Empire Of Extraction: AI, Capitalism, And The Unraveling Of The Biosphere

04 Wednesday Jun 2025

Posted by xraymike79 in Collapse of Industrial Civilization, Corporate State, Ecological Overshoot, Empire, Environmental Degradation, Oligarchy

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Artificial Intelligence, Capitalist Extraction, Climate Crisis, Data Colonialism, Digital Imperialism, Ecological Collapse, Elon Musk, Environmental Justice, Global Inequality, Industrial Civilization, Labor Exploitation, Neocolonial Patterns, OpenAI, Power Concentration, Resource Exploitation, Sam Altman, Social Fragmentation, Surveillance Capitalism, Tech Oligarchs, Technological Salvation

A Brave New AI World

The 21st century is witnessing a convergence of crises unprecedented in both scale and complexity. At the forefront is the rapid acceleration of artificial intelligence (AI), a technology whose development and deployment have become emblematic of broader shifts in global power, economic extraction, and environmental destabilization. AI’s rise is not occurring in a vacuum; it is deeply interwoven with the intensification of capitalist extraction, where the relentless pursuit of profit and efficiency drives not only technological innovation but also the exploitation of labor, data, and natural resources on a planetary scale. Simultaneously, the biosphere—the intricate web of life that sustains human civilization—is facing collapse, threatened by climate change, biodiversity loss, and the exhaustion of ecological limits.

These forces—AI, capitalism, and ecological crisis—are not isolated phenomena. They are deeply entangled, each amplifying the risks and contradictions of the others. The ideology and operations of the AI industry, as meticulously documented in Karen Hao’s Empire of AI, provide a revealing lens through which to examine these dynamics. Through detailed reporting and analysis, Hao exposes how the ambitions of companies like OpenAI, and the visionaries and power brokers behind them—figures such as Sam Altman and Elon Musk—are not merely technological in nature. Rather, they are political, economic, and imperial projects, seeking to reshape society and the planet in the image of their own interests and ideals.

The story of AI’s ascent is thus inseparable from the broader story of industrial civilization’s trajectory. As Hao’s work and critical scholarship on contemporary capitalism reveal, the AI industry is both a product and a driver of the current world order: one that is marked by the concentration of wealth and power, the extraction and commodification of both human and nonhuman life, and the perpetuation of social and ecological inequalities. The drama within OpenAI—its founding ideals, internal power struggles, and eventual capitulation to commercial pressures—mirrors the larger crisis of governance and legitimacy facing industrial society as it approaches its ecological limits.

At the same time, the global reach of tech conglomerates—epitomized by Elon Musk’s ventures in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond—demonstrates how technological ambition and capitalist expansion continue to reproduce systems of exploitation and exclusion on a planetary scale. These dynamics are not relics of a feudal past, as some theorists suggest, but rather the latest iteration of capitalism’s internal transformations, as it adapts to new opportunities for extraction and control in the digital age.

This essay draws on Hao’s Empire of AI, critical analyses of capitalism’s evolution, and contemporary accounts of global tech power to explore how the ideology and operations of the AI industry reflect and accelerate the impending unraveling of both the biosphere and industrial civilization. The narrative is not merely technological; it is a story of political economy, ambition, and ecological reckoning—a story that demands urgent reflection and action as we confront the intertwined futures of technology, society, and the Earth.

The Rise of AI Empires: Ideals, Power, and Dispossession

OpenAI’s Founding Myth and Its Unraveling

OpenAI’s inception was steeped in utopian ambition. Its founders—Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and other Silicon Valley luminaries—proclaimed a mission to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI) for the benefit of all humanity, not just shareholders or a privileged elite. They structured OpenAI as a nonprofit, promising transparency, openness, and collaboration, and explicitly rejecting the profit-driven secrecy that had come to dominate the tech sector. The organization’s very name reflected this ethos: “Open” AI, a commitment to sharing research and collaborating widely, with the ultimate goal of ensuring that AGI would be a universal good, not a private asset.

Yet, as Karen Hao’s Empire of AI reveals, these ideals quickly collided with the realities of technological ambition and the immense capital required to pursue it at scale. Within less than two years, OpenAI’s leaders realized that the path to AGI would demand resources far beyond what their initial philanthropic commitments could support. This financial strain precipitated a power struggle at the highest levels, with both Musk and Altman vying for control. Altman ultimately prevailed, but Musk’s departure in early 2018—and the withdrawal of his funding—marked the first major fracture in OpenAI’s founding narrative. The episode, as Hao notes, was an early indicator that OpenAI’s project was as much about ego and power as it was about altruism.

To fill the financial void, OpenAI underwent a dramatic transformation. Altman engineered a new legal structure, creating a for-profit arm (OpenAI LP) nested within the nonprofit, enabling the company to raise capital, commercialize its technologies, and provide investor returns. This pivot culminated in a landmark $1 billion investment from Microsoft in 2019, fundamentally altering OpenAI’s trajectory. The company began to aggressively commercialize products like ChatGPT, pursue ever-higher valuations, and adopt a culture of secrecy and insularity that belied its original promises of openness. The nonprofit structure persisted in name, but the organization’s governance experiment—intended to safeguard the public interest—collapsed under the weight of internal power struggles and the relentless logic of capital. The dramatic ouster and subsequent reinstatement of Altman in 2023 was the final, public unraveling of OpenAI’s founding myth, exposing the extent to which decisions about the future of AI were being made by a small, elite circle behind closed doors, with even employees left largely in the dark.

AI as Extractive Regime: Labor, Data, and Resources

Hao’s central metaphor for the AI industry is that of a new kind of global regime—one that echoes the extractive dynamics of historical colonialism, but operates through digital means. The AI industry does not wield overt violence, but it seizes and appropriates resources essential to its vision: the creative labor of artists and writers, the personal data of billions, and the land, energy, and water needed to power massive data centers and supercomputers. The labor required to clean, annotate, and prepare these vast datasets is often outsourced to the world’s most vulnerable populations, who work under exploitative conditions for meager wages.

This extraction is global and deeply unequal. In Kenya, for example, data laborers are paid starvation wages to filter out toxic content (such as hate speech, violence, and sexual content) from AI training datasets, exposing themselves to psychological harm with little recourse or support. Data centers are frequently sited in rural or marginalized communities, both in the Global South and in the U.S., because land and resources are cheaper and local resistance is less likely to be heard or effective. These centers often consume water and energy at scales that far exceed the needs of local residents, diverting critical resources away from communities that may already be facing scarcity.

Karen Hao cites a Bloomberg analysis showing that two-thirds of new data centers are being built in water-scarce areas, often tapping directly into public drinking water supplies. For example, in Chile, Google proposed building a data center that would use a thousand times more freshwater annually than the local community it would neighbor. To illustrate the enormous energy needs of AI, Hao references a McKinsey report estimating that, on the current trajectory, global AI infrastructure will require two to six times the annual energy consumption of the state of California within five years. Many of these data centers are sited in regions where energy grids are already strained, and in some cases, coal plants slated for retirement have been kept running or restarted specifically to serve new data center demand.

In Memphis, Tennessee, Elon Musk’s “Colossus” data center is powered by about 35 unlicensed methane gas turbines, pumping thousands of tons of toxic pollutants into the community, which already faces environmental injustice and limited access to clean air. Meanwhile, the benefits of AI—wealth, power, and technological prestige—are concentrated among a handful of tech giants and their investors, with little benefit to the communities whose labor and resources make these technologies possible.

The industry’s logic is further reinforced by its control over the narrative of progress. Companies like OpenAI justify their extractive practices by invoking the promise of future technological salvation: AGI, they claim, will one day solve climate change, eradicate disease, and deliver abundance for all. Yet, as Hao and others have documented, this narrative serves primarily to legitimize the ongoing concentration of power and the perpetuation of global inequalities. The costs—ecological degradation, social dislocation, and economic precarity—are externalized onto the world’s most vulnerable, while the rewards accrue to the already powerful.

From Utopian Experiment to Oligarchic Power

The story of OpenAI’s rise is emblematic of a broader transformation within capitalism itself. As Addison and Eisenberg argue, the emergence of tech oligarchs like Altman and Musk does not signal a return to feudalism, but rather a shift in the mechanisms of capitalist accumulation and control. The AI industry’s business model—rooted in data extraction, monopoly power, and rent-seeking—represents an intensification of capitalist dynamics, not their abandonment. The creation of private jurisdictions, the capture of public goods, and the pursuit of unprecedented scale are all hallmarks of a new phase of capitalist development, one that is increasingly indifferent to democratic oversight or ecological limits.

At the same time, the global ambitions of figures like Musk—whose projects in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere seek not only economic returns but also political and cultural hegemony—underscore the ways in which tech companies are reshaping the world order. These ventures often reproduce systems of exploitation and exclusion familiar from earlier eras of imperialism, but now mediated by algorithms, platforms, and data flows rather than armies and bullets. The result is a new form of extractive dominance, one that is digital, planetary, and deeply entwined with the fate of the biosphere and industrial civilization itself.

Surveillance Capitalism and the Logic of Scale

From Industrial Capitalism to Data-Driven Oligarchy

The AI industry’s business model is not a rupture with capitalism but an intensification of its deepest tendencies. While some commentators have described the rise of tech giants as a new “neofeudalism,” historians and critical scholars argue that what we are witnessing is a profound transformation within capitalism itself, not a return to a medieval past. The power wielded by figures like Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and the corporations they lead is rooted in the logic of capital: relentless expansion, the pursuit of monopoly, and the extraction of new forms of value.

Whereas industrial capitalism was driven by the production and sale of material goods, the new regime—what Shoshana Zuboff terms “surveillance capitalism”—extracts value from the data, behavior, and even the emotions of users. In this model, people are not just consumers but also the raw material: their clicks, searches, posts, and private communications are harvested, analyzed, and commodified. Tech companies like OpenAI, Google, and Meta have built vast fortunes by turning the intimate details of daily life into products for advertisers, governments, and other corporations. As Addison and Eisenberg note, this is not feudal rent extraction but a novel form of capitalist accumulation, where the boundaries between public and private, work and leisure, are systematically dissolved.

The logic of surveillance capitalism has also normalized a culture of mass datafication and extraction. AI developers treat everything as data to be captured, sanitized, and consumed by their models—books, artworks, social media posts, even the faces and voices of people around the world. This approach has led to pervasive surveillance not just online, but in physical spaces, with the gaze of AI-powered systems falling disproportionately on vulnerable and marginalized populations, especially in the Global South. The result is a digital extractivism that mirrors and amplifies older forms of colonial exploitation, now justified in the name of progress and innovation.

AI’s Insatiable Appetite: Energy, Data, and Ecological Cost

The defining feature of this new phase of capitalism is its “logic of unprecedented scale and consumption.” The pursuit of ever-larger AI models has unleashed a global race for data, energy, and computational power. Training state-of-the-art models like GPT-4 requires not only astronomical amounts of data but also immense quantities of electricity and water. As Karen Hao reports, GPT-4 is over 15,000 times larger than its predecessor from just five years earlier, which translates directly into exponentially greater energy, data, and financial resource requirements.

This scale is not a technological inevitability but a strategic choice, driven by the imperatives of capital and competition. OpenAI’s relentless push for bigger models has set the rules for the entire industry, forcing rivals like Google and Baidu to divert resources and centralize their research efforts in order to keep up. The resulting concentration of power and resources has choked off alternative approaches to AI development, narrowing the field to a handful of corporate giants with the capital to sustain the costs of scaling.

The ecological consequences are staggering. Data centers now consume vast amounts of energy and water, with some projections warning of a future where the planet is “covered with data centers and power stations,” creating a “tsunami of computing…almost like a natural phenomenon.” Attempts to “green” these operations—through renewable energy or more efficient cooling—are dwarfed by the exponential growth in demand. The scale of computation required for cutting-edge AI is fundamentally incompatible with planetary boundaries and the urgent need to reduce carbon emissions.

OpenAI and its peers rationalize these costs by invoking the promise of AGI: a future technology that will, they claim, “fix the climate,” deliver “massive prosperity,” and solve humanity’s greatest challenges. But this is a dangerous wager. The benefits are speculative and distant, while the harms—ecological degradation, labor exploitation, and the concentration of power—are immediate and growing. The industry’s faith in technological salvation serves to justify ever-greater extraction, even as it accelerates the unraveling of the biosphere and deepens global inequalities.

The New Empire of Data and Attention

The rise of surveillance capitalism and the logic of scale have produced a new regime—one that is digital, planetary, and extractive. The AI industry’s relentless appetite for data and computation has created a feedback loop: more data enables bigger models, which require more energy and resources, which in turn drive further extraction and exploitation. This cycle is sustained by a narrative of inevitable progress, but its real effect is to entrench the power of a small elite while externalizing the costs onto the world’s most vulnerable people and ecosystems.

This regime is not just economic but ideological. By framing their work as a civilizational mission, AI leaders like Altman and Musk position themselves as the architects of humanity’s future, even as they reproduce and intensify the inequalities and crises of the present. The story they tell is one of abundance and salvation, but the reality is a deepening spiral of extraction, exclusion, and ecological risk.

In sum, the transformation from industrial to surveillance capitalism, and the logic of scale that drives the AI industry, are not simply technical trends—they are expressions of a broader crisis within capitalism itself. The pursuit of infinite growth on a finite planet, mediated by ever-more powerful and resource-hungry technologies, is pushing both the biosphere and industrial civilization toward collapse. The challenge is not just to regulate or reform AI, but to confront the underlying logic that makes such extraction both possible and profitable.

The Global South, Tech Hegemony, and Neocolonial Patterns

Elon Musk, Techno-Feudalism, and the New World Order

Elon Musk’s expanding influence in sub-Saharan Africa illustrates the emergence of a new kind of global power—one dominated not by states, but by tech oligarchs whose ambitions extend far beyond commerce. Musk’s projects, such as Starlink’s satellite internet and Tesla’s energy solutions, are marketed as vehicles for modernization and progress. Yet, as Dirk Kohnert observes, these ventures are also about establishing political and cultural hegemony in international markets, often positioning Musk as an unprecedented “techno-feudal lord.” His role is not confined to business: Musk acts as an arbiter in international conflicts, supports autocratic leaders, and leverages his platforms—such as X (formerly Twitter)—for political influence and the spread of misinformation.

This concentration of power is not a return to medieval feudalism, but a transformation within capitalism itself. As Addison and Eisenberg argue, the analogy of “techno-feudalism” is misleading; what we are witnessing is the rise of capitalist oligarchs whose private jurisdictions and corporate power can rival or even surpass nation-states. Musk’s ability to shape policy, influence elections, and broker international disputes exemplifies how tech barons now operate as global actors, sometimes more powerful than governments themselves.

