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The Corporate (Poly)Crisis Playbook

How big business is delaying climate action to maximize short-term profits before collapse.

Angus Peterson
Edge of Collapse
6 min readDec 23, 2024

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In 2024, global average temperatures breached the critical threshold of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels — a tipping point long warned about by scientists. Instead of catalyzing swift global action, this milestone has only underscored a grim reality: the collapse of our global ecological and economic systems is not a distant possibility — it is unfolding before us. Climate change, combined with the many other dimensions of the polycrisis — resource depletion, biodiversity loss, political instability, and economic inequities — has created a perfect storm. This storm is not just brewing; it’s here.

Despite decades of warnings and countless summits, emissions continue to rise, fossil fuel consumption is accelerating, and energy demand shows no signs of stabilizing. The promises of renewable energy transitions, green technologies, and net-zero goals have done little to slow the juggernaut of global industrial expansion. We are not slowing the crisis; we are speeding into it. As the ecological foundation of the global economy crumbles, corporations — the architects of this catastrophe — are doubling down on short-term profits, leaving the rest of us to grapple with the fallout.

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Edge of Collapse
Edge of Collapse

Published in Edge of Collapse

Becoming collapse aware in the age of the permanent polycrisis.

Angus Peterson
Angus Peterson

Written by Angus Peterson

Becoming collapse aware in the age of the permanent polycrisis. Follow to get all the new stories: https://anguspeterson.medium.com/subscribe

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