Last Updated 8.29.26. (G)

Humanity is heading into a deteriorating and undeclared globalized and planetary emergency involving the growing potential for the probable collapse of numerous critical global survival and stability systems (such as the climate, the environment, the economy, and our political and social systems). This crisis of multiple major global problems occurring simultaneously is often referred to as a polycrisis.

As you read about the 13 parts of the global polycrisis below, it is also helpful to consider our key deteriorating or problematic global systems, like a row of dominoes. Once one of them falls in the direction of the others, most of the others will fall as well. (After you finish this page, we strongly recommend that you read the Wikipedia page on what is a polycrisis. It will help make everything you are reading on this page seem more accurate and even reasonable.)

There is a real and credible probability of a widespread global extinction and collapse process triggered primarily by the primary and secondary consequences of runaway global heating, interacting with the world's other 12 major crises.

Other than a growing number of climate scientists and intelligence agency climate analysts, most people have no idea that a runaway global warming-fueled extinction and collapse crisis is already unfolding. They also have no idea that from 2025 to about 2031, the consequences of runaway global heating (which are already bad now) will rise dramatically, many nearly doubling. 

This dramatic and pre-exponential rise will be due to crossing many more climate change tipping points and feedback loops over those six years. Most individuals who have heard about this issue do not believe our governments could ever let this happen or would hide it.

This denial is understandable because the idea of a runaway, global heating-driven extinction and collapse process already in progress is not only overwhelmingly frightening but also far too complex for many to comprehend, as it is unprecedented in human history.  

Reviewing the information and analysis in the article below, it will quickly become clear to you whether we are or are not in a global extinction and collapse process. 

You will discover: 

1. Led by runaway global warming, the collective worsening of our 13 major global crises (listed below) is likely to lead to the extinction of approximately half of humanity by mid-century. 

2. Almost everything you have been told about the worst climate change and global heating consequences arriving late in the 21st century is DEAD wrong. 

3. Almost everything you have been told that we still have until 2035, 2040, or 2050 to make critical extinction-preventing global fossil fuel reductions is also dead wrong. 

And most importantly,

4. What we must and can still do to prevent, adapt to, slow down, and survive a cascading convergence of endless catastrophes from the worsening of runaway global heating and the other 12  global crises disrupting, interacting, and amplifying each other as well as going over their tipping points. (At the end of this document, you will find links to a practical plan called the Job One for Humanity Plan B. It will show you how to make the best of our difficult future.)

Your understanding of the following global collapse and extinction processes, as well as your preparation for them, will be the critical factors most affecting your future comfort, safety, and survival. Depending upon your current location, the following warning signs (the primary and secondary consequences of our current runaway global heating) might even help determine the best location for your survival. 

While reading the 13 major global crises below, remember that they are not separate, stand-alone, or unconnected occurrences. The 13 global crises listed below are highly interactive, interconnected, and interdependent with one another. When any of them worsens, it can cause the worsening of several or even most global crises. 

Continue to think of the following 13 global crises like an intertwined plate of spaghetti. Each separate noodle (global crisis) to

The collapse polycrisis we describe below presents humanity's greatest opportunity to resolve many intractable global problems and inequities that could not (and have not) been previously solved. The end of this document will also point you toward information on how the Great Global Collapse can be transformed into humanity's greatest opportunity and potential for a Great Global Rebirth.

(Please note that we did not prioritize this list because individuals will see these crises with different values and priorities. We also did not include a sudden global thermal nuclear war in humanity's greatest global challenges as its own special category. We did not include it that way because it is a commonly accepted and known given, that in any moment, since the beginning of the Cold War, the world could tumble into global nuclear war. If so, the world would be basically over for all of humanity within days or months, except for those people in fallout shelters who would try to survive for decades to hundreds of years until the planet stops being radioactive.

While it is a real growing risk, it is not something that most people have any influence over. We did indirectly, although included in the section on conflicts and wars that could escalate into nuclear because of all of the 13 global crises going on at one time.)

The rest of this page describing all 15 global crisis has been updated by our partner at the Universe Institute. Click here to see all 15 global crisis.

What can you do about the polycrisis described above?

Addressing the polycrisis requires a range of actions by governments worldwide, as well as individual efforts from us.

On our website, we provide in-depth coverage of numerous solutions that work at the individual level and are practical. Many of these solutions center around emergency preparation, adaptation, resilience building, and, in some extreme cases, migration.

And, there is much more beyond that to get started with the many actions that you can do to make a real difference, please click this link.