Understanding the Polycrisis of 2025: Challenges and Glimmers of Hope
The term 'polycrisis' describes the rapid, overlapping set of social, economic, environmental, technological, and institutional pressures currently overwhelming societies around the world. Major global threats include a housing crisis and inequality, climate breakdown, risks from artificial intelligence, pandemic threats, rising militarism, shifting international alliances, and the looming return to a nuclear era.
The 2024 elections engaged about 1.6 billion voters, underlining active democratic participation. However, there is concern that democratic decline begins subtly with the demonisation of opponents, contributing to the fracturing of the liberal international order. Divisions have deepened globally, fostering an 'us vs. them' mentality.
Environmental challenges are stark, with Kabul potentially becoming the first modern city to completely run out of water by 2030 due to drying aquifers, hosting more than 6 million residents. Water stress is widespread, especially in the Middle East and North Africa, where seven of the ten most water-stressed nations are located. In the UK, there is growing public backlash against sewage discharges into rivers. Climate impacts disproportionately affect women, children, and poor communities, raising significant equity concerns within the polycrisis.
Journalism, particularly reporting by The Guardian, is viewed as a vital antidote to numbness and disengagement, providing empathetic, human stories to keep the public informed and connected amid turmoil.
Despite the challenges, some moments of light emerge. Noteworthy are the reunion of the band Oasis, a rising trend in book clubs and reading parties, and the recovery of a Nazi-looted painting, Portrait of a Lady, in Argentina, offering glimmers of hope and cultural restoration amid global crises.
