2013
Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World ↗
Objects and processes that exceed the scales at which we ordinarily perceive the world.
Simulate World · Reading list
Reading list.
Books, essays, and models for thinking about our world.
A companion to the essay, from ecological relationships and collective decision-making to models we can explore.
Books
2007
Under a Green Sky ↗
Past mass extinctions and their implications for thinking about environmental change.
1972
The Limits to Growth ↗
An early study of interacting global constraints using computer-generated scenarios.
2006
Perfect Order: Recognizing Complexity in Bali ↗
A book-length companion to the water-temple research discussed in the essay: irrigation, cooperation, and emergent order.
2008
Thinking in Systems: A Primer ↗
An introduction to feedback, stocks, flows, and the behavior of systems.
2012
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder ↗
On systems that benefit from variability, stress, and uncertainty.
2014
Intertwingled: Information Changes Everything ↗
Information architecture, systems thinking, and the connections between people and information.
2016
The Origin and Nature of Life on Earth: The Emergence of the Fourth Geosphere ↗
The emergence of life through the connections between geochemistry, metabolism, and the organization of the biosphere.
Essays & papers
The Great Grief: How To Cope with Losing Our World ↗
On making room for environmental grief before returning to engagement. A close companion to Mixed Messages.
Weaponized Sacredness ↗
An inquiry into sacred values, social coordination, and unforeseen consequences.
Emergent Properties of Balinese Water Temple Networks ↗
The research at the heart of the thesis’s Balinese water-temple example: ecological simulation and the organization of irrigation.
Human and Nature Dynamics (HANDY) ↗
A simplified model exploring inequality and resource use through scenarios.
Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System ↗
A framework for thinking about where changes to a system may matter most.
Interactive reading
Explorable Explanations ↗
An essay about active reading and making explanations something a reader can investigate.
News and Links
- Simulate World - Twitter Feed
- What California can learn from Saudi Arabia
- Ecological Jenga: Which Creatures Of Influence Need To Be Preserved From Extinction
- What it would really take to reverse climate change
- Forests are making inroads against climate change
- Three ways humans have created poverty
- How climate change may alter forests world wide
- The year humans started to ruin the world
- Elements of Biodiversity Extinction Crisis
- We are the asteroid
- Reporting on food-system risks in a global resource model Scenario modeling · reporting by Nafeez Ahmed
- California is so over
- How Growers Gamed California's Drought
- Everything I thought I knew about water in California is wrong
- The Dying Sea
- Rethinking Extinction Stewart Brand
- The Great Grief: How to cope with losing our world
- What animals are likely to go extinct first due to climate change National Geographic
- Fire on Bellandur Lake, Bangalore
- Bulk of Oregon now under drought conditions
- Conceptualizing the Risk and Uncertainty of Climate Change with Valentina Bosetti Valentina Bosetti
- Globaia Cartography of the Anthropocene
- Globaia Anthropocene
Organizations
- Project Drawdown
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
- Greenpeace
- Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment
- Sustainable Rotterdam School of Management
- Improbable
- Digital Democracy
- MIT Climate CoLab
- The Cultural Cognition Project
- Club of Rome
- Global Resource Observatory
- The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center
- Smarter Cleanup
- Euro-Mediterranean Center for Climate Change
- Future of Humanity Institute
- Centre for the Study of Existential Risk
- Globaia
Voices
Nicholas de Monchaux
Architect exploring the connections between design, cities, and complex systems.
Safa Motesharrei
Systems researcher and coauthor of HANDY, a model of inequality and resource use.
Photo credit Eugenia Kalnay
Atmospheric scientist working on weather prediction and coupled human–Earth systems.
Jorge Rivas
Coauthor of HANDY, exploring resource use, inequality, and societal dynamics.
Stewart Brand
Whole Earth Catalog editor and cofounder of the Long Now Foundation.
Valentina Bosetti
Economist studying climate policy, uncertainty, and decision-making.
Nick Bostrom
Philosopher investigating existential risk and the long-term future of humanity.
Photo credit Diane Ackerman
Poet and naturalist writing about perception, nature, and the human place on Earth.
Photo credit Charles Darwin
Naturalist whose theory of evolution connects life through descent and natural selection.
Jared Diamond
Writer exploring geography, ecology, and the histories of human societies.
Paul Hawken
Environmental writer connecting ecology, business, and social change.
Amanda Ravenhill
Environmental advocate working on systems thinking and climate solutions.
Derrick Jensen
Environmental writer and critic of industrial civilization.
Elizabeth Kolbert
Journalist investigating climate change and the loss of biodiversity.
Gaia Vince
Science writer exploring how people are transforming the planet.
J. Stephen Lansing
Anthropologist studying Bali’s water temples, cooperation, and emergent order.
Photo credit E. O. Wilson
Biologist and naturalist writing about biodiversity and the social lives of organisms.
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Philosophy
Models
- Limits To Growth Club Of Rome
- Human and Nature Dynamics (HANDY): Modeling Inequality and Use of Resources in the Collapse or Sustainability of Societies Safa Motesharrei, Eugenia Kalnay, Jorge Rivas
Portrait credits
- Eugenia Kalnay — NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Public domain. Displayed as a square crop.
- Diane Ackerman — Liz Butler. CC BY-SA 4.0. Displayed as a square crop.
- Charles Darwin — Charles_Darwin_seated.jpg: Henry Maull (1829–1914) and John Fox (1832–1907) (Maull & Fox) [3] derivative work: Beao. Public domain. Displayed as a square crop.
- E. O. Wilson — Ragesoss. CC BY-SA 3.0. Displayed as a square crop.