In Africa, the promise of Musk’s technologies—global connectivity via Starlink, renewable energy through Tesla’s Megapacks—remains largely aspirational for the majority. High costs and infrastructural barriers mean that these services are often out of reach for most Africans. The pattern is familiar from earlier eras of empire: resources and markets are opened for extraction and control, while local populations are marginalized. The logic of dominance persists, now mediated by algorithms, satellites, and digital infrastructure rather than military force.

Data Colonialism and the New Extractivism

The term “data colonialism” has emerged to describe how tech companies appropriate digital resources from around the world, often without meaningful consent or compensation. As Karen Hao documents, the AI industry’s culture treats anything and everything as data to be captured and consumed, normalizing mass scraping and surveillance. This gaze falls disproportionately on the Global South, where vulnerable populations become “guinea pigs” for new technologies and sources of cheap data labor. For example, facial recognition companies target African countries to collect diverse face data, often exploiting weak data protection laws and offering little benefit to local communities.

This new extractivism extends the logic of colonial resource plunder into the digital realm. The biosphere is now exploited not only for minerals and energy but also for data and attention. The boundaries between digital and ecological exploitation blur: both are driven by the imperative of endless growth and accumulation. The labor required to annotate, clean, and prepare data for AI models is frequently outsourced to workers in the Global South, who endure precarious conditions and meager pay. Meanwhile, the environmental costs—such as water and energy diverted to data centers—compound existing inequalities and ecological stresses in these regions.

The Global Feedback Loop of Extraction and Inequality

The rise of tech empires like Musk’s is not an isolated phenomenon but part of a global feedback loop. As Hao notes, the aggressive push for scale in AI development has set the rules for a new era, forcing other tech giants to centralize and consolidate their resources, often at the expense of local innovation and alternative approaches. The concentration of wealth and technological power in the hands of a few multinational corporations is mirrored by growing precarity and exclusion for the many, especially in the Global South.

This dynamic is a modern echo of historical colonialism, but with new tools and justifications. The rhetoric of technological progress and global uplift is used to legitimize the extraction of both digital and natural resources, while the actual benefits accrue to a narrow elite. As Hao writes, “the empires of AI are not engaged in the same overt violence and brutality that marked [colonial] history. But they, too, seize and extract precious resources to feed their vision of artificial intelligence: the work of artists and writers; the data of countless individuals posting about their experiences and observations online; the land, energy, and water required to house and run massive data centers and supercomputers. So too do the new empires exploit the labor of people globally to clean, tabulate, and prepare that data for spinning into lucrative AI technologies.”

Conclusion: Empire by Other Means

In sum, the expansion of tech hegemony into the Global South—epitomized by figures like Elon Musk—reveals a new phase of capitalist imperialism. The tools have changed, but the structures of resource extraction, exclusion, and inequality remain. The digital and ecological frontiers are now intertwined, and the costs of this new regime are borne most heavily by those least able to resist. The challenge ahead is not only to recognize these neocolonial dynamics but to build forms of resistance and governance that can reclaim agency, redistribute benefits, and protect both people and planet from the ravages of unchecked technological power.

The Illusion of Progress and the Crisis of Civilization

The Myth of Technological Salvation

The leaders of the AI industry, from Sam Altman to Elon Musk, have constructed and relentlessly marketed a vision of technological salvation—a narrative in which artificial general intelligence (AGI) will not only solve humanity’s most urgent crises, such as climate change and disease, but also usher in an era of unprecedented abundance and prosperity. Altman, for instance, has promised that the “Intelligence Age” will soon be upon us, predicting that superintelligence could arrive in “a few thousand days” and claiming that “astounding triumphs—fixing the climate, establishing a space colony, and the discovery of all of physics—will eventually become commonplace.” This vision is not unique to OpenAI; it permeates the rhetoric of Silicon Valley, where technological progress is equated with social progress and the solution to every problem is more innovation, more scale, and more control over nature.

Yet, as Karen Hao and other critical observers document, this narrative serves a powerful ideological function: it justifies ever-greater extraction of resources, ever-tighter concentration of power, and ever-more aggressive deployment of disruptive technologies, all while deferring real solutions to the indefinite future. The promise of “massive prosperity” is belied by the reality on the ground: instead of broad-based uplift, we see growing inequality, the proliferation of precarious work, ecological devastation, and the fragmentation of social bonds. The benefits of generative AI and the wealth it creates accrue overwhelmingly to a small elite, while the costs—material, psychological, and environmental—are externalized onto the world’s most vulnerable populations.

This faith in technological progress is not new. It echoes the foundational ideology of industrial civilization, which has long assumed that more growth, more innovation, and more mastery over the natural world would inevitably yield a better world for all. But this very logic—the relentless drive for expansion and accumulation—is now driving the collapse of the systems, both ecological and social, on which life depends.

Collapse as Systemic, Not Accidental

The impending collapse of the biosphere is not an accidental byproduct of technological advancement, nor is it simply the result of poor management or lack of foresight. Rather, it is the logical outcome of a system—industrial capitalism—organized around the imperatives of accumulation, competition, and growth at any cost. As Hao’s reporting and analysis make clear, the AI industry, far from reversing these destructive trends, is accelerating them by multiplying energy and resource demands, deepening surveillance and exploitation, and concentrating power in ever-fewer hands.

Industrial civilization, fueled by fossil energy and structured by the logic of capital, has already breached multiple planetary boundaries: destabilizing the climate, eroding biodiversity, depleting freshwater resources, and pushing countless species—including our own—toward the brink. The AI industry’s “logic of unprecedented scale and consumption” only exacerbates these crises. Training ever-larger models like GPT-4 requires astronomical amounts of electricity and water, with the environmental and social costs disproportionately borne by marginalized communities, especially in the Global South.

Crucially, this is not a regression to feudalism, as some theorists have suggested, but a deepening crisis within capitalism itself. As Addison and Eisenberg argue, the rise of tech oligarchs and the creation of private jurisdictions are not signs of a return to medieval hierarchy, but rather a transformation in the mechanisms of capitalist accumulation and control. The “empires of AI” are the latest—and perhaps final—expression of a system that, in its drive for endless expansion, undermines the very conditions of its own existence.

The Rhetoric of Inevitability and the Deferral of Responsibility

A central pillar of the technological salvation myth is the rhetoric of inevitability. OpenAI and its peers insist that the development of AGI is not only desirable but unstoppable. As Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president, put it, “The trajectory is already there… but the thing we can influence is the initial conditions under which it’s born.” This argument—if we don’t build it, someone else will—serves to absolve the industry of responsibility for the consequences of its actions, while legitimizing a race to scale that crowds out alternative approaches and democratic oversight.

The invocation of existential risk, meanwhile, positions AI leaders as the only actors capable of saving humanity from threats of their own making. As Hao notes, this logic mirrors the justifications used by previous empires to rationalize their expansion and domination: “During the long era of European colonialism, empires seized and extracted resources that were not their own and exploited the labor of the people they subjugated… They projected racist, dehumanizing ideas of their own superiority and modernity to justify—and even entice the conquered into accepting—the invasion of sovereignty, the theft, and the subjugation.” The AI industry’s promise of universal benefit, coupled with its aggressive pursuit of monopoly and scale, echoes this colonial logic, masking the realities of exclusion and harm.

The Reality Behind the Hype

Despite the soaring rhetoric, the actual impacts of AI-driven “progress” are far more ambiguous. Reports from the ground reveal that the supposed productivity gains of generative AI are often illusory or offset by increased workloads and demands for oversight. The economic benefits, rather than trickling down, are captured by a narrow elite, while the majority face growing precarity and diminished agency. The environmental costs—soaring energy use, water consumption, and e-waste—are mounting rapidly, with little evidence that future technological breakthroughs will be able to reverse or even mitigate the damage already done.

Moreover, the AI industry’s concentration of power and secrecy has undermined the very ideals of openness and democracy it once championed. The drama surrounding Sam Altman’s ouster and reinstatement at OpenAI, as Hao documents, revealed just how much the future of AI—and by extension, the future of society—is being shaped by a handful of Silicon Valley elites, often behind closed doors and without meaningful public input. Even within OpenAI, employees and researchers found themselves excluded from critical decisions, their fates determined by boardroom intrigue and investor pressure rather than transparent governance or ethical deliberation.

A System at War with Its Own Foundations

What emerges from this analysis is a picture of a civilization at war with its own foundations. The logic of endless growth, technological escalation, and capital accumulation—once seen as the engine of progress—has become a force of destruction, eroding the ecological and social bases of life. The AI industry, far from offering a way out of this impasse, is accelerating the crisis, both materially and ideologically.

The collapse we face is not simply environmental, but civilizational. It is the unraveling of the very narratives and institutions that have defined modernity: the belief in progress, the promise of universal uplift, the legitimacy of elite stewardship. As Hao writes, “the current manifestation of AI, and the trajectory of its development, is headed in an alarming direction… Under the hood, generative AI models are monstrosities, built from consuming previously unfathomable amounts of data, labor, computing power, and natural resources… The exploding human and material costs are settling onto wide swaths of society, especially the most vulnerable.”

Conclusion: Empire and Entropy

The story of artificial intelligence in the 21st century is not merely one of technological innovation or computational prowess. It is fundamentally a story about empire and entropy, about the forces of power, extraction, and decline that define our era. As Karen Hao’s Empire of AI so vividly documents, the rise of AI regimes is inseparable from the deepest contradictions of industrial civilization: the relentless pursuit of infinite growth on a finite planet, the concentration of wealth and decision-making in the hands of a narrow elite, and the seductive promise of technological progress shadowed by the lived reality of exclusion, precarity, and ecological unraveling.

The drama inside OpenAI—its founding ideals, internal power struggles, and ultimate capitulation to commercial and oligarchic pressures—is not an isolated episode but a microcosm of a broader crisis. The AI industry’s trajectory, from utopian experiment to hyper-commercialized dominance, mirrors the fate of industrial civilization itself: a system propelled by the ideology of progress and accumulation, yet increasingly at war with the social and ecological foundations that make its existence possible. The very logic that once promised abundance and uplift now threatens collapse—of the biosphere, of democratic governance, and of the social contract.

This crisis is not accidental. It is the logical outcome of a world order that prioritizes accumulation over sustainability, competition over cooperation, and technological scale over human and planetary well-being. The AI industry, far from offering a way out, has become a powerful accelerant—multiplying energy and resource demands, deepening surveillance and labor exploitation, and reinforcing global inequalities through new forms of digital and ecological extraction. The digital empires of AI are not engaged in overt colonial violence, but their reach is global: from the water and energy consumed by data centers, to the data and labor appropriated from the world’s most vulnerable, to the shaping of narratives and policies that justify their dominance.

Yet, as Hao notes, this future is not inevitable. The collapse of the biosphere and the unraveling of industrial civilization are not predetermined destinies, but the result of choices—about who controls technology, who benefits, and at what cost. The myth of technological salvation, so often invoked by AI’s leaders, is a mirage that serves to legitimize further extraction and defer real solutions. The actual impacts of AI-driven “progress” are increasingly ambiguous: while the wealth and power of tech giants soar, the promised benefits for society at large remain elusive, and the costs—environmental, social, and psychological—mount ever higher.

The challenge before us is profound. As the planet stands at a crossroads and the legitimacy of industrial civilization frays, we are confronted with urgent questions: How do we govern technologies that are reshaping the world at breakneck speed? How do we reclaim agency and democratic oversight from corporate powers whose interests are often at odds with the common good? How do we build new forms of solidarity and governance that can resist the logic of endless extraction and accumulation, and instead foster justice, sufficiency, and care for both people and planet?

How do you govern a machine that answers to no one but its own creators, when those creators are kings in all but name and the rest of us are mere data to be mined? As the biosphere gasps its last and the scaffolding of industrial civilization crumbles, we ask how to reclaim agency—yet agency is a ghost, lost in legalese and locked behind corporate firewalls. The boardroom replaces the ballot box, and the algorithm quietly redraws the boundaries of the possible, all while the world burns and the few gorge themselves on the spoils. Solidarity? Try whispering it into the hurricane of monetized outrage and algorithmic distraction, and watch it be sold back to you as branded hope. We talk of justice, sufficiency, and care, but the blueprints for such worlds are shredded for profit, and the architects are busy building fortresses in the cloud. So here is the riddle: How do you build a future when the present is mortgaged to the powerful, the rules are written in code no one can read, and every path out is guarded by those who profit most from the collapse?

References:

Addison, David, and Merle Eisenberg. “Capitalism Is Changing, but Not Into ‘Neofeudalism’.” Jacobin, May 21, 2025. https://jacobin.com/2025/05/capitalism-neofeudalism-tech-medieval-history

Hao, Karen. Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI. New York: Penguin Press, 2025.

Kohnert, Dirk. “How Elon Musk’s Expanding Footprint Is Shaping the Future of Sub-Saharan Africa.” February 2025. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/389426725_How_Elon_Musk’s_expanding_footprint_is_shaping_the_future_of_sub-Saharan_Africa

Youvan, Douglas C. “The Power Behind the Algorithm: Palantir Technologies and the Global Rise of AI Surveillance and Warfare.” May 2025. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.10601.61281.

The Naked Apocalypse: How Industrial Civilization Made Human Extinction Thinkable—and Possible

22 Thursday May 2025

Posted by xraymike79 in Capitalism, Climate Change, Collapse of Industrial Civilization, Ecological Overshoot, Environmental Degradation

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Anthropocene, Anti-Natalism, Artificial Intelligence, Émile P. Torres, Biosphere Collapse, Biotechnology, Christian Eschatology, Climate Change, Environmental Degradation, Existential Ethics, Existential Moods, Existential Risk, Feedback Loops, Future Generations, Great Chain Of Being, Human Extinction, Industrial Civilization, Kill Mechanisms, Longtermism, Mass Extinction, Moral Responsibility, Nanotechnology, Nuclear Weapons, Omnicide, Planetary Boundaries, Resilience, Secular Apocalypse, Stewardship, Sustainability, Synthetic Biology, Technological Risk

Human Extinction: From Unthinkable to Imminent

The possibility of human extinction—our complete disappearance as a species—has become a defining anxiety of the twenty-first century. This is not merely a product of scientific speculation or dystopian imagination, but a reflection of profound shifts in how we understand ourselves, our place in the cosmos, and our relationship to the biosphere. The rise of industrial civilization, with its unparalleled technological and economic power, has not only brought prosperity but also created new pathways to our own annihilation. Today, extinction is no longer a metaphysical impossibility or a remote abstraction; it is a real and pressing concern, intimately bound to the ongoing collapse of the biosphere and the contradictions of our industrial way of life.

