Arctic scientists aren’t usually afraid of a little cold. Windy conditions don’t usually get us howling. The beasts we pay attention to are usually polar bears. But last week’s “Beast from the East” triggered a few anxious conversations. Social media memes aside, our problem isn’t this one extreme weather event per se. Our key fear is […]
ISO 31000:2018
The new version of ISO 31000 was published on the 15th of February. The series of reports on the changes against ISO 31000:2009 started last year in October has now been concluded. ISO:”This document is for use by people who create and protect value in organizations by managing risks, making decisions, setting and achieving objectives and improving performance. Organizations of all […]
It’s time for a new social contract
Source: World Economic Forum. Democracy is becoming collateral damage in a world where global risks have been ignored or exacerbated by those with the power to act. The increasing authoritarianism of elected leaders, the actions of entrenched dictators, and the use and threat of military power have brought us to the edge of full-blown crisis. 2017 was a year of […]
Global Forensic Data Analytics Survey 2018
Source: EY. In this report, we look at the findings from our latest Global Forensic Data Analytics Survey. We have analyzed the responses of some 745 executives globally who generously shared their perspectives. Through this analysis, we can see specific ways in which companies can measurably improve their legal, compliance and fraud risk programs, as well as the maturity level […]
The Global Risks Report 2018
Each year the Global Risks Report works with experts and decision-makers across the world to identify and analyze the most pressing risks that we face. As the pace of change accelerates, and as risk interconnections deepen, this year’s report highlights the growing strain we are placing on many of the global systems we rely on. Preface “The World Economic Forum […]
The future of risk management in the digital era
By McKinsey&Company. We collaborated with the Institute of International Finance (IIF) and more than 50 institutions around the world, including banks, regulators, and fintechs, to explore critical questions on the future of risk management. This report aims to answer these questions and shares insights to help organizations navigate a digital transformation of the risk function—now and in the long term. […]
Doughnut Economics
By Kate Raworth Economics is the mother tongue of public policy. It dominates our decision-making for the future, guides multi-billion-dollar investments, and shapes our responses to climate change, inequality, and other environmental and social challenges that define our times. Pity then, or more like disaster, that its fundamental ideas are centuries out of date yet are still taught in college courses […]
The Global State of Democracy
By www.idea.int. The Global State of Democracy: exploring Democracy’s Resilience seeks to address the lack of analytical material on democracy building and the quality of democracy internationally, and to bridge the gap between academic research, policy development and democracy assistance initiatives. It introduces the new Global State of Democracy indices as a key evidence base to inform policy interventions and identify problem-solving […]
Global CO2 emissions increase
The Global Carbon Project (GCP) studies the integrated picture of the carbon cycle and other interacting biogeochemical cycles, including biophysical and human dimensions and their interactions and feedbacks. This broad objective is covered by three themes: a) Diagnostics – Patterns and variability of natural and anthropogenic carbon sources and sinks; b) Vulnerability – Processes and feedbacks of the biophysical-human system; […]
‘Resilience-in-action’ is key to team success
By Kathleen Sutcliffe* The backwoods and business offices seem worlds apart. But a sport in which competing teams navigate wilderness courses using hiking boots, mountain bikes, and boats has provided a Johns Hopkins University researcher with a context for studying how organizations handle adversity. Whether in the wild or in a corporate tower, teams that practice “resilience-in-action“—not just bearing the […]
Moral Emotions and Intuitions
Author: Sabine Roeser | TU Delft | Palgrave McMillan “In Moral Emotions and Intuitions Sabine Roeser very ably sketches a new theory of moral judgments. She blends traditional intuitionism’s commitment to rationality and ethical realism with the best recent work in the philosophy and psychology of emotions to produce an excitingly attractive view that she calls Affectual Intuitionism. Along the way, she provides a […]