Tags
Addiction to Fossil Fuels, Capitalism, Climate Change, David Attenborough, Ecological Overshoot, Environmental Collapse, Extinction of Man, Mass Die Off, Overpopulation
Alien 1: “Lets zip over to Galactic Sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha where exists that one habitable planet overrun by its egomaniacal, carbon-burning organisms.”
Alien 2: “You mean the ones that call themselves ‘wise’, but which have completely disassociated themselves from their planet’s life-giving qualities. They have a very bad habit of wielding their technology in a half-hazard and suicidal manner.”
Alien 1: “Yeah that’s the one. I’m surprised they’ve made it this far with all those mushrooming obliteration devices they have stockpiled.”
Aliens 1,2, & 3: “HA! HA!” Look at that! They’re cooking themselves with those carbon-burners… all to support a fleeting lifestyle of high energy and resource consumption.”
Alien 2: “Don’t they know it’ll all be gone very soon and they’ll be left with a moonscaped planet that has the temperature of Venus?”
Alien 1: “Some of them do, but most appear to be prisoners of their own self-indulgent delusions. They refuse to listen no matter how much the sentient minority jump up and down to try to get their attention.
It seems that this earthling species spends most of its time attempting to accumulate more and more of these paper and metal tokens by converting all of their planet’s resources into these fictitious symbols of wealth.”
Alien 3: “The situation looks to be rather grim down there. They don’t seem to have any sort of self-constraint. I believe one of their own even called their species a plague on the planet.”
Alien 2: “Did anyone listen to him?”
Alien 1: “No, the few who heard him mostly just got offended and went back to the business of obsessing over economic growth and accumulating evermore of those paper tokens.”
Alien 2: “Really? Well, what if we install some emergency buttons at strategic locations around the planet to limit their activities? I’m sure the self-aware among them would consider activating such devices.”
Alien 1: “Alright then. Let’s see what happens…”
Oh, you mean “civilised” humans, right? Because remnant indigenous are getting really pissed off when we make this a species issue, because it’s not. It’s the dominant insane culture we “civilised” find ourselves in!
LikeLike
I don’t know of any native Americans who have not become dependent on gas-guzzling machinery and the industrial food complex, but I’m sure there are still a few tribes in the Amazon that would not notice industrial capitalist carbon man’s disappearance.
LikeLike
WE made the culture and not the other way around. There isn’t a tribe in history that didn’t over-run, exploit and deplete its resources as soon as it developed the technology to do so. The idea that there is an innate sustainability to our species is an anthropocentric myth. Perhaps it gives meaning and purpose to the imagination, but it’s just another variant of religious conceit with no basis in fact.
LikeLike
A comment on an Anatoly Karlin essay, ‘Violence is Reality‘, relates to this viewpoint of a preordained fate or outcome. Violence is reality or, in this case, ecological overshoot is inevitable, so what should the response be from sentient beings…
LikeLike
What’s the point? Of course extinction is different not just in scale but in kind, but still the best way I know to think about this is as a patient who has received a diagnosis of terminal cancer. Does that make the rest of your life pointless? Does it mean there’s no point whatsoever to try to prolong the time remaining as best you can? In terms of climate disruption and other forms of ecosystem collapse, I personally think there is good reason to learn more, and to protest the processes and habits that are causing it, even if it’s not going to alter the ultimate outcome.
LikeLike
I still don’t get why you believe anyone would bother protesting if you believe the end is written in stone. No one I know would exert the effort if they were so fatalistic. Better to simply enjoy the remaining time than go through the trouble of protest.
LikeLike
It doesn’t seem mysterious to me, there are abundant reasons to protest, even if the ultimate end is death (which it always is going to be, anyway!). First, it’s possible (maybe not probable, but possible) that we could buy some some time. Since I have kids, I’d like them to have as much time as they can before total collapse makes life unpleasant, and eventually untenable. I also feel obligated to make whatever palty efforts I can. I want them to know that I cared, I didn’t just sit idly by while their future was being trashed. I do think there a line exists – which may be grey – between people who take responsbility and people who actively exploit the poor, the helpless, the ignorant, and the other species on earth. I think they should be called out for evil, criminal activity.
Lastly, you seem to be assuming protest and enjoyment are antithetical, but that is far from the case. One of the most fun moments in my life was marching last May Day, when Occupy took over Broadway completely, stopping traffic for miles through Manhattan – there were so many people the police gave up trying to confine us to the sidewalks. It was awesome!
Furthermore, I’ve made a lot of great friends who think more or less the way I do, which is really nice for my sanity. “Enjoying the remaining time” wouldn’t be an option if I was completely alone with the knowledge that the remaining time is going to be much briefer than people suspect. By being involved in a variety of protests, I’ve been able to meet at least a few other people who aren’t delusional.
Everyone is conflicted, of course, because there is no way to exist in the US without making painful compromises.
LikeLike
That’s the question that divides paradigms. One either sees the entire system connected by energy or not. Would you push the button that staunched the flow of oil and slowed the flywheel down? Even if it meant a lot of people had shorter lives, but we saved the biosphere? I would, but even some of the most vocal advocates on the subject of peak oil wouldn’t, perhaps because they like their lives too much. We have too much invested in the current status quo.
http://www.alt-market.com/articles/1308-the-linchpin-lie-how-global-collapse-will-be-sold-to-the-masses
LikeLike
I agree with Kunstler’s take on what the future holds…
From an interview on his book “Too Much Magic”:
What kind of future do you see and how can we prepare for it?
“…I don’t think we are preparing for it now, and my guess is that we are not going to prepare for it. It’s simply going to blindside us, and then we’re going to be compelled to do what those circumstances dictate. We don’t want to enter that future. We’re putting all of our effort right now into a campaign to sustain the unsustainable… finding new ways to keep suburbia, Walmart, Walt Disney World, the interstate highways, and the military running…We are going to invite an era of disorder, probably a pretty gross disorder…”
LikeLike