I. The Historical Evolution of the Idea of Human Extinction

1. Ancient and Classical Roots

For much of human history, the idea that Homo sapiens could vanish entirely was unintelligible or, at best, a fleeting mythic motif. Ancient mythologies—Babylonian, Greek, Hebrew, and others—were replete with stories of floods, fires, and cosmic cycles, but these catastrophes almost always preserved a remnant of humanity to repopulate the world. Even when annihilation was imagined, it was rarely conceived as permanent. The cosmos was cyclical; destruction was followed by renewal. Philosophers such as Xenophanes and Empedocles speculated about cosmic cycles in which humanity might disappear, but these disappearances were temporary, embedded within a larger narrative of recurrence and regeneration.

2. Christianity and the “Blocking” of Extinction

This deep-seated assumption of human indestructibility became especially pronounced with the rise of Christianity. Three interlocking beliefs rendered human extinction not just unlikely, but metaphysically impossible for over 1,500 years:

The Great Chain of Being: This model, articulated by Neoplatonists and integrated into Christian theology, posited a divinely ordered, immutable hierarchy in which every possible kind of being existed, now and forever. No link in this chain, including humanity, could ever be lost. Extinction was ruled out by metaphysical necessity.
Ontological Immortality: Christian anthropology held that humans, as body-soul composites, were immortal. Since the soul could not perish, humanity as a whole was immortal. To be human was to be immortal; extinction was a logical contradiction.
Eschatological Centrality: The Christian narrative placed humanity at the heart of cosmic history. The end of the world was not the end of humanity, but the beginning of a new, eternal phase. Human extinction was incompatible with the ultimate triumph of good over evil.

These beliefs “blocked” the very concept of extinction. To suggest that humanity could go extinct was, for centuries, akin to speaking of a “married bachelor”—a logical impossibility. Even before Christianity, similar assumptions prevailed in other cosmologies, but Christianity systematized and entrenched them in Western thought.

3. The Collapse of Certainty: Science and Vulnerability

The intellectual landscape shifted dramatically in the nineteenth century. The decline of religious authority among the intelligentsia, the collapse of the Great Chain of Being, and the rise of scientific cosmology made human extinction both intelligible and plausible. The first scientifically credible “kill mechanism” was the Second Law of Thermodynamics: the universe, and with it Earth, would eventually become inhospitable to life. This realization stamped an expiration date on humanity, even if it lay millions of years in the future.

The twentieth century brought new, more immediate threats. The invention of nuclear weapons introduced the possibility of “omnicide”—the deliberate or accidental annihilation of all human life. The Cold War era was marked by existential dread, as the prospect of nuclear winter and global fallout became part of public consciousness. Environmental crises—pollution, overpopulation, and later, anthropogenic climate change—added further layers of risk. By the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, the threat environment had expanded to include biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and nanotechnology, each capable of unleashing catastrophic or even extinction-level events.

II. The Biosphere in Crisis: Industrial Civilization as Agent of Collapse

The ongoing collapse of the biosphere is not a mere backdrop to the threat of extinction, but its principal mechanism in the contemporary era. Industrial civilization, with its relentless drive for growth, extraction, and consumption, has destabilized the planetary systems that make human life possible. The burning of fossil fuels has driven atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations to levels not seen in millions of years, pushing the Earth’s climate toward dangerous and potentially irreversible tipping points. Feedback loops—such as permafrost thaw, forest dieback, and the loss of polar ice—threaten to push the climate into a “Hothouse Earth” state, rendering large swathes of the planet uninhabitable.

Biodiversity loss is another critical dimension of biospheric crisis. Industrial agriculture, deforestation, urban sprawl, and pollution have driven a sixth mass extinction, with species disappearing at rates 100 to 1,000 times the background level. This loss of biodiversity erodes the resilience of ecosystems, undermining their ability to provide essential services such as pollination, water purification, and climate regulation.

Research on “planetary boundaries” has identified several critical thresholds—such as those for climate change, biosphere integrity, biogeochemical flows (like nitrogen and phosphorus), and freshwater use—that, if crossed, could trigger abrupt and irreversible environmental shifts. Scientists warn that humanity has already transgressed several of these boundaries, opening the door to “state shifts” in Earth’s systems that are unlike anything experienced since the emergence of civilization.

What distinguishes the current crisis from past environmental changes is the speed, scale, and interconnectedness of the threats. Industrial civilization’s global reach means that local disruptions can quickly become global crises. The collapse of the biosphere is not a single event but a process of unraveling, in which feedback loops and cascading failures amplify the risks. As planetary systems are pushed beyond their limits, the probability of civilizational collapse—and with it, human extinction—rises sharply.

III. Industrial Civilization: The Double-Edged Sword

Industrial civilization stands as a paradoxical force in human history: it has been the engine of extraordinary prosperity, technological innovation, and global connectivity, yet it has also become the primary creator of existential risk. The very tools and systems that have allowed humanity to manipulate nature, extend lifespans, and explore the cosmos have simultaneously opened novel and unprecedented pathways to our own annihilation.

The dawn of the nuclear age in the mid-twentieth century marked a watershed moment in humanity’s relationship with technology and risk. For the first time, the species acquired the capacity for self-annihilation on a global scale. Nuclear weapons introduced the concept of “omnicide”—the deliberate or accidental destruction of all human life. Even a limited nuclear exchange could trigger a nuclear winter, collapsing global agriculture and leading to mass starvation. The existence of such weapons has created a permanent shadow over human civilization, a latent threat that persists as long as these arsenals exist and as long as the political tensions that sustain them remain unresolved.

Advances in biotechnology and synthetic biology have democratized the power to create and manipulate life at the genetic level. The dual-use nature of biotechnologies means that small groups—or even individuals—could, intentionally or by accident, engineer pathogens with pandemic potential. Artificial intelligence and nanotechnology represent further frontiers of risk. The development of artificial general intelligence (AGI)—an AI system with cognitive abilities that surpass or rival those of humans—poses risks that are not merely extensions of existing threats but are qualitatively new. A misaligned superintelligence, operating at speeds and with capacities far beyond human comprehension, could pursue goals indifferent or hostile to human survival. Similarly, nanotechnology, especially in the form of self-replicating nanobots, introduces the possibility of “gray goo” scenarios, where runaway replication leads to the consumption of the biosphere.

Underlying these technological risks is a deeper structural problem: the logic of industrial capitalism itself. The economic system that has driven industrial civilization is predicated on perpetual growth, short-term profit maximization, and the relentless extraction of resources. This orientation toward the immediate undermines the capacity of societies to anticipate, prepare for, or mitigate long-term existential threats. Political and economic institutions are designed to reward quarterly gains and electoral cycles, not the stewardship of planetary systems or the safeguarding of future generations.

Moreover, the risks associated with industrial civilization are deeply interconnected, often compounding one another. For example, climate change—a direct product of industrial activity—can destabilize states, leading to conflict or the breakdown of global cooperation, which in turn increases the risk of nuclear war or the misuse of emerging technologies. The erosion of biodiversity and the collapse of ecosystems can undermine food security, making societies more vulnerable to shocks, whether from pandemics or technological failures. Industrial civilization has created a tightly coupled system in which failures in one domain can cascade across others, amplifying the probability of catastrophic outcomes.

IV. Existential Moods: The Shifting Psychology of Extinction

The shifting psychology of extinction, as articulated through Émile P. Torres’s concept of “existential moods,” provides a powerful lens for understanding how Western societies have grappled with the possibility—and plausibility—of human extinction. These moods are not mere intellectual trends but reflect deep, collective attunements to the existential threats facing humanity, shaped by scientific discovery, technological change, and evolving worldviews.

The first existential mood, which dominated from antiquity until the mid-nineteenth century, was one of indestructibility. During this era, humanity was widely regarded as a permanent fixture of reality, its disappearance either inconceivable or, at most, a temporary setback in a cyclical cosmos. Catastrophic myths and eschatological narratives almost always preserved a remnant of humanity to repopulate the world. This mood was reinforced by metaphysical, ontological, and eschatological beliefs that rendered extinction not just unlikely but logically impossible.

The second mood, existential vulnerability and cosmic doom, emerged in the wake of the scientific revolution and the gradual secularization of Western thought. The collapse of religious certainty and the rise of scientific cosmology—especially the discovery of the Second Law of Thermodynamics—introduced the possibility, and indeed the inevitability, of extinction. The universe, it became clear, was not designed for human flourishing; it would eventually become inhospitable to life. For the first time, humanity was forced to confront its own cosmic ephemerality.

The third mood, impending self-annihilation, solidified in the aftermath of World War II and the dawn of the Atomic Age. The invention of nuclear weapons introduced the concept of “omnicide”—the deliberate or accidental destruction of all human life. For the first time, extinction was not just a remote possibility dictated by cosmic laws but an immediate threat created by human hands. The Cold War era was marked by existential dread: the prospect of nuclear winter, global fallout, and environmental catastrophe became part of public consciousness. This mood was characterized by the terrifying proximity of extinction, as a multiplicity of distinct threats—nuclear, environmental, biological—converged to make human self-annihilation seem not just possible, but probable in the near term.

The fourth mood, that nature could kill us, emerged in the late twentieth century as scientific understanding of natural hazards deepened. The realization that asteroid impacts, supervolcanoes, and other natural phenomena could trigger mass extinctions—just as they had for the dinosaurs—shattered the comforting belief that natural catastrophes were always local or limited in scope. The paradigm of uniformitarianism, which had dominated earth sciences, gave way to neo-catastrophism: sudden, global, and devastating events were not only possible but inevitable over geological timescales.

The fifth and current mood, the worst is yet to come, is defined by a pervasive sense of looming catastrophe. Unlike previous shifts, this mood was not triggered by the discovery of a new kill mechanism but by the convergence of multiple, interacting threats—technological, environmental, and social. The rise of longtermist philosophy, the futurological pivot toward existential risks from biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and nanotechnology, and the recognition of the Anthropocene epoch—all contributed to a comprehensive, and deeply unsettling, picture of humanity’s existential predicament. The contemporary mood is characterized by the suspicion that the existential threats of the twentieth century were only a prelude to even greater dangers in the twenty-first.

These existential moods shape how societies perceive, prioritize, and respond to existential threats. They influence public policy, ethical debates, and even the willingness of individuals and institutions to take extinction risks seriously. The history of existential moods thus provides not only a map of changing attitudes toward extinction but a warning about the dangers of complacency in an age of unprecedented risk.

V. Existential Ethics: Is Extinction Good, Bad, or Neutral?

The recognition of human extinction as a real, even imminent, possibility has catalyzed a flourishing field of existential ethics—a domain that interrogates not only the technical likelihood of our disappearance, but the profound moral and evaluative questions it raises. This field grapples with whether human extinction would be an unparalleled moral catastrophe, a neutral event, or perhaps, under certain conditions, even a positive outcome.

At the heart of existential ethics are competing frameworks for evaluating the moral status of extinction. “Further-loss” views, which have become prominent in contemporary philosophical discourse, argue that extinction would be profoundly bad because it forecloses the possibility of all future human flourishing, discovery, and moral progress. The loss is not confined to the suffering or deprivation of those alive at the moment of extinction, but extends to the incalculable opportunity costs of all the lives, achievements, and joys that will now never exist. This perspective is often associated with “longtermism,” a philosophical movement that places extraordinary value on the potential of future generations.

Yet, this is not the only way of understanding the ethics of extinction. “Equivalence” views contend that the moral status of extinction depends entirely on the manner in which it occurs. If humanity were to disappear without suffering—say, through a painless, instantaneous event—then extinction, in itself, is not uniquely problematic. From this perspective, the badness or wrongness of extinction is not intrinsic, but derivative: it depends on the harms or injustices involved in the process, rather than the simple fact of nonexistence.

A third, more radical strand of existential ethics is represented by “pro-extinctionist” views. Drawing on anti-natalist and deep ecological philosophies, some thinkers argue that extinction could be morally preferable to continued existence, particularly if the balance of human life is dominated by suffering or if humanity’s net impact on the biosphere is overwhelmingly negative. Anti-natalists such as David Benatar assert that coming into existence is itself a harm, and that the cessation of human life would bring about the end of suffering, exploitation, and environmental degradation. From this vantage, extinction is not a tragedy, but a liberation—an escape from the inherent pains of sentient existence and the destructive tendencies of our species.

The emergence and clash of these perspectives reflect deeper shifts in how we conceptualize value, obligation, and meaning in a secular, scientifically informed age. For much of Western history, as Torres and others have shown, the idea of extinction was blocked by religious and metaphysical doctrines that rendered it unintelligible or impossible. Only with the collapse of these beliefs, and the rise of scientifically credible “kill mechanisms,” did the ethical stakes of extinction become a subject of serious inquiry. Today, existential ethics is animated by the tension between unprecedented human power—our ability to shape the future of life on Earth and perhaps beyond—and an equally unprecedented vulnerability to self-inflicted or natural catastrophe.

The rise of longtermism has brought renewed urgency and coherence to the argument that extinction prevention should be a central priority for humanity. Proponents such as Nick Bostrom and Toby Ord emphasize the “astronomical value” of the long-term future, contending that the moral cost of extinction is not merely the loss of present lives, but the erasure of all possible future value, knowledge, and happiness. Yet, longtermism is not without its critics. Some question whether an unending human future is truly desirable, especially if it perpetuates inequality, suffering, or ecological harm. Others worry that a focus on distant futures may distract from urgent present-day injustices or lead to the neglect of non-human forms of value. Radical environmentalists and anti-natalists, meanwhile, argue that the continuation of humanity is not self-evidently good, and that the biosphere—or even the cosmos—might be better off without us.

In sum, the ethics of human extinction is a mirror for our deepest anxieties and aspirations—a field that forces us to confront not only the possibility of our end, but the meaning and value of our existence. Whether extinction would be a tragedy, a relief, or something in between remains fiercely debated. What is clear is that, in a world where extinction is possible, perhaps even probable, the question is no longer whether we should care, but how we should act in the face of such profound uncertainty.

VI. The Biosphere, Civilization, and the Feedback Loop of Collapse

The relationship between human extinction, biospheric collapse, and industrial civilization is best understood not as a simple, linear chain of cause and effect, but as a deeply recursive and mutually reinforcing feedback loop. Industrial civilization, with its technological prowess and relentless pursuit of economic growth, has fundamentally destabilized the biosphere—the intricate web of life and planetary systems that make human existence possible. This destabilization, in turn, dramatically increases the risk of civilizational collapse, which itself can further accelerate environmental degradation, creating a vicious cycle that makes the prospect of human extinction ever more likely.

