Tags
6th Mass Extinction, Climate Breakdown, Extreme Weather Events, Fossil Fuel Industry, Greta Thunberg, Techno-Fix, Technocapitalism, The Anthropocene Age
It’s been a while since I’ve published one of these dark humor posts, but I think that as the catastrophic flooding, heat waves, and other extreme weather events continue to multiply and intensify and as more and more people start losing their minds, all we can do is laugh at the absurdity of our self-inflicted predicament. As has been said many times before, the Anthropocene carbon spike is just one of many symptoms from an overpopulated technocapitalist-driven world chasing too few resources, whether it be wild fish, potable water, rare earth minerals, or arable land. No one is putting the breaks on this race towards the abyss because no one is truly in charge, except for the cold and amoral calculator of corporate profits and stock market returns. In an age of “worse than expected” and “faster than anticipated”, the true cost of environmental collapse cannot be fully appreciated because humans have never existed in a world that is 500ppm CO2e and accelerating. One thing is certain —most of Earth’s mass extinctions were caused by a disruption in the carbon cycle which happened slowly over a much longer time span compared to today and without all the other human-forced pressures on the planet. All the technological advances and creature comforts we value today came at a rising environmental cost which is now impossible to repay since we have essentially ‘sold the farm’ in terms of the stability of the Holocene and the biochemistry of the planet. There’s no techno-fixing our way out of this mess. We didn’t build a durable civilization; we built a superficial and fleeting one blinded by delusions of technological grandeur and human superiority. So as we all slowly arrive at the fifth stage of grief, here’s a toast to humans before the party ends…
And this cartoon is becoming more accurate as time passes and oil executives mourn for the loss of future profits…
Earth will be fine. Humans?…not so much 🤣
No need to plan for retirement, the beach will come to you…
I’m sure Greta Thunberg would have something to say…
Do as I say, not as I do…
And lastly…
A Final Warning to Planet Earth
15,364 scientists from 184 countries issue a ‘warning to humanity’ and present a radical agenda to protect planet Earth. We, the billions of people believing in human exceptionalism, categorically reject this agenda and issue in return a stark warning to planet Earth…We officially summon planet Earth to abandon its intransigent attitude and accept the inevitable: an extension of its biological and physical limits. Should planet Earth stick with its hardline ideological stance, it needs to be aware that mankind will never compromise and that we will seek a second planet. The universe is like our ambition: limitless…
Collapse of Industrial Civilization 
What does the future hold for your children?
LikeLike
LOL, damn that’s cold but honest.
LikeLike
Am I sick for laughing?
LikeLike
It’s a Canadian thing
LikeLike
This may seem cold and evil to a lot of people, but honestly this level of honesty is needed early on. Telling kids they have a golden future ahead of them, only for them to grow up and realize otherwise, just leaves them in mental break down mode when crisis hits. You see this with a lot of young adults learning about ecological break down now. This is why old fashioned tribal and warrior cultures didn’t hide the ugliness of future events. The kids are raised and hardened into their specific skills and roles so when shtf they know what needs to be done. They get the panic and mourning stuff out of the way real early. Hell, if kids are accustomed to a grim future you’d be surprised what lives they can take on without issue. Living in a sewer tribe could actually be appealing to some people.
LikeLike
LikeLike
cartoon guide to biodiversity loss:
LikeLike
Pingback: Weekend Funnies for the Depressed Collapsitarian #11 – Enjeux énergies et environnement
Thank, you, Mike! As one collapsitairian to another let me tell you, humor is indispensable those days!
LikeLike
Whadda you do when everybody around you is going crazy, and the world is collapsing? Just step back from all that and enjoy all the beauty and love and creativity that is still here. “Drinking a cup of green tea – I stopped the war.” (Paul Reps) Peace is always available – within.
That fifth level of the stages of grief that Mike mentioned – acceptance – is where wisdom lives. Beyond the waves of fear and anger and despair.
LikeLike
Republican lawmaker: Rocks tumbling into ocean causing sea level rise
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/05/republican-lawmaker-rocks-tumbling-ocean-causing-sea-level-rise
LikeLike
The clathrate bomb has obviously not happened, but it’ll be fucking hilarious when/if it do.
………..
Meteorologist Nick Humphrey
Jun 11 at 3:24pm
The Latest on the Threat for Abrupt Methane Release from the East Siberian Sea
“So I just read the latest paper by Shakhova, Semiletov and Chuvilin (2019) released in the past week basically refreshing people on the threat on abrupt methane release from the Eastern Siberian Arctic Shelf (ESAS). The paper is linked above and seems to have been written for scientists not directly in their field (more background and less field specific jargon, except when directly relevant). For those who not know, methane is a very powerful greenhouse gas (108 times as potent at warming than carbon dioxide on a 10 yr timescale; near 150+ at 5 yrs or less). It is a short lived gas (after about 12 yrs, it is converted to carbon dioxide and water). However, the methane concentration in the atmosphere is rapidly increasing because of both increasing industrial activity and releases from tropical and Arctic sources. The East Siberian subsea region has huge stores of carbon in the form of methane.
