Tags
Climate Change, Collapse of Industrial Civilization, Donald J. Trump, Ecological Overshoot, Entropy, Ernst Mayr, Evangelical Right, Fossil Fuel Dependency, Global Pandemic, Global Warming, Haber–Bosch Process, Human Exceptionalism, Jevons Paradox, Joe Biden, Joseph Tainter, Mass Extinctions, Omnicide, Prof Tim Garrett, QAnon, Second Law of Thermodynamics, Sedition, Techno-Fix, White Nationalists, White Supremacists, William Catton
I recently asked a scientist on Facebook how he copes with the knowledge that we are destroying the planet within the geologic blink of an eye. Here is his answer:
Pot helps! 🙂 But psychologically, I reread Catton’s Overshoot recently, where he talks about how once humans started burning fossil fuels, we evolved (devolved?) into detritivores, species that depend on dead organic matter for our sustenance. This led me to think about Human Exceptionalism. The classic view is that humans’ assumed superiority has caused us to not consider the welfare of other species and blinded us in our ignorance to how our lifestyles were jeopardizing life support systems worldwide (including for us); I agree with this view. But I’ve also come to challenge another view of Human Exceptionalism; namely, that we have the intelligence and capacity for compassion to override what is every species’ imperative (humans and all other species): that is, to continuously consume available resources with no concern for future sustainability, with its concomitant and inevitable population boom and bust. Thus, I try to cope by accepting, with sad resignation, that we’re not any more special than other species – we’ve just lacked apex predators to keep our population in check and have used hundreds of millions of years of stored solar energy (i.e. fossil fuels) to temporarily shield ourselves from our population crash. This final kicking us off our superiority pedestal has helped me “let go” and inspired me to aspire to be more in tune with natural processes (such as organic gardening, which also helps on a very small scale to restore the soil biodiversity we’re regularly destroying with the Haber-Bosch process). How do you cope? 🙂
I replied later that day…
To cope, you first must know the truth. Our modern global civilization is a heat engine, subject to the second law of thermodynamics just as every civilization that came before. Our massive burning of fossil fuels has not only blanketed the atmosphere with heat-trapping gases and acidified the oceans, it has given humans the unfortunate ability to disrupt all the major biochemical processes of the planet, thus making the current civilizational collapse one of global proportions. There is no putting that genie back in the bottle and the environmental disorder it has unleashed. Thus we are firmly in the grips of entropy and no amount of techo-fixes, such as walls to hold back the rising sea or geoengineering schemes to blot out that fiery orb in the sky, will change this stark fact. As Jospeph Tainter argued, further complexity only brings more unforeseen problems that must be solved. Higher efficiency only leads to increased consumption (i.e. Jevons paradox). As you say, humans are no different than any other organism in that they will expand to consume all available resources until reined in by environmental limits. Our superior problem-solving capabilities have allowed us to dramatically overshoot the planet’s natural regenerative systems. And so it seems that Ernst Mayr was correct when he said human intelligence is a fatal mutation in the evolutionary process. According to Mayr, intelligence is a double-edged sword, serving as a tool for our survival or rapidly carrying out our own annihilation. How do I cope with all that? Other than adopting a stoic attitude towards our predicament, there is no coping. It is what it is. Find simple joys in nature while nature is still around. I love hummingbirds and watch them at the feeder when I am home. Live in the moment when you can. Enjoy mankind’s ability to create beautiful art. Be kind to your fellow human and nonhuman. We’re all just temporary passengers on Spaceship Earth.
Now that America’s wannabe dictator has vacated the White House, maybe we can get back to pretending we’re doing anything of significance about climate change and the ghastly future bearing down on us. I’m sure we’ll get right on that existential crisis as soon as we tamp down the current global pandemic, sort out Trump’s QAnon and white nationalist seditionists, and bring together a country where half the population believes their cult leader’s endless lies and the evangelical Right idolize Trump as a vessel anointed by God. So much for heeding warnings against idolizing false prophets. Despite all those minor details, we’ll all be on the same page, right? Well won’t we???
Excellent conversation highlighting the situation quite succinctly. The trick humans mastered was to expand their ecological niche beyond the natural limits that constrain other species. I believe this moment happened long before humans discovered fossil fuels, occurring no later than the time the first neolithic farmer plowed land to plant crops. At which point entropy and biological succession determined human destiny.
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Overshoot is a valuable read, as is your post here. Many thanks!
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The Doomsday Clock probably reached midnight in 1990 or so. We’ve had so many “if we don’t act now” and other points of no return, we surely must have passed more than one.
It’s obvious no political system will ever do anything remotely suitable to the task of keeping the planet habitable. We’re still talking about 2030 and 2050 for this or that, as if billions won’t have starved by then.
It is a challenge to keep my head up some days, but the most freeing realization I’ve had is that it’s not my responsibility to save the world. I’m trapped in this system, this moment in history. It’d ridiculous to think I can single-handedly achieve anything against such titanic momentum. From a childhood worried about nuclear war to an adulthood seeing a much bigger cataclysm, it’s all the same.
Love the cartoons.
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Nice piece, Mike. The big question is how much of humanity will be sacrificed when the crunch comes. Half? Three quarters? 90%? There are scientific projections for all these scenarios.they all depend how quickly we gain control of our ‘uncontrollable’ emissions and activities. If we ever do. My guess is ther horrible truth will start to sink in in the current decade, with. Global water crisis coming with the ‘slow roast’ of global heating and the start of the big mid-century food crises. We need a big wake up call now, according to the Council for the Human Future. http://Www.humanfuture.org
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If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading. – Lao Tzu
I’m going to sit on my ass,comment on the web & see where I end up because I’m incapable of seeing any solution. I will not change anything that upsets my set of living arrangements. When will we get back to normal? I shouldn’t have to live like this! 😉
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“Get me outta here!” – Roger Rabbit
“Beam me up,Scotty!” – Capt. Kirk
They might be on to something.
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