The Collapse of Civilization May Have Already Begun

[Ultralight]

This is a really interesting article from VICE. It is a little long, but compelling. The interdisciplinary sciences used by those researchers in the article are mind-blowingly complex!

A snippet:

“It is now too late to stop a future collapse of our societies because of climate change.”
These are not the words of a tinfoil hat-donning survivalist. This is from a paper (https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/climate-change-resilience-uncivilisation-rebellion-and-technology) delivered by a senior sustainability academic at a leading business school to the European Commission in Brussels, earlier this year. Before that, he delivered a similar message to a UN conference (http://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/4777/): “Climate change is now a planetary emergency posing an existential threat to humanity.”


https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/8xwygg/the-collapse-of-civilization-may-have-already-begun?utm_source=reddit.com

[happystuff]

Will admit that I didn't read the entire article, but I do agree. The human species deserves the consequences of our actions.

[Ultralight]

Will admit that I didn't read the entire article, but I do agree. The human species deserves the consequences of our actions.

It is a very long article. You can glean a lot from it just by reading the first few paragraphs and skimming the rest. I did that, and then went back and read it all. haha

But yeah, we got ourselves into a real fix, a real bad fix.

[bae]

The species will survive just fine.

Civilization as we know it today, probably not so much, but that's happened before.

[catherine]

I looked at the article, and then I searched Jeremy Lent/Deep Adaptation information. I found this interesting article, What Will You Say to Your Grandchildren? (https://medium.com/@jeremylent/what-will-you-say-to-your-grandchildren-e0b40242563c). Like the OPs article, it challenges the economic growth paradigm which is basically the biggest threat--by definitition its opposite-- to sustainability, and unless we figure that out alternatives (one alternative is a negative interest model called demurrage). As long as we look at our health as a society through the lens of the unhealthy practice of unlimited economic growth, there is no hope for even slowing the trajectory of climate change:


"The primary reason for this headlong fling toward disaster is that our economic system is based on perpetual growth — on the need to consume the earth at an ever-increasing rate. Our world is dominated by transnational corporations, which now account for sixty-nine of the world’s largest hundred economies. The value of these corporations is based on investors’ expectations for their continued growth, which they are driven to achieve at any cost, including the future welfare of humanity and the living earth. It’s a gigantic Ponzi scheme that barely gets a mention because the corporations also own the mainstream media, along with most governments. The real discussions we need about humanity’s future don’t make it to the table. Even a policy goal as ambitious as the Green New Deal — rejected by most mainstream pundits as utterly unrealistic — would still be insufficient to turn things around, because it doesn’t acknowledge the need to transition our economy away from reliance on endless growth."

Business as usual will only lead to a giant worldwide liquidation sale.

[Rogar]

It's not too hard to find doomsday books elaborating on the climate crisis. My most recent was "The Sixth Extinction" by Elizabeth Kolbert. In the animal, plant, and fish realms extinction events are already in progress. Humans may survive, but it could be a lonely planet without as many birds and fish species. There is a reason why this era is being labeled the Anthropocene geological age. I don't see much promise in American politics or the global economy in any near future and would not expect much to change until it starts hitting peoples wallets. I guess it comes down to act locally think globally.

Might not bode well for the stock market (dark humor).