When does "emergent" become "today?

"Emergent" is such a safe word.

It implies it isn't here yet, that things are not clear, that we have time. In the process of becoming, but not yet here. If it's emergent however, it also suggests it is going to arrive, and when it arrives, we're going to have to come to terms with it, not talk about it.

When it does, we have a habit of talking about "unprecedented". Unprecedented, in most cases is more a case of having been being wilfully ignored. Pandemics have been with us for millenia, we had one of even greater impact (I suspect - this one isn't over yet) a century ago, with non- local (for the West) examples much more recently. Preparing for something that we know is highly likely, even inevitable, but not knowing when breaks the short term rules of efficiency and return on investment, represents inconvenient truth, and so we turn a blind eye to it.

Climate change is no longer emergent, nor is inequality, nor is biodiversity loss, or rising populism. Neither is a failing model of c…