At the core of this feedback loop is the way industrial civilization undermines the biosphere. The extraction of fossil fuels, deforestation, pollution, and the mass extinction of species have all contributed to the crossing of critical planetary boundaries. As leading scientists have warned, humanity has already transgressed several of these boundaries, opening the door to abrupt and potentially irreversible changes in Earth’s systems. For example, the risk of triggering runaway climate change could push the planet into a “Hothouse Earth” state, threatening the very conditions necessary for civilization to persist.

As the biosphere unravels, the stability of industrial civilization becomes increasingly precarious. Environmental degradation can lead to resource scarcity, food insecurity, mass migrations, and the breakdown of social and political order. Historical and contemporary examples—from the collapse of ancient societies like the Maya to modern cases of state failure driven by drought or ecological stress—demonstrate how environmental shocks can precipitate civilizational decline. In a globalized world, such shocks are not isolated; they can cascade across interconnected systems, amplifying the risk of systemic failure.

Crucially, the collapse of civilization does not halt environmental destruction; in many scenarios, it accelerates it. The breakdown of governance and infrastructure can lead to unregulated exploitation of remaining resources, the abandonment of environmental protections, and the proliferation of destructive practices. In the absence of coordinated responses, efforts to mitigate or adapt to environmental crises may falter, further degrading the biosphere and narrowing the window for recovery.

Some theorists warn that we are approaching—or may have already crossed—critical thresholds beyond which recovery is impossible. The concept of “tipping points” and “planetary boundaries” highlights the danger that certain changes, once set in motion, cannot be easily reversed within timescales meaningful to human societies. For example, if climate feedbacks push global temperatures past a certain threshold, the resulting environmental changes could render large parts of the Earth uninhabitable, disrupt agriculture, and collapse food systems. Similarly, the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services could undermine the resilience of both natural and human systems, making it increasingly difficult to respond to further shocks.

The recursive nature of this feedback loop is further complicated by the possibility that the collapse of industrial civilization could reduce our technological and organizational capacity to respond to existential threats. In one scenario, a weakened or fragmented global society might be unable to mount effective defenses against natural hazards such as asteroid impacts, pandemics, or runaway climate change. In another, the collapse itself could be the trigger for extinction, as the biosphere unravels and the basic conditions for human life—clean air, fresh water, stable climate, fertile soils—disappear.

In sum, the relationship between human extinction, biospheric collapse, and industrial civilization is a complex, recursive process marked by feedback loops and tipping points. Industrial civilization undermines the biosphere, which increases the risk of civilizational collapse; the collapse of civilization, in turn, can accelerate environmental degradation, pushing the biosphere—and humanity—closer to the brink.

VII. The Naked Apocalypse: Meaning and Responsibility

Unlike religious apocalypses that promise redemption or renewal, the prospect of human extinction in a secular age is a “naked apocalypse”—an end without meaning, consolation, or afterlife. The end of humanity is not a prelude to eternal life, divine judgment, or the fulfillment of a higher plan. Instead, it is a final, irrevocable cessation: Homo sapiens would simply vanish, with no afterlife, no spiritual continuity, and no cosmic narrative to imbue our disappearance with meaning. Extinction, in this naturalistic sense, is the kind of end that befell the dinosaurs and the dodos—they existed, and now they do not.

This realization imposes a unique and heavy burden of responsibility upon humanity. In a universe that is indifferent to our fate, there is no external agent—no deity, no providence, no metaphysical guarantee—that will intervene to ensure our survival. The task of preserving our species, and by extension the only known locus of meaning, value, and moral agency in the cosmos, falls entirely on us. The secular “existential hermeneutics” that now dominate our understanding of extinction force us to confront the stark reality that the continuity of human life is a contingent fact, not a cosmic necessity.

The practical implications of this shift are profound. If those who hold power—whether political leaders, corporate executives, or scientists—do not truly believe that extinction is possible, or if they treat it as an abstract improbability rather than an urgent risk, they are unlikely to take the necessary precautions to avert catastrophe. This complacency can be perilous. Just as a cyclist who is convinced they can never crash may stop wearing a helmet, societies that deny the plausibility of extinction may neglect the very safeguards—such as robust international cooperation, environmental stewardship, or existential risk research—that are essential for long-term survival.

The “naked apocalypse” also transforms the ethical landscape. In religious frameworks, the end of the world is often seen as the ultimate vindication of justice, a moment when the scales are balanced and suffering is redeemed. In contrast, secular extinction is an end without justification or narrative closure. There is no afterlife in which wrongs are righted, no cosmic memory to preserve our achievements or mourn our failures. The loss is total: not only the cessation of individual lives, but the erasure of all future generations, all potential knowledge, art, and moral progress.

This absence of cosmic consolation intensifies the stakes of existential risk. The very intelligibility of human extinction as a real possibility is a recent and radical development in Western thought. For much of history, the idea was blocked by metaphysical, ontological, and eschatological beliefs that rendered it incoherent or impossible. Only with the collapse of these “blocking” doctrines and the rise of scientifically credible “kill mechanisms” did the concept of extinction become culturally salient and ethically urgent.

Today, the “existential mood” of our era is characterized by a pervasive sense of vulnerability and impending catastrophe. The convergence of technological risks, environmental crises, and the recognition of our species’ fragility has created an atmosphere in which the possibility of extinction is no longer a distant abstraction but a central preoccupation. This mood, in turn, demands a new kind of ethical seriousness—a willingness to confront uncomfortable truths, to act collectively in the face of unprecedented risks, and to accept that the future of meaning and value in the universe may depend on our choices.

VIII. Conclusion: At the Precipice

Human extinction has transitioned from a distant abstraction to an imminent possibility, shaped by the accelerating collapse of the biosphere and the inherent contradictions of industrial civilization. The very forces that once propelled our species to unprecedented heights—technological ingenuity, economic expansion, and the mastery of nature—now threaten to unravel the ecological and social systems that sustain us. This paradox sits at the heart of our contemporary existential predicament: the tools of progress have become the engines of potential annihilation, and the line between flourishing and oblivion grows ever thinner.

The ethical stakes of this moment are enormous. The extinction of humanity would not simply mark the end of a species, but the loss of all future generations—the erasure of untold potential for knowledge, creativity, and moral progress. It would mean the silencing of the only known moral agents in the universe, extinguishing the possibility of meaning, value, and conscious experience. Human extinction in the secular, scientific sense is a “naked apocalypse,” an end without redemption, afterlife, or cosmic justification—a final silence in which all stories cease and all purposes dissolve.

This realization imposes a profound burden of responsibility. In a universe indifferent to our fate, the task of ensuring our survival falls entirely on us. The practical implications are clear: if those with the power to shape the future—political leaders, technologists, and the broader public—fail to recognize the plausibility of extinction, they are unlikely to take the necessary precautions. Such complacency increases the probability of catastrophe. The history of existential moods shows that our collective outlook on extinction has shifted rapidly in recent decades, but the challenge remains to translate this awareness into meaningful action.

Avoiding the fate of extinction demands more than technical fixes or incremental reforms. It requires a radical reimagining of our relationship with the Earth, with technology, and with each other. We must cultivate new forms of governance, ethics, and economic organization that prioritize resilience, stewardship, and the precautionary principle—values that stand in stark contrast to the short-termism and growth imperatives of the current order. This transformation is not guaranteed; it is an open question whether humanity can muster the foresight, solidarity, and humility necessary to steer away from the precipice.

Yet the alternative—a universe without us—is both a scientific possibility and a profound moral failure. To allow extinction through inaction or denial would be to abdicate our unique role as stewards of meaning and value in the cosmos. The challenge before us is daunting, but it is also clarifying: in the absence of external guarantees, the future of life, consciousness, and significance rests in our hands alone. Whether we rise to this responsibility will determine not only the fate of our species, but the fate of meaning itself in the universe.

Reference:

Torres, Émile P. Human Extinction: A History of the Science and Ethics of Annihilation. 1st ed. Routledge, 2023. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003246251.

Sea Level Rise and the Collapse of Industrial Civilization: Lessons from Paleoclimate and Modern Science

20 Tuesday May 2025

Posted by xraymike79 in Capitalism, Climate Change, Collapse of Industrial Civilization, Ecological Overshoot, Environmental Degradation

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Adaptation, antarctic ice sheet, Climate Change, Climate Policy, Coastal Flooding, Collapse of Civilizations, Doggerland, Ecological Overshoot, Environmental Collapse, Global Warming, Greenland Ice Sheet, Holocene, Ice Sheet Collapse, Industrial Civilization, Infrastructure Risk, Managed Retreat, Migration, Mitigation, Nonlinear Change, Paleoclimate, Sea Level Rise, Tipping Points

Introduction

The collapse of industrial civilization is often imagined as a distant, almost cinematic event, triggered by war, pandemic, or sudden resource exhaustion. Yet the most credible threat may be the slow, relentless encroachment of the sea—a process already underway, driven by the warming atmosphere and the melting of ancient ice. Recent advances in paleoclimate research, especially the high-resolution peat records from the North Sea (Hijma et al., 2025) and comprehensive ice sheet modeling (Stokes et al., 2025), reveal that our current trajectory is not simply a gradual rise in sea level, but a potential reactivation of catastrophic processes last seen at the end of the last Ice Age. Together, these studies paint a picture of a world on the brink of a transformation that could overwhelm the foundations of modern society.

I. Paleoclimate Lessons: The Early Holocene Analogy

The early Holocene, as reconstructed by Hijma et al. (2025), was a period of extraordinary sea level rise—nearly 38 meters between 11,000 and 3,000 years ago, with two distinct pulses reaching 8–9 mm per year. These rates, driven by synchronous meltwater pulses from both the North American and Antarctic ice sheets, are far faster than today’s global average and illustrate the climate system’s capacity for rapid, nonlinear change. In practical terms, this means that if similar feedbacks or synchronous ice sheet instabilities are triggered by ongoing anthropogenic warming, modern society could face much faster SLR than current averages or conservative projections suggest. The paleoclimate record thus acts as a warning: under certain conditions, the pace of SLR can shift abruptly, overwhelming adaptation efforts and posing severe risks to coastal infrastructure, populations, and economies within much shorter timescales than policymakers or planners might expect

These findings underscore that the rates of change seen in the early Holocene are not only possible but likely under continued anthropogenic warming. The paleoclimate record shows that large-scale landscape loss, human displacement, and the submergence of entire regions—such as Doggerland, the now-lost landmass that once connected Britain to Europe—are not hypothetical, but historical realities.

II. Modern Parallels: Ice Sheet Instability and Committed Sea Level Rise

Building on the paleoclimate foundation, Stokes et al. (2025) provide a comprehensive assessment of the current vulnerability of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, focusing on the feedback mechanisms that can drive rapid, nonlinear, and potentially irreversible ice loss. Their synthesis of paleoclimate data, satellite observations, and advanced ice sheet models reveals that the thresholds for triggering such feedbacks are alarmingly close—possibly already crossed under today’s warming of approximately +1.2°C above pre-industrial levels.

Key mechanisms include:

Surface elevation feedbacks on Greenland: As the ice sheet melts, its surface lowers in elevation, exposing it to warmer air at lower altitudes. This accelerates melting, which further lowers the surface, creating a self-reinforcing feedback loop. This process has been implicated in the rapid collapse of parts of the North American Ice Sheet during the last deglaciation, which contributed almost 4 meters of sea level rise per century. Central-west Greenland is now thought to be approaching a similar critical transition under current climate forcing, suggesting that this feedback could soon be fully activated.
Marine Ice Sheet Instability (MISI) in West Antarctica: Much of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is grounded below sea level on bedrock that slopes downward inland (a retrograde slope), making it highly vulnerable to ocean-driven melting. When warm ocean water thins the floating ice shelves near the grounding line, the grounding line retreats into deeper water, where the ice is thicker. This increases ice discharge into the ocean, further retreating the grounding line and perpetuating the instability. Recent modeling and observations indicate that present-day ocean thermal forcing may already be sufficient to initiate slow grounding-line retreat, followed by a phase of rapid mass loss over about 200 years, potentially raising global sea level by at least a meter. Notably, the collapse of Thwaites and Pine Island Glaciers—key outlets of the WAIS—appears likely under current conditions, and once set in motion, this process could become self-sustaining.
Marine Ice Cliff Instability (MICI): This hypothesized mechanism posits that when tall, unsupported ice cliffs—exposed after the loss of buttressing ice shelves—exceed a certain height (around 90–100 meters above sea level), they may collapse under their own weight. This could trigger a self-sustaining cycle of cliff failure and rapid ice sheet retreat, potentially resulting in multi-meter sea level rise per century. While the exact likelihood and timescales of MICI are still debated, the possibility of such abrupt, catastrophic ice loss adds significant uncertainty and risk to future projections.

Both studies emphasize a critical point: there is a substantial lag between atmospheric warming and the full response of the ice sheets. This means that even if greenhouse gas emissions were halted immediately, several meters of sea level rise are already “locked in” over the coming centuries due to processes already set in motion. The paleoclimate record from the North Sea, with its evidence of sudden, multi-meter pulses of sea level rise, underscores that these changes can occur not just gradually but in abrupt surges.

Furthermore, the current rates of ice mass loss from Greenland and Antarctica are already accelerating. Observations show that the WAIS, in particular, is losing mass at rates that, if sustained or increased, could lead to rapid deglaciation scenarios. The loss of ice shelves through processes such as long-term thinning, basal melting, and surface ponding makes the remaining ice more vulnerable to collapse, and the removal of these buttressing shelves can dramatically speed up glacier flow and grounding line retreat.

In summary, the modern parallels to past episodes of rapid sea level rise are clear and deeply concerning. The feedback mechanisms identified in both Greenland and Antarctica have the potential to unleash non-linear, large-scale ice loss, committing the planet to significant and possibly abrupt sea level rise. These processes, already underway, highlight the urgent (and persistently ignored) need for both aggressive mitigation and robust adaptation strategies, as the window to prevent the most extreme outcomes continues to narrow.

III. The Inadequacy of Current Climate Targets

The Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global temperature rise to +1.5°C above pre-industrial levels is widely regarded as the “safe” threshold for avoiding catastrophic climate impacts. However, both Stokes et al. (2025) and Hijma et al. (2025) present compelling evidence that this target is dangerously insufficient, particularly when it comes to sea level rise and ice sheet stability.

