<p>&ldquo;Panarchy invites us to conceive of the world as a vast interlocking set of interactive systems that pass through phases over time. If we can thoroughly understand the implications of panarchy&rsquo;s dynamic, we can perhaps begin to avoid behaviors that quicken the progression of human and ecological systems toward collapse. That is the challenge before us now.&rdquo; &nbsp;&mdash; Katja Nickleby, &ldquo;Over the Cliff&rdquo; in <em>Late-K Lunacy</em></p><p>Dr. Stefan Friemanis arrives at Gilligan University of Ohio with a powerful model called Panarchy.&nbsp; As a young professor, his job is to help his students navigate their way through a precarious stage of planetary history known as Late-K. He and his students are drawn into a protest movement to halt the university&rsquo;s plan to burn fracked natural gas lying beneath a campus nature reserve. &nbsp;</p><p>As the world&nbsp; catapults toward the Late-K cliff, the students occupy the university&rsquo;s central quad. This enmeshes them in national and international energy politics and a labyrinth of blackmail, offshore shell schemes, tax evasion, political corruption, and far-reaching iniquity. Things go sideways and their world unravels as Panarchy and their beloved mentor had predicted.&nbsp; Thirty years later, they regroup in a downsized world stripped of modernity yet brimming with&nbsp; possibility and hope.</p>