Systems Thinking for the Global Phase-Shift

From planetary emergency to evolutionary emergence

From BRICS, to Africa, to COP28, we're scaling a geopolitical 'turning point' on climate

A global consensus is emerging – among both clean energy pioneers and even some of the world’s biggest fossil fuel producers – that the age of oil is over, and that we must do all we can to accelerate the clean transformation of the global energy system in a way that is just.

13 min read

The Collapse of Civilisation is an Unprecedented Opportunity

Collapse is not the end - it's the beginning. The fear and uncertainty of this time signals the obsolescence of old ways of being. As we step into the unknown, truly new ways of being are emerging. Our challenge is to seize on and amplify these opportunities.

15 min read

Culture Wars Are a Symptom of Earth System Crisis

Why are our societies, politics and culture getting more and more polarised? A systems lens reveals it's no accident. It's a symptom of the twilight of the current life-cycle of civilisation as a new one dawns. From ISIS to Brexit, the entire global system is flipping into a new order....

16 min read

Debating the transition: will materials undo clean energy?

I got into a debate about whether we have enough materials for the clean energy transition with someone who I fundamentally disagree with - and we managed to talk it through to create a shared understanding about our emerging post-carbon future

3 min read

Bangladesh Can Leapfrog the West through Solar Abundance

As I travel to Bangladesh, the home of my ancestors, I reflect on how a country struggling to emerge from the ravages of colonisation faces the unprecedented opportunity to become a solar super power

14 min read

The Coming Dawn of a Global Solar Civilisation

We can build a new clean energy system based on distributed abundance and empathic intelligence that helps us solve some of our biggest challenges

14 min read

Why transformation of the global energy system is now unstoppable

We've passed a global energy transition tipping point making dominance of solar, wind and batteries inevitable and irreversible within decades. A whole new system is being born. But technology alone can't save us: we need a collective shift in mindset, values and governance.

16 min read

The Future of Human Civilisation is African

Africa is one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to climate change. But the biggest untold story is that Africa represents the future of global civilisation, and the key to a new era of unimaginable abundance within planetary boundaries.

10 min read

First stage of abrupt climate catastrophe has begun by crossing Arctic tipping point

This is the era of accelerating climate breakdown. The disappearance of Arctic summer sea ice is now inevitable. We've crossed a dangerous tipping point at risk of triggering others. Yet pathways to transformation over the next 15 years could still pull us back from collapse.

9 min read

The Fossil Fuel Energy Cliff and the Great Oversimplification

Recent claims that renewables represent an inevitable energy descent are derived from a new form of 'energy blindness' that ignores the best EROI systems science.

19 min read
AGI

AI and the Global Phase-Shift: How AI Will Really Change the World

AI represents the Fifth Great Information Disruption since human settlements first arose. It will be unstoppable and all-encompassing - and it could help us breakthrough to a new system premised on earth-centered collective intelligence, or spiral into breakdown and collapse.

20 min read

AI doomers are wrong. The 'existential threat' is about who controls information - not the singularity

Fear that AI is an existential threat to humanity is going viral. But there's little evidence that God-like AI superintelligence is possible. The real threat comes from the abuse of AI to manipulate information - which could derail civilisation at a crucial turning point in history.

13 min read

Energy transformation won’t be derailed by lack of raw materials

A 1,000 page report influencing IMF, UN and EU policymakers claims we don't have enough materials to support a global shift to clean energy. But the report is deeply flawed, based on indefensible unscientific assumptions, and totally ignores key scientific findings.

33 min read

The Planetary Emergency is a Crisis of Spirituality

The collapse of reductionist materialism is a defining feature of the global phase-shift. The question is, what comes next, and what are we going to do about it?

11 min read

America’s Fossil Fuel Economy is Heading for Collapse – It Signals the End of the Oil Age

US oil production is about to peak, but the world is unprepared for the tremendous economic and political consequences. The only path through is energy and economic transformation.

11 min read

The COP28 Agenda is a Recipe for Economic Armageddon: An Open Letter to Sultan Al Jaber, UAE President of COP28

In my open letter to the UAE President of COP28, I provide an economic and technological reality-check on how his proposed policies expose us to gigantic financial and ecological risks.

16 min read

The Next Decade Will Be The Most Pivotal in History: This is the Global Phase-Shift

Human civilisation is experiencing a Great Metamorphosis in which our energy, politics, economics, culture, values and worldviews are being completely rewritten.

13 min read

What South Africa’s blackout ‘collapse’ reveals about the global phase-shift and the death of Big Coal

South Africa is on the brink of societal collapse - a system-failure that represents what can happen if we fail to adapt to the current global phase-shift. With better choices, South Africa could become a hub of sustainable superabundance. That can only happen if we open our eyes to what’s possible.

13 min read

The world's only newsletter on the 'global phase-shift'

Welcome to Age of Transformation, a platform and newsletter to empower us to create a new system and a new paradigm for the coming post-extraction era.

3 min read