I consider Dr. Natalia Shakhova and Dr. Igor Semiletov the top scientists on the East Siberian Arctic Shelf and the huge threat from the methane stores there (accumulated during previous glacial periods and not released in significance during previous short interglacials). Other scientists critical of their work have not come close to the amount of field work they have done, nor understand the geophysical dynamics specific and unique to that area vs. other areas of the global ocean floor.
Discussion
In short, Shakhova, Semilitov & Chuvilin (2019) really do not hold back in this paper. They make it very clear the how and why behind the deterioration of methane hydrate stability (including the uncharacteristic lengthy natural Holocene era, now being “extended” by anthropogenic activity). For a general understanding of hydrates, see this link.
It also makes clear the certainty of continued rapid deterioration and increasing methane emissions because of 1) continued irreversible Arctic Ocean warming and sea-ice losses, 2) methane releases occurring all year round, not just in the warm season because of rapidly increasing open-water polynyas in the winter ice, 3), increasing storm activity in the Arctic mixing the shallow water layer over the continental shelf (“storm-induced CH4 pulses”), and 4) increasing vulnerability to tectonic activity. They also note that 5) “Because the ESAS composes ~8% of the world ocean continental shelf, its sedimentary drape area- and thickness-weighted fraction alone could contain 15 to 20% of global organic carbon inventory; Organic carbon provides the substrate for CH4 production.”
There is also this (note that 1 teragram or “Tg” = 1 million tonnes. 1 billion tonnes is 1 gigatonne):
“It was suggested that ˃1400 Gt of CH4 could be preserved in the seabed of the ESAS [[90]. The current annual emission of CH4 to the atmosphere was calculated to be between 8 and 17 Tg annually [19][20]; this implies, conservatively, that equal amounts could have been potentially released annually during the previous climate epochs if permafrost had not restricted CH4 flux. Therefore, due to such restriction, during the time of one glacial period (~100 kYrs) ˃800 Gt of CH4 could have accumulated in the ESAS seabed as postponed potential fluxes. This amount of pre-formed gas preserved in the ESAS suggests a potential for possible massive/abrupt release of CH4, whether from destabilizing hydrates or from free gas accumulations beneath permafrost; such a release requires only a trigger.”
In addition, they are critical of previous research by multiple research groups which they believe have serious methodology flaws and make note they are the only ones doing research of this kind in the ESAS (and in total have conducted the most extensive ocean floor survey of any region in the world). They, of course, also discuss past flaws in their methods which brought them to current conclusions.
Finally…and most blunt.
“Releases could potentially increase by 3–5 orders of magnitude, considering the sheer amount of CH4 preserved within the shallow ESAS seabed deposits and the documented thawing rates of subsea permafrost reported recently”.
If you assume the current emissions rate averaged at 13 Tg/yr, that would mean abrupt releases 13,000 to 1,300,000 Tg/yr. 13 to 1300 gigatons. Basically they’re making a case that the destruction of the subsea permafrost will lead to catastrophic releases of nearly all the gas (over years, not decades or nearly all at once) once the permafrost has become sufficiently weakened.
An abrupt release of methane would mean a significant acceleration in global warming, perhaps 1 degree C or more within years.”
https://www.patreon.com/posts/latest-on-threat-27561345
LikeLike
Don’t forget this future scenario if absurdities like the Green New Deal are fully attempted.
LikeLike
I posted this link on my Medium blog page. I hope others will see the mess we’re all immersed in and perhaps, do something important for their lives besides the usual over consumption of valuable resources. I enjoy these posts. Keep up the ‘depressing’ work. Medium @jrallen1200 War and ecology are my main emphases.
LikeLike
54 years ago I watched a TV program,we only had three channels,about pop, growth. At that point I decided to not have any children. I realized that every child adds 50% to each parents total footprint. What’s so sad is that one’s children “aren’t special.” Someone should have told their parents,grandparents,etc.etc.etc.
The Clever Ape has screwed himself into a terminal fubar.
Greed is a deadly sin? Didn’t know that it would exterminate the brilliant Clever Ape.
Always a good time to watch this.
Dying is imprinted in one’s DNA?
I’m living forever & making everyone miserable. 😉
LikeLike
Antibiotics don’t kill viruses but climate change will make the Clever Virus go extinct.
Population control should have started with Adam & Eve.
Aborting Cain & Abel would have been a good start.
Look what these special children lead us to,7,700,000,000 takers,with the exception of indigenous people that don’t destroy their habitat?
I’m wondering what the hell my parents were thinking.They weren’t thinking,they were “be fruitful & multiply” brainwashed.
Masturbation does not increase the population. 😉
LikeLike
I do appreciate these articles but I think we are missing the woolly mammoth in the room. There are around 500 ageing nuclear reactors in the world. Between them they contain hundreds of thousands of tons of hot highly radioactive fuel in the reactors and the cooling pools. In a shutdown they require around 3 years of controlled cooling in order to avoid meltdown. ANY event that causes even a handful of these reactors to be unmanned or unfuelled (diesel) or both would be an extinction level event. No zombie movies, no survivors hanging on in the wilderness. So for example a Carrington event, a pandemic, a war or even a nuclear accident in say France (55 reactors). Would be an extinction event. This is not an if scenario but a when. So forgive me when I don’t get too excited about the earth warming by a few degrees, especially considering it’s happened hundreds of times before. We have built the doomsday machine and it’s ticking.
