Mitigation and Adaptation Research Institute VCC

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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.

MARI VCC Billboard

[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:

News

Platform News

[Nov 03, 2026] AI is in all Google Searches but not on Place4Us: As Johana Bhuiyan reports in the article “Google says there’s no way to use Search without using artificial intelligence”, Google has made clear that all Google searches use AI. Anybody who uses Google search therefore supports the uncontrolled development of AI. The article unfortunately does not point to alternatives. DuckDuckgo.com, for example, allows switching of AI totally for all searches. It should be made mandatory that users can switch off AI in whatever service they utilize. Importantly, we working on Place4Us make every effort to keep AI away from the platform.

[Sep 26, 2026] “Digital Technology should be governed by people for people”: Joseph Gorden-Levit, the UN Global Advocate for Human-centric Digital Governance, in his opening remarks (starting at about 20:00 in the recordings) at the Digital Cooperation Day 2026 emphasized that “the decision we make in this moment are going to have a massive impact on everyone's life, on the whole future of humanity.” He underlined that how “digital technology is designed and developed and deployed should be governed by people for people.” The challenge is that some believe digital technology should be governed by the market. Place4Us is designed and governed by people and for people with no role to play for the market.

[Sep 26, 2026] “In the absence of truth, trust deteriorates”: This is what Mia Amor Mottley made very clear in her amazing speech at the 81st United Nations General Assembly. She said: “When we luck truth and we luck trust law becomes theater, News become spectacle, and science becomes just another opinion.” With respect to the ongoing ecocide in Gaza she quoted the Roman historian Tacitus who reported a statement of a Scottish chieftain about the Roman soldiers: “They make it desert and they call it Peace.”

[Sep 21, 2026] End Times Fascism: The book “End Times Fascism and the Fight for the Living World” by Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor underlines that the End Times Fascist have given up on humanity and this world. They are not only building the arks for themselves, they also accelerate the coming of the flood.

[Sep 21, 2026] Meta and Instagram ban ads with “social topics”: Stephen Burgen reports in the Guardian article “Meta bans ads for Virginia Woolf play in Spain because they relate to feminism” that Meta explained that “any mention of civil rights, feminism or social reform are usually classified as ‘social topics’ by our automatic system” and are filtered out. These topics are central to Woolf’s work. As reported, Meta recommended removing “key words” so that the text doesn’t appear to encourage activism. This underlines the importance of Place4Us, where social topics are at the forefront and activism is encouraged.

[Sep 13, 2026] "They are traitors to creation, to the wonders of here": Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor in their article “The end times fascists are plotting their escape from our world. Our mission is clear” make clear that the unholy alliance of the billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk and others, who suffer from an absence of awe in the face of the unique beauty of our home planet, is working toward an apocalyptic future from which only they as the chosen few will emerge unscathed. The authors claim that it is becoming clear how we stop them.