Our modern civilization has created a triple challenge that is threatening the future of humanity and the health of the Earth's life-support system, on which the welfare of all human and non-human life depends. Here at MARI, we aim to provide transformational education with the goal to foster holistic systems thinking, literacy in information, risk, and sustainability as well as carry out research related to the triple challenge. We want to bring into the public discussion use-ready knowledge on adaptation to modern global change to the public.
We welcome new members who want to collaborate with us on education, research and outreach.
[Nov. 04, 2025] AI Perception Survey: A short survey on perceptions of Artificial Intelligence is open for students and faculty. Go to the Survey or use the QR code to take the survey. Results will be published in a Story here in the AI VCC.
[Aug. 24, 2025] National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR): The National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) will be held in Richmond April 13-15, 2026. If you are an undergraduate students conducting research, then you might consider presenting your work at the NCUR. Abstracts open Sep. 9 to Dec. 5, 2025. See https://ncur.secure-platform.com/2026/ for more details.
[Apr. 19, 2025] A Call to Action for Humanity: The new book by Rutger Bregman is a “Call to Action for Humanity” (Trevor Noah). Read the extract in the Guardian.
[Mar. 21, 2025] Impact Learning Community in Sustainability Leadership in Fall 2025:
[Feb. 24, 2026] New Scenario for 2028 Points to an AI-related Highly Undesirable Future for Economy: Aisha Down and Dan Milmo discuss in their article “‘A feedback loop with no brake’: how an AI doomsday report shook US markets” the scenario study “THE 2028 GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE CRISIS A Thought Exercise in Financial History, from the Future” by Citrini and Alap Shah posted on February 22, 2026 on Substack. This study points out that the financial system of today was optimized over decades for a world of scarce human minds. AI changed this: “This is the first time in history the most productive asset in the economy has produced fewer, not more, jobs. Nobody’s framework fits, because none were designed for a world where the scarce input became abundant. So we have to make new frameworks. Whether we build them in time is the only question that matters.” The authors point out that the economy could find a new equilibrium, and “getting to this new equilibrium is one of the few tasks left that only humans can do. We need to do it correctly.”
[Feb. 12, 2026] Are we already at or close to a Point of no Return?: Damian Carrington raises this question in his article in the Guardian titled “Point of no return: a hellish ‘hothouse Earth’ getting closer, scientists say.” The most recent paper by Ripple et al. assesses “The risk of a hothouse Earth trajectory,” and the author's conclusions are pointing to an increasing probability of Earth moving into a hothouse state. The assessment should be an alarm bell for all of us. Continuing on the current path of our economy and society comes with the high risk of mass extinction, and the current uncertainty could soon turn into certainty.