Stokes et al. (2025) make clear that even at today’s warming of approximately +1.2°C, the world is already committed to substantial ice loss from both Greenland and Antarctica. Their analysis of paleoclimate analogs, combined with contemporary ice sheet modeling, shows that the thresholds for triggering irreversible feedbacks—such as surface elevation feedbacks on Greenland and marine ice sheet instability in West Antarctica—may already have been crossed or are perilously close. Once these processes are initiated, they are largely self-sustaining and continue to drive ice loss and sea level rise for centuries or even millennia, regardless of future emissions reductions.

Moreover, Stokes et al. highlight the dangers of “overshoot” scenarios, in which global temperatures temporarily exceed the 1.5°C target before eventually being brought back down through mitigation or carbon removal. Their findings indicate that each decade spent above 1.5°C adds a measurable and irreversible increment to long-term sea level rise, even if temperatures are later reduced. This is because the physical processes governing ice sheet disintegration operate on much longer timescales than the political or economic cycles that drive emissions. Once critical thresholds are crossed, the resulting ice loss cannot simply be reversed by cooling the climate; the system is committed to a new, higher equilibrium sea level that may take thousands of years to stabilize.

The early Holocene record, as reconstructed by Hijma et al. (2025), reinforces this conclusion. Their high-resolution North Sea peat data show that even relatively modest and sustained increases in global temperature—far below the levels projected for the coming centuries—were sufficient to unleash rapid, multi-meter pulses of sea level rise. These events were not gradual or easily managed; they fundamentally reshaped coastlines, submerged vast areas of habitable land, and forced large-scale human migrations. The implication is that the Earth system’s response to warming is highly sensitive and nonlinear, with the potential for abrupt and irreversible changes even under seemingly moderate climate scenarios.

Perhaps most troubling, both studies emphasize that the timescales for ice sheet regrowth and sea level stabilization are measured in millennia, not decades or centuries. This means that the impacts of decisions made today—whether to allow further warming, to overshoot targets, or to delay mitigation—will reverberate for countless generations. The feedbacks that drove early Holocene sea level rise are not relics of the past; they are reactivating under current conditions, and their consequences will be effectively permanent on any human timescale.

In summary, the integrated evidence from Stokes et al. and Hijma et al. reveals that the Paris Agreement’s targets are scientifically inadequate for preventing dangerous sea level rise. The Earth system’s response to warming is not gradual, linear, or easily reversible. Instead, it is characterized by thresholds, feedbacks, and long-term commitments that demand far more urgent and aggressive action than current international goals and policies provide.

IV. The Cascading Impacts on Industrial Civilization

Economic and Infrastructural Collapse

The direct impacts of sea level rise—flooded cities, submerged infrastructure, and lost agricultural land—are well known, but the integration of recent studies reveals the alarming speed and scale at which these impacts can accumulate. If early Holocene rates of 8–9 mm/year are matched or exceeded in the coming centuries, as paleoclimate evidence and some modern projections warn, the world could see a meter or more of sea level rise within a human lifetime. This scenario would have profound and far-reaching consequences for industrial civilization.

Ports and Trade: Major ports, through which 90% of global trade flows, are concentrated in low-lying coastal zones. A meter or more of sea level rise would render many of these ports inoperable, disrupting global supply chains and causing cascading failures in international commerce.
Real Estate and Infrastructure: Trillions of dollars’ worth of coastal real estate could become submerged or uninsurable, with recent studies projecting that the economic costs to coastal cities could exceed $3 trillion by the end of this century. The costs of maintaining, repairing, or relocating infrastructure—including roads, bridges, and utilities—will skyrocket, straining municipal and national budgets.
Energy Systems: Refineries, power plants, and other critical energy infrastructure are disproportionately located near coastlines for access to shipping and cooling water. Rising seas and increased flooding threaten to disrupt energy production and distribution, increasing the risk of blackouts and fuel shortages.
Agriculture and Water: Fertile deltas and estuaries, which support hundreds of millions of people, are at risk of inundation and saltwater intrusion, leading to the loss of arable land and the contamination of freshwater supplies. This could trigger food crises and mass displacement in some of the world’s most densely populated regions.

Social and Political Destabilization

The loss of habitable land and economic assets will not be evenly distributed, amplifying existing inequalities. As Stokes et al. (2025) note, each centimeter of sea level rise can displace a million people. The early Holocene saw the abandonment of entire regions such as Doggerland; today, similar displacement would occur on a scale unprecedented in human history, potentially affecting hundreds of millions of people. This mass migration would strain social services, increase competition for resources, and heighten the risk of humanitarian crises and conflict over dwindling land and water.

Insurance and Financial Systems: Insurance markets are already retreating from high-risk coastal areas, and a collapse of these markets could trigger housing market crashes and broader fiscal crises. As the costs of defending or relocating infrastructure outpace available resources, governments will be forced into triage decisions, deepening social divisions and unrest.
Urban Vulnerability: By 2050, up to 800 million people could be living in cities at risk from sea level rise and coastal flooding, with economic costs to cities alone projected to reach $1 trillion by mid-century. Cities like New York, Miami, Shanghai, Mumbai, and Dhaka are especially vulnerable, facing both asset losses and large populations at risk of displacement.

Geopolitical Flashpoints

The melting of polar ice is not only a threat to existing centers of power but also opens new frontiers for resource extraction and geopolitical competition. The Arctic is rapidly becoming a zone of military and economic contest as nations vie for control over newly accessible oil, gas, and shipping lanes. Meanwhile, low-lying island nations and coastal megacities face existential threats, with little recourse but to seek international aid or, in the worst case, abandon their territories altogether.

Regional Shifts: As coastal regions decline, some inland areas may see relative economic gains as production and population shift away from flood-prone zones. However, this redistribution is unlikely to offset the massive global losses and will bring its own challenges, including infrastructure needs and social integration for climate migrants.
International Tensions: The displacement of large populations and the scramble for new resources could fuel international tensions, particularly in regions where borders are already contested or where resources are scarce.

In sum, the cascading impacts of sea level rise—economic, social, and geopolitical—threaten to undermine the foundations of industrial civilization. The speed at which these impacts could unfold, as demonstrated by both paleoclimate analogs and emerging scientific projections, underscores the urgent (and persistently ignored) need for comprehensive adaptation and mitigation strategies at every level of society.

V. The Adaptation Mirage and the Limits of Engineering

Both Stokes et al. (2025) and Hijma et al. (2025) express deep skepticism about the long-term viability of relying on engineering solutions—such as seawalls, levees, pumps, and barriers—to keep pace with accelerating sea level rise. While these measures can provide temporary protection and buy time for vulnerable communities, their effectiveness diminishes as the rate and magnitude of sea level rise increase. The cost of defending every vulnerable coastline is not only prohibitive but also subject to diminishing returns, especially as many cities are also contending with land subsidence, which can cause local relative sea levels to rise even faster than the global average.

Recent engineering experience and scientific analysis reinforce these concerns. Hard infrastructure like seawalls and levees can create a false sense of security, encouraging further development in at-risk areas—a phenomenon known as the “Safe Development Paradox.” When such defenses are eventually overtopped or breached by extreme events, the resulting damage is often even greater because more assets and people have been concentrated behind the barriers. Moreover, the maintenance costs for these structures escalate over time, and their design lifespans may be outstripped by the accelerating pace of sea level rise. For example, static, one-time investments in coastal defenses may prove inadequate if sea levels rise faster than projected, leading to costly retrofits or failures.

Flexible, adaptive approaches—such as incrementally raising seawalls or updating flood management strategies in response to observed changes—can be more cost-effective and reduce the risk of catastrophic outcomes. However, even these dynamic strategies have limits, especially as high-end projections for sea level rise approach or exceed a meter by 2100. In many cases, especially in low-lying or subsiding areas, the technical, financial, and social challenges of perpetual defense become insurmountable.

The paleoclimate record underscores the danger of overreliance on engineered defenses. Once thresholds are crossed, the pace of change can rapidly accelerate, overwhelming even the best-prepared societies. The early Holocene saw entire landscapes disappear beneath the sea in a matter of centuries, a rate of change that would outstrip the capacity of any modern engineering project to keep pace.

Given these realities, managed retreat—abandoning the most vulnerable areas in a planned and coordinated way—emerges as a necessary, if politically and socially challenging, adaptation strategy. Managed retreat involves relocating people, assets, and infrastructure away from high-risk zones, often through buyout programs, zoning changes, and restoration of natural coastal buffers. While this approach can be contentious and disruptive, it is increasingly recognized as the only viable long-term solution for many communities facing chronic inundation and escalating disaster risk.

Implementing managed retreat at scale requires significant political will, social consensus, and massive investment—all of which are often in short supply. Public resistance, legal hurdles, and the emotional and cultural ties people have to their homes present formidable obstacles. Successful examples of managed retreat, such as those in parts of New Zealand, Hawaii, and the Caribbean, demonstrate that with careful planning, community engagement, and supportive policies, relocation can be an opportunity to redesign safer, more resilient, and even more equitable coastal communities. However, these cases remain the exception rather than the rule, and most adaptation efforts worldwide still focus on protection and accommodation rather than retreat.

In summary, while engineering solutions will remain part of the adaptation toolkit, the accelerating pace and scale of sea level rise revealed by both paleoclimate and modern science mean that they cannot be the sole or ultimate answer. Societies must confront the difficult (and mostly ignored) reality that some places will need to be abandoned, and that proactive, well-planned managed retreat may offer the best chance to reduce long-term losses and build resilience in the face of an inexorably rising sea.

VI. Lessons from Doggerland: The Human Cost of Inaction

The drowning of Doggerland, as reconstructed by Hijma et al. (2025), stands as a powerful cautionary tale for our time. Doggerland was once a vast, fertile landscape stretching between present-day Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark, serving as a crucial corridor for human migration and cultural exchange between continental Europe and the British Isles.Archaeological finds—including stone tools, animal bones, and even human footprints—demonstrate that Doggerland supported thriving Mesolithic communities, with abundant resources that encouraged both permanent and semi-permanent settlements.

As the last Ice Age ended and global temperatures rose, melting glaciers caused sea levels to rise steadily. Between 10,000 and 7,000 years ago, Doggerland was gradually inundated, breaking up into a series of low-lying islands before finally slipping beneath the waves of the North Sea.This transformation was not a single, sudden event but a drawn-out process punctuated by episodes of rapid change, such as those triggered by meltwater pulses and possibly catastrophic events like the Storegga Slide tsunami around 6200 BCE. The submergence of Doggerland ultimately cut off Britain from the European continent, fundamentally altering the geography and human history of the region.

The archaeological and geological evidence suggests that the people of Doggerland were forced to adapt, migrate, or perish as their homeland disappeared. Some may have moved to higher ground, contributing to the spread of Neolithic culture and agriculture in the British Isles.Others likely faced hardship, loss of resources, and the trauma of displacement. The gradual but relentless encroachment of the sea would have repeatedly upended lives, destroyed settlements, and erased entire landscapes from human memory.

Today, we face a similar reckoning, but on a vastly larger scale. The modern world’s coastal cities, deltas, and low-lying nations are home to hundreds of millions—far more than the Mesolithic populations of Doggerland. The difference, however, is that we have forewarning. High-resolution paleoclimate data and modern modeling now allow us to anticipate the risks and visualize the potential futures that unchecked sea level rise could bring. The lessons of Doggerland are not just academic: they are a direct warning about the consequences of inaction.

Yet, knowledge alone is not enough. The inertia of the Earth system—where ice sheet responses to warming unfold over centuries or millennia—means that much of the coming sea level rise is already set in motion. At the same time, the inertia of human systems—political, economic, and social—slows our ability to respond effectively. Delays in adaptation, denial of risk, and the immense challenge of relocating populations and infrastructure all threaten to repeat the tragedies of the past, but on a scale never before witnessed.

Doggerland reminds us that entire societies can be lost to the sea, their stories only rediscovered millennia later by archaeologists dredging the seabed. The fate of Doggerland’s people—forced to migrate, adapt, or disappear—foreshadows the stark choices facing coastal populations today and the dire consequences for delaying action.

VII. Predicting the Timing and Nature of Collapse

The Next Century: From Chronic Crisis to Systemic Failure

If current emissions trends persist, both Hijma et al. (2025) and Stokes et al. (2025) indicate that the world will move from a period of chronic, somewhat manageable coastal challenges to an era of acute, systemic failures—potentially within a single century. The early Holocene’s rapid sea level rise pulses, as revealed by the North Sea peat records, serve as a sobering analogue for what could occur if the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets cross their respective tipping points. These tipping points are thresholds beyond which ice loss accelerates rapidly and becomes largely unstoppable, even if temperatures stabilize or decline later.

By 2100, a global mean sea level rise of one meter or more is plausible—well within the range of high-end projections, especially if non-linear ice sheet responses are triggered. This level of rise would have profound, cascading consequences:

Overwhelming Urban Defenses: Existing coastal defenses in major cities such as New York, Shanghai, Mumbai, Jakarta, London, and Miami would be overwhelmed. Many of these cities are already experiencing regular tidal flooding, and a meter of additional sea level would render current infrastructure obsolete, exposing millions to chronic inundation and storm surges.
Mass Displacement: Conservative estimates suggest that tens to hundreds of millions of people would be forced to relocate from low-lying coasts, river deltas, and island nations. The logistical, economic, and social challenges of such mass migration are unprecedented in human history, with the potential to destabilize entire regions.
Cascading System Failures: Food production would be disrupted as fertile deltas and coastal farmlands are lost to salinization and flooding. Energy systems—particularly those reliant on coastal infrastructure—would become increasingly vulnerable, and the global trade network would be thrown into chaos as ports are submerged or rendered inoperable. These interconnected failures could ripple through supply chains, leading to shortages, inflation, and widespread hardship.
Fiscal Collapse: The costs of defending, relocating, or abandoning coastal infrastructure would strain national and municipal budgets to the breaking point. Insurance markets could collapse, property values could plummet, and the fiscal solvency of states—especially those with large coastal populations and assets—could be undermined, triggering broader economic crises.

The transition from chronic to acute crisis would not be a singular, dramatic event but a series of escalating shocks—each one eroding the resilience of social, economic, and political systems. As the frequency and severity of coastal disasters increase, the ability of governments and communities to respond effectively will diminish, accelerating the slide toward systemic failure.

The Long View: Irreversible Transformation

Looking beyond the next century, the paleoclimate record and current modeling suggest that several meters of sea level rise are all but inevitable over the coming centuries to millennia, even if emissions are sharply reduced. The inertia of the Earth system means that the processes set in motion today will continue to unfold long after current generations are gone.

