Flux continu

Earth’s average temperature rose more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels in 2024 for the first time – a critical threshold in the climate crisis. At the same time, major armed conflicts continue to rage in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan and elsewhere. What should be increasingly clear is that war now needs to be understood as unfolding in the shadow of climate breakdown. The relationship between war and climate change is complex. But here are three reasons why the climate crisis must reshape how we think about war.

In a simulation game, five off-the-shelf large language models or LLMs were confronted with fictional crisis situations that resembled Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or China’s threat to Taiwan. The results? Almost all of the AI models showed a preference to escalate aggressively, use firepower indiscriminately and turn crises into shooting wars — even to the point of launching nuclear weapons.

According to Carbon Tracker’s analysis, fossil fuel companies are cutting capital investment, slashing exploration, and paying record dividends — like Saudi Aramco’s $10 billion payout — rather than building future growth. It’s a strategy that signals retreat, not resilience. “The energy transition isn’t being led by incumbents,” Mark Campanale warns. “It’s happening around them.”

The author of Empire of AI: Inside the Reckless Race for Total Domination discusses the cost of Big Tech’s huge investment in technologies that may do more harm than good

This Contemplation is the result of my beginning to put together a different one that’s focussing upon an academic article I’ve been reading (Collapse, Environment, and Society) but that got me thinking about the academic ‘debate’ regarding what ‘societal collapse’ is, how it may–or may not–unfold for our current experiment in large, complex societies, and how things are perceived in the moment by those experiencing societal change. The ‘debate’ (centred more-or-less on the question: Do societies actually ‘collapse’ or are they ‘merely’ shifting/transforming/adapting to changing conditions?) is rather ‘academic’ in that in the grand scheme of things it’s intellectually interesting but doesn’t have much to do with the on-the-ground, real-life experiences and concerns of most humans in a society–especially if they are experiencing some of the more ‘problematic’ consequences of collapse/transformation.

News and views on the coming collapse

When people reflect on how their actions shape the future, they are more likely to support solutions to present-day issues like poverty and inequality.

Yuval Noah Harari, renowned historian and author of “Nexus,” explores the indelible impact of AI on human society. We discuss his iconoclastic views on information networks, the inextricable link between technology and political systems, and actionable ways to navigate our rapidly changing world.

Olivier Hamant, chercheur en biologie et en biophysique, est invité chez Thinkerview. Cela donne l'interview la plus inspirante de la chaîne selon moi. Il y présente le concept de robustesse, l'outil qui permet de faire face à un monde fluctuant. Il répond toujours avec justesse et beaucoup d'humilité, quel plaisir d'avoir un intervenant de ce niveau. Je vous invite vraiment à regarder l'interview en entier, c'est une masterclass.

S'adapter à une société malade ?