Polycrisis merits renewed ethos

In 1999, one of us (Morin) introduced the term “polycrisis” to describe the web of interconnected catastrophes threatening our world. At the time, the concept was meant to serve as a warning, but it has since become our reality. We are facing a confluence of escalating ecological, political, economic, technological, and existential crises, each of which is reinforcing the others.

- EDGAR MORIN CLAUDIO PEDRETTI

The polycrisis is best understood as a cascade: a tangle of intertwined nonlinear causes and ripple effects. Climate change leads to human displacement and forced migration, which fuels xenophobia and nationalism, weakening global cooperation and further accelerating ecological collapse. Economic inequality erodes trust, fuelling authoritarianism and violence. Technological innovation offers solutions, but also causes new problems: fractured communities, destabilised work patterns, and distorted public discourse. The Covid-19 pandemic, new wars, growing mental-health crises, and democratic backsliding are not isolated phenomena, but rather symptoms of a deeper systemic rupture.

To grapple with so much complexity, we must first reject reductive thinking. Our institutions, divided by rigid disciplines and linear cause-and-effect models, are no longer fit for purpose. We need an approach that acknowledges networks and relationships, accepts contradictions, and recognises the limits of our understanding; one that combines critical rigour with creative intuition, and scientific clarity with poetic vision. We must meet complexity with humility, not denial.

We also need something deeper: a new perspective that centres on our shared humanity. Call it Renewed Humanism. Born during the Renaissance, Humanism put dignity at the heart of artistic and intellectual pursuits. But as the Enlightenment advanced the values of reason, liberty, equality, and progress, Humanism lost its way, elevating the individual over the planet, justifying colonial conquest and ceaseless commodification, and erasing the spiritual dimension from our shared consciousness.