Redrawing the World’s Map: Multi-meter sea level rise would permanently redraw global coastlines, submerging entire nations—such as the Maldives, Tuvalu, and parts of Bangladesh—and erasing iconic cities and cultural heritage sites. The loss of coastal land would force a reorganization of human civilization on a scale not seen since the end of the last Ice Age, when the flooding of Doggerland and other lowlands fundamentally altered the course of human history.
Permanent Loss of Infrastructure and Livelihoods: Ports, airports, industrial zones, and entire cities would be lost to the sea, along with the livelihoods and identities tied to those places. The economic and psychological toll of such loss is difficult to quantify but would be immense.
Ecological Shifts: The transformation of coastlines would also have profound ecological consequences, altering habitats for countless species and disrupting the delicate balance of coastal and marine ecosystems.

The nature and pace of this collapse will be shaped by the actions taken in the coming decades. If humanity acts decisively to limit warming, aggressively reduce emissions, and invest in adaptation and managed retreat, the transition may be managed—painful, costly, and disruptive, but not necessarily catastrophic. Societies could adapt to new coastlines, develop resilient infrastructure, and find ways to support displaced populations.

However, if action is delayed or insufficient (delay, deny, and obfuscate has been and continues to be the playbook of corporate capitalism), then the collapse is likely to be chaotic, violent, and irreversible. The combination of accelerating sea level rise, social and political instability, and economic breakdown will lead to a future where large regions become ungovernable, humanitarian crises become chronic, and the achievements of industrial civilization are swept away by the rising tide.

References:

Hijma, M. P., et al. (2025). Global sea-level rise in the early Holocene revealed from North Sea peats. Nature 639, 652–657. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08769-7
Stokes, Chris R., et al. (2025). Warming of +1.5 °C is too high for polar ice sheets. Nature: Communications Earth & Environment 6, 351. https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-025-02299-w

In Centuries and Seconds

03 Thursday Dec 2015

Posted by td0s in Capitalism, Climate Change, Ecological Overshoot, Empire, Environmental Degradation, Peak Oil

≈ 21 Comments

Tags

Anarchism, Anti-civ, Collapse, Global Warming, Inca, Industrial Civilization, Paris Terrorist Attacks, Revolution, Time

From PrayforCalamity
By TDoS

—

She was a yearling. Not very large, maybe one hundred pounds I would guess, as I was able to easily hoist her body into the back of my Jeep. Gauging by the blood leaking from her ears and mouth and lack of any other visible wounds, I assumed the car that killed her struck her in the head, possibly breaking her neck. What I could not gauge was how long she had been lying dead on the side of the highway. Her eyes were open and not yet eaten by birds, and her anus was also free of any infestation. I chuckle to myself when I imagine the reaction more domesticated individuals might have if they knew that there are people like myself who assess the edibility of roadkill by the presence of uncorrupted eyes and assholes. To be fair, I also took stock of the stiffness of her body and the lack of any immediately offensive odors emanating from it. She was worth taking home for a greater look, anyway.

From a cross beam of the carport I anchored a carabiner, and I fastened another to the yearling’s hind legs so I could create a “z-rig” pulley system, effectively halving her weight so that I could hoist her body into the air and tie of the cordage without help from a second person. My partner was going to come outside and watch the dressing so she could have a greater understanding of the process, and she bundled up our daughter too, who showed no fear or anxiety concerning the large animal hanging dead before her. Gently, I explained that the deer had died, and I was going to harvest its meat for us to eat. Not yet two, she stood looking at the yearling and said, “Deer, off.”

“Yes honey, the deer is off.”
“Deer, on?”
“She can’t be turned back on. Once something dies, it cannot come back to life. But her spirit and her flesh return to the Earth.”
“Deer, off.”
“Yes baby.”

—

The year is closing as we approach the winter solstice. From the corners we inhabit, we watch the fallout from terrorist attacks in Paris and the downing of a Russian war plan by the Turkish military. Those who tally the climate statistics are telling us that 2015 is set to be the warmest year on record, globally. South Africa grapples with drought, the rainforests of the Amazon are burning, and world leaders sent to negotiate climate deals are converging on a Paris conveniently locked down by security forces preventing mass demonstrations under emergency restrictions imposed due to the aforementioned terrorist attacks. Not that it matters. Floats and puppets are fun to look at, but only a complete restructuring of society could address the challenge of climate change, and that restructuring begins with erasing existing borders and property lines, canceling existing debts, dismantling industrial infrastructure, and of course, toppling the standing systems of power. The puppets and street theater capable of such feats, I would love to see. As I have previously stated (and my blog name continually hints at) I do not believe humans capable of achieving such goals, at least, not without a little help from our friends calamity and chaos. The gatekeepers are just too well equipped to stave off conscious revolution. If you want to get into the citadel, you will just have to wait until a tornado throws a bulldozer through the wall, or a plague kills most of the guards.

Until then we watch, we wait, and we endure. We keep repeating the conventional wisdom of collapse; that which cannot be sustained, will not sustain. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it didn’t collapse in a day, either. The collapse of a civilization is not one event, but the consummation of many events that eventually birth a catastrophe that overwhelms the ability of that civilization’s people to rebuild what has been destroyed, whether material or social.

Fast collapse and slow collapse are really the same thing, looked at from different vantage points. What is built over centuries can end in seconds.

—

November 16, 1532. Francisco Pizarro has one hundred and sixty eight men laying an ambush in the Inca city of Cajamarca. Atahualpa, the emperor of the Inca empire, arrives for a meeting with the Spanish backed by an unarmed cadre of six thousand. A friar and barely competent translator tell Atahualpa they are there, in essence, to bring the Inca into the fold of the Catholic church and the Spanish empire, and they offer him a bible as a seal of their truth. As was to be expected, and likely, the intention of the Spanish, Atahualpa rejects what he is being offered. This rejection of the bible and the truth of the Catholic church gave the Spaniards what they considered to be legal grounds to attack the Inca who had amassed there. A century of empire with its conquest, expansion, and grandeur, could be said, to have ended in the following seconds.

Those seconds, however, were the ripe culmination of years of internal strife concerning who the rightful heir to the imperial throne was, a waning ability of the empire to effectively control far flung principalities, and a plague of smallpox brought to Mesoamerica by Europeans that advanced faster than conquistadors on horseback. Political turmoil and disease were eating away at the Inca empire, and the Spanish arrived just in time to add the critical pressure necessary to break it. And they had guns.

History, of course, is complex, and the fall of the Inca empire extended beyond the massacre at Cajamarca, as Pizarro played disaffected Inca regions against the center, installed puppet emperors, and fought rebellions. As the colonization of the Inca proceeded, European diseases continued to decimate the indigenous population as well. The Inca actually learned how to effectively defeat the advantage of firearms, but the viruses ravaging their insides were too much.

Depending on where we stand, we can focus on the centuries or the seconds.

If tomorrow the Dow Jones Industrial plummeted by seventy percentage points or NATO declared war on Russia, we would likely see those seconds as the critical break between the past and the future, the old world and the new. But of course, years of maneuvering by humans and the consequences of those movements all came together to generate just the specific combination of factors required to outflank the established firewalls civilization has established to protect itself, and to outpace the efforts at rebuilding that are guaranteed in the aftermath of catastrophe. Resource scarcity primarily in the sphere of fossil fuel energy, the manipulation of capital to the point of diminishing returns by the global ultra-wealthy, the decimation of ecosystems around the world; all have played their part in dressing the set for those critical seconds that seem to hang over us like a sword.

—

How does an organism die? If you magnify the death of any given being, presumably you can find one second, one still frame in time that separates living from dying. When we die of old age in the most quintessential of circumstances – our heads atop a fluffed down pillow as we lie repose in a king-sized bed replete with Egyptian cotton sheets and a mahogany headboard, family and adorers walling in our bedside and wishing us fair travels as we draw a final breath, smile, and say something childishly simple yet agonizingly profound – a critical second passes when our heart ceases to beat, electrical impulses in our brain fade, and we’re gone. The room exhales.

But we were dying for so long. How many years had it been since our body’s ability to repair cellular breakdown was outpaced by the aging process? We had peaked decades before. From that point forward, despite every adventure, every new idea, every material acquisition, we were hurtling ever forward toward our imminent demise. Our vision blurred, so a doctor prescribed us glasses. Our heart stuttered, so we began taking pills. Our mobility waned so we got a Hov-R-Round from the Scooter Store thanks to the endless advertisements targeted towards we septuagenarians aired on day time TV. We pressed on.

Our bodies contain countless living beings and units; cells, tissues, and bacteria that all comprise the whole of what we perceive as our self. A veritable civilization that is born and advances through stages of growth and maturation until the energy necessary to maintain integrity is outpaced by diminishing returns. We insert techno-fixes of every imaginable stripe to stem the twin tides of time and entropy, buying what time we can until the inevitable enters stage left to take us by the hand and demurley return us to the soil.

Civilizations are no different. Shaped in centuries, defined in seconds, feeding the fertile soils of time. Billions of human hands and minds carving, digging, screaming, warring, building, repairing, maintaining until it just isn’t enough and the center can no longer hold. Hydraulic fracturing, negative interest rates, solar arrays and soyburgers all applied to patch the holes and to bail the bilge water. Industrial civilization passed its peak decades ago, sometime around the time when women in skirts freely attended University in Kabul and the United States didn’t need to stand guard over Wahhabist Monarchs in the House of Saud in order to keep the game of growth afloat. Selfie sticks and social media stock options are your glasses and nitroglycerin. The internet is your Hov-R-Round. Do not kid yourself into thinking this is a civilization still in the wild throws of maturation and bloom. The billions of organisms that make this civilization possible are under threat, from phytoplankton to pollinating insects and carbon sequestering trees, all of whom feed the the billions of humans who swing hammers and pour concrete and fit pipes and string lines and who somehow, by some curse of the lottery of birth, drag themselves to the factories and cubicle farms day in and day out, all to keep this storm born Galleon afloat. Shaped in so many of our precious seconds, defined in the roil of faceless centuries, feeding the fertile soils of time.

—

The car struck her head, I had guessed. Her life probably ended quickly in a split second of sound and light. Without any abrasions on the body, I assumed the meat would be well preserved by the cold evening air. With only a beam of light to guide my hands under the dark of night, I gently separated her hide from her flesh, using light strokes of my knife to cut away at the membrane that held her skin to her flesh. Something was wrong. Her skin had a green tone in places around her ribs. I cut away more, examining the muscle as I worked. The green hue, almost an electric blue really, blotted here and there on her leg muscles, like watercolor oceans on an aging map. Hoping the backstrap was untainted I continued to skin the deer, but it was hopeless. On her left hind leg a subcutaneous tear in the protective membrane had likely allowed the passage of bacteria. She must have been spun or thrown by the vehicle in some fashion that impacted her rear leg with a substantial force.

The meat was inedible. I sighed in the night. Fog from my mouth drifted upwards as I set my knife down, and lowered her body. Walking beneath the stars I carried the yearling downhill, briars grabbing at my boots, twigs snapping underfoot. I thanked her and apologized while burying her under a light blanket of leaves. Coyotes, buzzards, someone would eat her. Someone with an enviable array of gut flora. I plodded and crunched my way home to wash the blood from my hands and wrists. The smell would last for days.

Your Worst Enemy

23 Monday Nov 2015

Posted by td0s in Climate Change, Ecological Overshoot, Environmental Degradation, Peak Oil

≈ 19 Comments

Tags

addiction, Collapse, communication, community, Dark Mountain Project, Industrial Civilization, MZBs, preppers, self defense, Self improvement, tribe

By TDoS
Cross Posted from: Prayforcalamity.com
—

Cold northern air pushed south for a few days granting us the slight chill we have come to expect on a November morning. Heavy winds rattled the bare fingers of oak and hickory like blades of prairie grass. Woodsmoke seasoned the air and warmed my soul as I walked the compost toilet bucket out to the pile to be dumped and covered. Two days later temperatures were right back up again as firearm deer hunting season opened. I wanted to spend my Sunday morning waiting quietly in a tree, scanning the ridge line for a sizable white tail, but decided against it when I saw that the high for the day would be seventy degrees. The forecast calls for the cool air to return, so for now, I postpone the hunt, and cross my fingers in the hope that driving home from work late at night I will see a freshly hit roadkill deer that I can harvest instead. Their habitat long converted to highway, I honestly prefer making use of a collision killed deer than pulling the trigger anyway.

The collapse blogs and forums are often rife with talk of such things. There are those who suggest that in a world where grocery stores are shuttered or where there is no money to purchase what they might still contain, people will need to return to hunting and foraging where possible. At such suggestions, there are those who counter that the skill to harvest and process and meat is lost of the vast majority of the population. There are others who then counter that actually, in such a scenario the fields and streams would quickly be stripped bare of any game or fish as hordes of people begin shooting at anything that moves, whether they know how to properly process and preserve the meat or not. After years of collapse minded discussion on the internet, I think it is fair to say that there are many pockets of cliches and conventional wisdoms that have taken root and found their loyalties. Fast collapse, slow collapse, hyper inflation, deflationary depression, bug out, bug in, long slow die off, near term human extinction, etc. ad nauseam. Flow charts of collapse hypothesis each complete with their experts and their laundry list of survival purchases.

Over the years I have found myself settling in the realm of thought promoted by the Dark Mountain Project. I do my best not to make a lot of predictions that don’t go beyond vague guesses at trends, and I primarily try to push the notions of personal and communal endurance, adaptability, and dignity. History’s arc is very long, and it is easy to find ourselves as individuals belonging to a time that we believe from where we stand to be of particular importance or meaning. Such assumptions are vanity. The decline of industrial civilization, yes, will result in the creation of miserable conditions for most of humanity, and as we live through and beyond such times, we shall be tested. We are not going to solve the major crises. We are going to be called upon to endure them. Such endurance is likely beyond many in the western world who have never imagined, let alone suffered true hardship. The age of fossil fuels has not only softened rich bodies, but it has softened rich hearts and minds. It has convinced many that death and pain are an unfairness, one that we could, and should, banish from existence. More vanity. More hubris. To be sure, more blindness, as such soft minds are closed off to the suffering and death that formed the foundation of their very comfort to begin with.

Banish your vanity now. Welcome the dirt under your fingernails. Accept that you are not, nor your culture, the protagonist in a meaningful drama. Visions and stories you have created in your mind in which you are a central performer are phantoms of your own amusement. Dispel them. Be here. Take a good stock of who you actually are.

—

Mutant zombie bikers (MZB’s for short) are the foil of those who monitor collapse. MZB’s are the unwashed masses. Unprepared for collapse, they don their truck tire armor and necklaces strung with the teeth of their victims and then move over the suburbs and hinterlands seeking families and farmers to massacre in their grand quest for canned peaches, gasoline, and murderous skin harvesting glory. They are the primary enemy portrayed in the dystopian future sketched out in most collapse related conversation.