LikeLike
Another .5 to 1 degree C and that might be enough to kill you in a hundred different ways including causing an assortment of conditions that will trigger the nuke meltdowns, which us journeyman doomers have been aware of & discussed for well over a decade btw.
A couple degrees is just a step on the path to yet another hothouse mass extinction. The worst mass extinction ever, the Permian began with global warming from increased atmospheric CO2 & other greenhouse gas emissions, only it was volcanism, not insatiable apes as the trigger. Both are 100% natural though.
Average recover time from the hothouse mass extinctions is 10 million years. Is that enough time for the earth to cleanse itself from and/or reincorporate the radiation from the humans nuke waste & reactor meltdowns? We’ll never know.
LikeLike
Do you think nobody’s trying to take care of nuclear waste, or invent safer reactors like SMRs? One can pick any number of existing problems to deflect from looming ones.
My primary concern is the extinction of the world’s remaining scenery if wind turbines keep obliterating it (for little carbon-reduction benefit). What’s the point of industrializing so much acreage if quality of life is the ostensible goal?
https://www.google.com/search?q=windschmerz
“Pick your poison” is the unfortunate reality of runaway growthism. Too many things are out of control at the same time, and people are too busy maintaining them to reign them in. The planet is being worked and engineered to death but the prescription is “we need more hard work.”
LikeLike
“I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn’t find one of ’em, not one stinkin’ dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like victory.” – Robert Duvall as Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore
I love the glow of nuclear fireballs at dawn. It looks like death.
Now of course no Clever Ape’s military would consider nuking a nuclear plant.
Would that be called a Dirty Bombing?
LikeLike
This is a great article showing what the California coast is having to deal with regarding SLR. Judging by the pictures you get a sense how bad things are going to get decades on out.
https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-me-sea-level-rise-california-coast/
LikeLike
Way more areas than California are going to have to deal with this fairly soon. Of course the real solution is to tech down and move people away, but you basically need a stubborn dictator to push a strategy like that. Democracy and Oligarchy are going to fail this challenge royally.
LikeLike
Waiting on collapse is starting to get boring (Americans demand immediate gradification) what can I contribute to speed up the event.
I’m so silly! We are in collapse.
LikeLike
It’s not technically a collapse yet, more of a “long emergency,” per the classic book title. There is no “one day” when it will happen, so pinning it down always leaves denialists with room to argue. That’s one of the most frustrating parts.
LikeLike
Tipping points are 20/20 hind site.
No one see it coming.
One never knows when something can bring about collapse.
Global warming might be slower than a economic cataclysm.
When the global economy is built on fiat currency,at what point does the Clever Ape realize: “This paper is worth nothing.”
Same with virtual currency, created out of thin air.
The only way to get rid of useless paper is to find another sucker to take it.
Stockmarket -“You only own paper.”
How’s our confidence holding up in all our delusions?
LikeLike
Random thoughts!
In the U.S all the power has been in the hands of white males in govt. & business
How much control have they had globally?
Not illegals,not blacks,not Muslims,not women,not LBGTQ!
When the white male takes down civilization it might be time to invoke Trump’s 2nd Amendment solution to deal with White Trash? 😉
I’m a little disappointed with weekend mass shooters. They been quiet this weekend.
Everyone knows that the 2nd Amendment trumps all American lives.
Let’s start a CIC pool as to when the next shooting will occur.
It has to be a minimum of at least 20 American citizens maimed or killed.
The tree of the 2nd Amendment has to be watered by blood spilled by America’s love of “arms”!
Anyone would be hard pressed to have more fun at the cost of the Clever Ape.
LikeLiked by 1 person
What do you all think of folks like Borzoi Boscovich (he is @borpzoi on twitter) who is both alt-right and fully agreeing with collapse?
Interesting mix, not even sure how I found him. Odd to hear him say sensible things and yet be so racist. Maybe he would want all but the whites and honorary Aryans dead to avoid collapse.
LikeLike
Classic French poster art from the 1970’s updated for a collapsing world:
Excusez Moi
Calvin and Hobbes get it:
Everyone stop burning now. Thanks.
LikeLike
Wow! Folks on Imgur really don’t like my Calvin and Hobbes collapse funny..
Check the negative downvotes and furious comments:
I keep forgetting the masses are not collapse aware…
LikeLike
One of my more recent funnies:
How many folks who have been following collapse for at least the last 10 or 15 remember being routinely sneered at as “doomers” for suggesting that being “green” wasn’t going to change a damn thing.
Now that collapse is going somewhat mainstream with the climate crisis those same folks are jumping up and down with their hair on fire (literally) and screaming “we told you so!”
So it goes.
LikeLike