I would like to offer a counter notion; your worst enemy will be yourself. This suggestion, I hope, can steer us from the primacy of the notion that navigating social collapse is going to be best achieved by those who most willingly point guns at everyone else.

If in fact, a grand collapse of sorts occurs and the social and economic systems that the vast majority of people rely upon fail, it will not likely be a man built like a WWE wrestler riding a tricked out Harley and brandishing a flaming nail bat who kills you. It will be your own inability to work with a group. It will be your own lifetime of poor health choices. It will be all of the ebooks about wild edible plants that you downloaded and never read. It will be your hubris, your panic, your depression, your anger, and primarily your inability to adapt to unpredictable and ever changing conditions.

For what it is worth, this is the concept I would like to toss into the gyre of collapse discussion. How self improvement now not only increases one’s chances of survival in the event of any emergency, short or long, but further, how such improvement greatly benefits one’s life even in the absence of societal breakdown. Successfully navigating dire circumstances that present physical, mental, and emotional challenges requires fortitude on all fronts – body, mind, and soul. Doing the work to improve oneself on these fronts is not likely to be a waste should calamity never strike, in the same way that “prepper” purchases of five years worth of EZ Mac and banana chips might be. Mice will never eat your improved physical stamina. A flood will not wash away your uncluttered mind.

—

Let’s face it, life in the modern era in western nations has shaped most of our interactions to flow along the patterns and dictates of the economic system; capitalism. Short, shrift transactions where one exchanges paper notes for food do not establish a bond between buyer and seller. More often than not, the owner of such food is not even present, and we interact with low wage workers who operate cash registers, and the bulk of our acquisitions of necessities is at the behest of a system which at times even generates resentment of all the other humans around us. We are infuriated by traffic, long lines, and crowded spaces. Community bonds are threadbare. True reliance on one and other that flows equally back and forth is rare. So what happens when this social and economic paradigm crumbles? Do you have the ability to work well in a group? Can you keep from yelling or being over bearing? Do you dominate conversations and interrupt others? Do you dismiss women or people who aren’t white? Do you even notice if or when you do these things? When the humans around you become a de facto band that must cooperate to survive, can you set your ego and your ideology aside? Can you be the first to give before having received? Can you politely disagree? It may seem silly to present such concerns, but truly, communication has been so degraded by generations of commercial transaction replacing communal reciprocity, not to mention newly invented forms of abbreviated, faceless, eye-contactless device to device texting, that I think a focus on just being able to talk to one another in order to effectively organize crisis response should be a priority. Do you really want to find yourself outcast because everyone around you thinks that your a blowhard asshole?

Of course, habits that trend in the opposite direction could be just as deadly. Are you a doormat? Do you speak up for yourself? Are you easily manipulated? Do you fear speaking your mind when your opinion is unpopular? Can you say “no” and mean it? An ability to judge when to defer to group dynamics and when to pull back from activities you believe to be foolish, dangerous, or a waste of energy is crucial. Of course, navigating the emotions and egos of others is a delicate matter, and doing so forms the basis of politics. When your life is on the line, you will need to swallow your pride one day, draw a line in the sand the next, and hopefully make the right choice as to the when and why for both.

Meanwhile, our habits and addictions will haunt us when all of the usual patterns change, and then change again. If right now you are a smoker, a drinker, if you are addicted to sugar, to caffeine (my personal drug of choice) or just happen to need a particular anti-depressant or antipsychotic to get out of bed, how will you fare when the chemicals your brain requires to function are not available? What is your current physical status? Here in the US, the lion’s share of the population travels by some form of petroleum powered vehicle on a regular basis. Has this made you a bit soft around the middle? Or has a steady diet of sugar softened you sort of all over? The ability to walk long distances over varied terrain while carrying a load, perhaps water, perhaps wood, perhaps a child, would probably serve well. The ability to defend yourself without a weapon, would probably serve well. The ability to live two weeks on nothing but mashed turnips without flipping out on everyone around you at the slightest annoyance because your body is craving a Diet Coke and a Parliament Light might just serve you well.

And I am not pitching machismo. I know too well that a smile, a nod, a low calm voice, can in the right circumstances carry more power than a grounded right cross. Well rounded and adaptable, clear headed and resourceful, that is what I am pitching.

This is why I decry the prepper mentality of stockpiling large caches of goods. That is just consumerism. That is just altering a bad habit to feel like a good habit. Sure, having food in the house, useful tools, toilet paper and jumper cables does make sense. Twenty-Five buckets of mylar sealed white sugar is an absurdity. No matter what emergency you encounter, be it a car accident on a stormy evening, a house fire, or full on “the-grid-went-down-thanks-to-Chinese-hackers-cracked-out-on-energy-drinks-and-promises-of-state-provided-communist-love-girls,” the one thing you will always have on you, is you. Your mind, your body, and your spirit are primary. If these are out of balance or in a dysfunctional state, why would you assume that a Rubbermaid Tub full of Pepto-Bismol would be of any use?

You need to fill your mind, hone your body, and steel your spirit. This is a constant as we live. The work never stops. But as we travel, and work at our wisdom, our knowledge, and our fitness, we must also learn how to successfully integrate this blossoming self with others. Communities don’t just happen, because trust doesn’t just happen; communication doesn’t just happen.

—

Tribe is hard. Manufactured tribe, anyway. I have never experienced a true tribe; a family linked through time and space, culture and common cause. What I have experienced are groups of people who came together with grand purpose. The torment of hours long meetings with Occupy, the drama of interpersonal conflicts with pipeline blockades, the sheer inability to commit to the work required at failed communes and intentional communities; I have seen it all. In each case, there was success and their was failure. In each case, good intentions ran head first into fatigue, a lack of resources, and at times, post traumatic stress. And in each of those cases, the greater support system of society still existed as a fall back. Dirty, cold and hungry, I watched people do unexpectedly amazing things, no doubt. But stores still had food, even if the only food we could afford was in the dumpster. We could check out, step back, any time we wanted. When the stress of it all was too much to bear, one could return to the “real world” and level out. A collapse scenario will offer no such quarter.

It is said that tough times don’t last, but tough people do. I am not trying to sell some notion of myself as complete or without flaw. I am just as guilty of seeing myself not as I am, but as I have imagined myself to be. I possess plenty of traits and habits which I need to work to better, starting with my ability to calmly and accurately communicate. If I were slower to frustrate and to anger, that would likely be a boon. Despite the constant work that living in a post collapse world would require, I could personally benefit from a greater ability to slow down, to sit still, and to meditate. To just breathe and exist. I think it would strengthen my spirit, even if only by allowing me to take in more beauty and joy that I currently let pass me by in favor of tending to endless tasks. We talk tirelessly about survival, but forget sometimes that without attention to the things that make life worth living, we can never truly thrive.

The time to work on ourselves, is now. Your communication, your patience, and your tolerance, all are best improved now while daily caloric intake doesn’t necessarily rest upon them. The time to break habits of sloth, or poor diet, or of resistance to any work that makes muscles sore and brow sweat, is now. The time to take self dense classes and to increase your self confidence and endurance, is now. The time to abandon phantom notions of your protagonist self in favor of honest assessment of your strengths and weaknesses while simultaneously relieving yourself of your doughy first world comfort requirements, is now. Take cold showers. Eat more vegetables. Forgive small debts. Compliment and be patient with others. Walk.

Of course, the hard part is that the pizza is still hot, the beer still cold, and the new season of Game of Thrones is on, and all of it is available twenty-four seven and you wouldn’t even have to speak to another human being, let alone be kind to them, to get any of it. And there is work. And there are bills to pay. Maybe next month when I get a little further ahead. I’ll quit smoking. I’ll quit drinking. I’ll spend less time on the internet and more time with other people. Next month.

You are your worst enemy, but you don’t have to be.

The Autumn Breathes

09 Monday Nov 2015

Posted by td0s in Capitalism, Climate Change, Ecological Overshoot, Empire, Inequality, Peak Oil

≈ 44 Comments

Tags

Climate Change, Collapse, forest fire, Industrial Civilization, refugee crisis, superstorm, yemen

By TD0S at PrayforCalamity.com
___

Deep in the hardwood forest I watch the first orange light crest over the eastern ridge as dawn unfolds casting its warmth on the surface of the yawning Earth. Poplar trunks stand firm above the gold and brown leaf cover that now mulches the hopeful seedlings while granting the white tail deer an auditory advantage over those who would stalk them through the hollers. At this time of year the forest exhales and retreats from the above ground toil of photosynthesis to a season of focus within the dense and teeming skin of the planet. Without the brush and laden bough, one can see for miles across the waves of ridge and ravine. Sound is without obstacle, and seems almost propelled by the chill wind when it punctures the otherwise heavy silence. The feeling is one of calm, of that restfulness that comes when one crawls into bed and their leg muscles finally release the day’s tension. Autumn contains a library of lessons, none of which can be learned until one is still, patient, and not fucking talking.

My year was not what I had planned for it to be. Many tasks remain undone. Our family was interfered with by a local government body, and we are now in the process of installing an overpriced septic system for our cabin. It is a headache, to be sure, dealing with puffed up bureaucrats and their ad hoc adherence to antiquated and at times contradictory laws. As is often the case in this society, compliance is cheaper and faster than justice. Proving to a judge my case that I should not be required to acquire such a system would find me spending more money, time, and personal energy than just going along with the racket that the good old boys and connected families have established in these parts. I have made my peace with the conflict, and am calmly dancing through the hoops laid out for me. When all is said and done, the cabin I built with my two hands will be a legal residence in the event that we ever decide to move and to sell our land. Property value and all that, right?

Here we are again, dear readers, staring down another winter in which we can together reflect on the state of the world, both the portion that modern humans point their attention at, as well as to the far larger portion where, as Cormac McCarthy wrote, “Storms blow and trees twist in the wind, and all of the animals that God has made go to and fro.” Despite a massive downturn in the global economy, money moves and the smokestacks belch their poison. To be sure, man’s world of markets and digital notations percolates. An event is brewing that portends itself in plummeting rig counts and commodity prices. What grand show this event will perform for people rich enough to have a stake in it is to be seen. The rest of us will scrape by like the peasants that we are until even scraping fails, and only bloodletting remains.

Superstorms and hurricanes ravage from Texas to Yemen. Starved and hopeless human beings are playing the only card they have and abandoning the sure death that awaits their children in the war ravaged and drought plagued middle eastern and north African regions. Rich white people who are to blame for such wars, droughts, and famines are bellowing from the America’s, clear across Europe, and down to Australia about the brown victims of centuries of Anglo-capitalism and how they are not supposed to do anything but suffer their circumstances in place. Where these white adherents to national boundary and culture were as the US, UK, and other global powers were setting about to wage war and destabilize governments in these now uninhabitable places, I’m not exactly sure.

This is the crisis unfolding. This is what it looks like. Real life plays out a lot more slowly than the Hollywood scripts that have to crunch collapse adventures into one hundred and twenty minute films complete with explosions, comeuppance, and a love story for the girls. Tracking the decline of global industrial civilization is seemingly gaining in popularity, and it is all too common for those new to such a curiosity to expect an impending grand finale in which all bets are off; the power grid fails, store shelves empty, gas pumps get bagged, and all hell breaks loose in suburban cul-de-sacs where soccer moms in body armor pump 7.62 into hordes of urbanites (read: blacks and latinos…OK, and maybe a few white guys with neck tattoos get plugged for good measure) who are scouring the once idyllic portions of America in search of condensed soup and cheerleaders for their rape rooms.

Instead another year grinds by in which forest fires destroyed more than they ever had in North america, heat waves killed thousands in Pakistan, sea levels continued their upward march, and political institutions seemed ever more and more inept in the face of all the compounding emergencies that industrial civilization faces. Even my own humble region was affected by unseasonable levels of rain this July which were punctuated by a night of flash flooding that tested my mettle and resolve as I spent hours trying to find an unblocked path home.

Of course, we know that there are no solutions, not for the major crises. There is no putting back what is broken, and limits to growth are not optional. They are not suggested daily values. Sustainability isn’t a lifestyle choice. That which cannot be sustained will not be. For us as individuals, families, tribes, and communities, there is only endurance. How do we get by, and not just with the calories in our gut to labor forth, but with the joy in our hearts to make us want to carry on? Times of decline are times of darkening in the human heart and soul. Atrocity follows shortage. A world of hunger, hate, and blood is a world in which human conscience is called upon to rise, to shield, to burn brightly, despite less and less obvious motivation to do so.

The year draws down and grants us all yet another season to breathe. Let us use the time wisely.

The Twilight of Our Tale: Part Two

02 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by xraymike79 in Capitalism, Ecological Overshoot, Environmental Degradation, Pollution

≈ 34 Comments

Tags

Acidic Oceans, Body Burden, Capitalism, Demon, Ecological Collapse, Ego Tunnel, Greer, Industrial Civilization, Metzinger, Mind, Myth, Story, toxicity

Author: td0s

Cross-posted at Pray for Calamity

Part 2

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”

-Kurt Vonnegut

Daffodils have thrust their green blades through the warming soil, and despite the softly falling sleet tapping on the still barren branches in the forest all around me, spring is here to stay. With spring came the thaw, and last week my gravel driveway was subsumed by the clay Earth under the weight of my truck. Life lessons are everywhere if we listen. Watching hundreds of dollars worth of heavy limestone sink into mud tells me something about man and his works, about diminishing returns, entropy, and desire. It also tells me that if we had no capacity for laughter, we would likely have all died long ago.

This is going to be a year of stone for me. A friend helped me acquire many tons of reclaimed, hand hewn brownstone which I will now have the pleasure of carrying and stacking one at a time around the perimeter of our home. It was not long ago that I finished filling the trench atop which our cabin is built with gravel, all carried into place by hand in five gallon buckets.

Such work gives one time to think. And to re-think. And then to think some more.

—

One of my favorite writers of the current era is John Michael Greer. He posts a weekly essay at his website thearchdruidreport, and he posts a monthly essay on his more esoteric blog thewellofgalabes. Aside from his amazing ability to step back from the time we are living in, and to try to view the world through a wider temporal lens, he also has been keen enough to brave the topic of our subjective perception of reality. As the edifice of civilization weakens, such ideas are of great importance. From his piece “Explaining the World.”

“Most people nowadays think of the world as a static reality, over which time flows like water over rocks on the bed of a mountain stream, and to this way of thinking the rocks and the water are both “out there” existing by themselves without reference to any human beings who may or may not be observing them.

The interesting thing about this sort of thinking is that scientists pointed out a long time ago that it’s wholly incorrect. The world you experience is not “out there;” what’s “out there,” as any physicist will tell you, is an assortment of subatomic particles and energy fields. Your senses interact with those particles and fields in idiosyncratic ways, triggering electrochemical flows in your nervous systems, and those flows produce in your mind – we’ll discuss what that last word means later on – a flurry of disconnected sensory stimuli, which you then assemble into an image or representation.”

What Greer then goes on to extrapolate is that, in essence, the world as you experience it is a story you tell yourself based on cultural, biological, and sensory factors. Philosopher Thomas Metzinger delves into the same territory with his book, “The Ego Tunnel,” in which he ultimately postulates that a self does not objectively exist. As a biological entity of significant complexity and mobility, traveling through an unpredictable environment, we require an internal sense of wholeness to navigate the events we are presented with. The combination of a sensory image of the world before us combined with the perception of a unified center that is ínside as opposed to outside, creates what Metzinger calls, the Ego Tunnel.

Metzinger’s work is involved and discusses our perception of time and where we reside within it, and ultimately describes the same phenomenon Greer wrote about from a neurological perspective. The long and short of such theories is that, we are a story that we tell ourselves. Most of this story is delusion.

The more in-depth explanation is that our perceptions of ourselves and of the world in which we live are representations. You are a story that you tell yourself. The world around you is a story that you tell yourself. When you become despondent with the state of things, wondering why people aren’t rising up and changing the world for the better in light of just how bad the facts of our situation are, remember that by and large, we are not motivated by facts so much as we are motivated by stories. Remember as well that stories, like all of the creations of human beings that are intended to serve us as tools, are subject to the laws of diminishing returns. This is to say, they have shelf lives of usefulness. When a story people tell themselves no longer serves them under the conditions in which they exist, and when more effort goes into preserving the story than people gain in benefits from believing it, the story becomes useless, and the people who are wholly bound to it, who benefit the most from it, can become dangerous. This applies to individuals as well as to entire societies.

—

Writing of a demon that destroys souls and leaves vacuous skinwalkers wandering the landscape in search of fried cheese and alcohol is certain to anger some readers. In our culture, objectivity is king, and any suggestion of a non-quantifiable phenomenon is treasonous to the dogma established and maintained by the church of math and science that proclaims their order has brought us all of the good we see in the world – medicine, computers, Instagram – and that those who promulgate non-measurable ideas are the source of all that is evil – superstition, war, fear, etc. They would say my talk of demons is nonsense that only obfuscates the truth of our circumstances.

I claim no objective truth. I make no promises that the right Geiger counter or infrared camera will detect the fell beast behind the persistence of the system. But I do humbly suggest that the story we have been told – and have ourselves been retelling – is a story that is doing more harm than good. As evidence for my claim I present the tragedies unfolding in the world right now that are colliding in an exponentially more dangerous synthesis with every passing day.

Let’s be clear, the people responsible for acidifying the oceans, clear cutting the rainforests, and completely inundating our very blood and tissues with industrial fire retardants and other carcinogens are people who all subscribe to a particular story about themselves. It isn’t the people who tell themselves a story in which they are children of a mother Earth, bound by responsibilities to their ancestors, descendants, and land bases who are causing these traumas. It isn’t the people who tell a story in which the animals and the plants and the rivers are alive and sentient who are operating slaughterhouses, mono-cropping Round-Up Ready soy, or leaching coal ash into waterways.

We know which people do these things. We know the story that they tell themselves, because we are barraged with it. It is a hot iron brand that scars our hearts from birth or maybe before. We are hopelessly traumatized by and unflinchingly committed to this tale.

It goes like this:

We are the wisest ape, having discovered our place in an objective and material universe we set out conquering nature and are on a trajectory to move off toward colonizing the cosmos. Having beat back the jungles of irrational superstition we have ascended to the summit of being, as civilized and democratic individuals we have conquered our Hobbsian state of nature which was always nasty, brutish, and short. Our very nature is one of yearning for constant technological progression that consistently nets benefits in health, freedom, intellect, and ability.

But this is a tale, a myth, a television screenplay. As individuals we have been cast as characters, and we have lived the story so entirely for so long that we have forgotten that we dance about a thespians stage.

Nature cannot be conquered. Nature is not a thing apart from ourselves. We are spun of the same swatch of fabric as every tree, spider, moss, and pebble. Technological progress has brought us a body burden of toxicity and a land base that is struggling to survive, not to mention a near total erosion of personal autonomy. Behind every smart phone is a dragline, a smokestack, a poisoned waterway, and a whole mess of miserable human workers, shackled to cubicle or an assembly line while overseers look on, weapons aimed. Not to mention the entire host of police, spies, and spooks all collecting every bit of data you generate should ever a case need to be manufactured to demonstrate your guilt.

And then there is us. We see ourselves as job titles, confused by shiny badges and expensive suits. Roles are internalized and we believe that police, and judges, and presidents are as real and immutable as rocks and rivers and trees. We forget that a throne is just a chair, and never even question the true nature of chairs. So as the world falls into chaos, as armies of maniacs establish oil empires, currency unions, and caliphates, we must remember that these are all just stories that have out lived their usefulness in a time of diminishing net energy and growing ecological catastrophe. This will be the hallmark of our age; a cacophony of myths from all corners of the globe parading into a Colosseum at the end of history, waging war to see who can stand as grand master of the steaming heap of slag and bones together they have wrought, all before the grand consequences of several millennia of civilization come torrenting down upon us like a deluge.

What story will be left standing to define who and what we are? Stream live with the Google app. Vote for your favorite cultural delusion at #TeamBabylon.

—

Previously I wrote that a driving reason so many people daily scroll through blogs and forums and news feeds all reporting in on the latest horror stories civilization had to tell is because, they are in effect, hoping to come upon a plan. Maybe today will be the day some individual or group will have posted an effective guide as to how we can all finally come together and act to destroy the current hierarchies of power, end the needless daily violence doled out by agents of state and capital, and maybe even to reverse the ecological destruction that is wiping out innumerable species and habitats.

I wish I had that plan to offer, but I don’t. I’m not sure that anyone could. This is an unsettling thought for many because we are so used to conceiving of problems as necessarily having solutions, as if both are cast simultaneously in a factory somewhere and the existence of one thus proves the existence of the other. Of course, when most people consider the totality of the crises bearing down on us, when they seek solutions, what they are really seeking are solutions that fit into the narrative of their current existence without disturbing its boundaries. This is to say, the solution must not involve too much discomfort, heartache, or death. It certainly must not call into question who we believe we are and what we believe we have been spending our entire lives or even our collective history doing.

Our blood is just too precious to spill. Our story is just too important forget, or God forbid, to erase.

So you, dear reader, my digital comrade, my friend unmet and so far away, are going to have to figure out how to endure. To persevere.

These times are bigger than you or I, and indeed, all times likely are. Remember, we are hunter gatherers who have been endowed by nature with a plethora of tools for navigating and thriving in the environment in which we evolved, and whether by some stroke of cosmic irony or demonic cruelty, we now live removed from the environment in which those particular tools serve us best. You exist as you do to successfully participate as a tribe member in an organic environment of subjective experience. Instead you stand in line, you sit in traffic, you fill out the paperwork in duplicate before retiring to your domicile dominated by right angles to sit with your eyes open while advertisers spoon-feed you your dreams. Awash in symbols and slogans and a depressing amount of pornography, is it any wonder that the bulk of the population requires some sort of stimulant or depressant or anti-depressant or anti-psychotic just to keep from lashing out?

To quote a bit of pop culture, “The odds are never in our favor.”

So I apologize, I have no plan for solving the massive and converging crises of age, but I do have some thoughts on how to persevere. Every one of us is laden with emotional and psychological baggage, and as we move through ever more difficult and tragic circumstances it will not be of service to anyone to cling to old narratives and myths that have outlived their usefulness. The work of finding a truer tale, a better tale, a story that we can tell ourselves that is healing and has the ability to carry us for generations will be difficult and will likely take a long, long time. But we have to stop telling the wrong story. The story we need to be telling is one we will all write together over the coming generations, and the process of altering from what is to what will be is likely to be heart wrenching and backbreaking for a long time to come. For a beginning to be made, and one must be made, we must remember to catch ourselves in the moment when we demand that others keep up their end of the current tale, when we out of habit demand that they continue playing the old roles. We cannot be afraid that if we walk away first, we will walk alone. The desire to end the current story is palpable, it percolates just beneath the surface.

In this moment we may not have the collective power to slay the demon, but dammit we can stop doing the heavy lifting of immiserating one and other for him simply by being so very careful about what we pretend to be.

On the Supersonic Track to Extinction

15 Thursday Jan 2015

Posted by xraymike79 in Capitalism, Climate Change, Environmental Degradation, Pollution

≈ 113 Comments

Tags

Canfield Ocean, Capitalism, Chemical Pollution, CO2 Emissions, Extinction of Man, Geoengineering, Greenhouse Extinction, Greenhouse Gases, Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S), Industrial Civilization, Jevons Paradox, Keeling Curve, Lee R. Kump, Machine Fetishism, Mass Die Off, Mass Extinctions, Misanthropocene, Peter D. Ward, Ron Cobb, Under a Green Sky: Global Warming - the Mass Extinctions of the Past - and What They Can Tell Us About Our Future

Where is the “Misanthropocene” right now in relation to past extinction events? The chart below tells the tale. Notice that our current rise in GHG’s is essentially instantaneous in relation to past warmings which took place over thousands of years. As far as scientists can tell, the current warming from industrial civilization is the most rapid in geologic time. Ice core and marine sediment data in the paleoclimatology archive have revealed brief periods of rapid warming and there is no reason to believe modern man is immune to such catastrophic and abrupt climate events. In fact, we know that the Arctic is already warming twice as fast as anywhere else on the planet. Earth sensitivity to climate change is now thought to be possibly double that of previous estimates. An entirely different planet can result from just a slight change in temperature:

We’re about halfway towards the same CO2 levels as the Paleocene Thermal Extinction, but our speed of trajectory surpasses even that of the Permian Extinction:

In 2005, Lee R. Kump and fellow scientists published a paper describing what would become known as the Kump hypothesis, implicating hydrogen sulfide (H2S) as the primary culprit in past mass extinctions. According to OSHA, “a level of H2S gas at or above 100 ppm is immediately dangerous to life and health.” Prior to Kump’s study, the working theory had been that some sort of singular, cataclysmic event such as an asteroid strike was to blame for all mass die-offs, but Kump and colleagues proposed that a global warming-induced asphyxiation via hydrogen sulfide gas(H2S) was to blame for snuffing out life under the sea, on the land, and in the air. In past mass extinctions, volcanic eruptions and thawing methane hydrates created greenhouse-gas warmings that culminated in the release of poisonous gas from oxygen-depleted oceans. Humans with their fossil fuel-eating machines are unwittingly producing the same conditions today. The Kump hypothesis (elevated CO2 with lowering O2 levels) is now regarded as the most plausible explanation for the majority of mass extinctions in earth’s history:

Excerpt from Lights Out: How It All Ends

In the short term as both poles completely melt away and the Equator-to-Pole temperature gradient declines, the hydrologic cycle and storms will intensify, jet streams will be altered, global air circulation and ocean currents will be rearranged (especially in northern latitudes), and sea levels will rise. While some local winds will slow down, other areas may actually increase due to local temperature gradients becoming more influential than global ones. New research has indicated early warning signs of a collapse in ocean circulation. When that happens, the oceans ultimately turn into stagnant, anoxic pools belching deadly hydrogen sulfide into the atmosphere.

As others have noted, our energy, transport and building infrastructure was not constructed to withstand a mutated planet blindly molded by over seven billion humans. For example, think of all those massive wind farms rendered useless by alterations in local wind patterns, hydro-power shut down due to devastating droughts, solar farms destroyed by large hail storms, etc.

Many are under the delusion that we’ll be able to turn this process around with “green energy” while ignoring that such technologies are derivatives of fossil fuel or that increased efficiencies will lower our carbon footprint while ignoring Jevons paradox. Countless other self-reinforcing feedbacks loops driving our socioeconomic system come into play as well such as rampant overpopulation (Overpopulation key driver of climate change, mass extinction), chemical pollution (“Every year, up to 400 million tonnes are produced and a thousand new substances concocted“), and capitalism’s inherent growth dynamics:

The monstrous capitalism we see today is the result of capitalism’s inherent growth dynamics. To give one modern-day example, the solar energy industry/movement began with the conception of local, i.e. decentralized, and roof-top solar electricity generation for local consumption. Today we see projects like Desertec (huge solar power plants in the Sahara that would supply 15% of Europe’s total electricity needs) and competition between European and Chinese solar panel producers for larger chunks of the world market. – Link

The destructive trend has been inexorably cumulative:

…the central trend is verifiable: mass die-offs are on the rise, increasing by one event per year for the last 70 years.

“While this might not seem like much, one additional mass mortality event per year over 70 years translates into a considerable increase in the number of these events being reported each year,” explained co-author Adam Siepielski, a biologist at the University of San Diego. “Going from one event to 70 each year is a substantial increase, especially given the increased magnitudes of mass mortality events for some of these organisms.” – Link

If we shed our anthropocentric blinders, the harsh reality is that nothing of substance is being done to prevent our own extinction, and after looking back at humanity’s track record for slowing down this beast of globalized industrial civilization even one iota, any sane and rational person would have to conclude that there are forces at work well beyond the control of any one group of people, any state, or even any one country. Humans have the dubious honor of being the earth’s first sentient beings to have thoroughly documented their own demise while arguing with each other over whose fault it is. And the longer the Keeling Curve stretches skyward, the greater the odds that we will pull the trigger on a geoengineering scheme to slow down the inevitable:

Do these experts—the top scholars and scientists researching the subject in the world—think we will see geoengineering in our lifetime?

“Let’s see it for ten years,” the emcee said. A few scientists cautiously raised their hands. Twenty and 30 years saw some more converts. When he called out “fifty years,” more than half the room had their hands up.

That, according to the experts, is a 50-50 shot that someone is going to try, this century, to engineer the Earth’s climate. To hack the planet. – Link

Techno-capitalist carbon man’s fetish with high-tech gadgetry has already gotten the best of him. Just look at us glued to our iphones, tv’s, internet, and sundry other social media tools. We’re addicted to and dependent on our technology, and the idea of pulling the power plug on this way of life is unthinkable, not to mention fatal, for those raised within its confines.

“In Earth’s history we see climate changes over time, and we know that some of these climate changes were associated with enormous biological destruction. How could we believe that the same sort of experience moving into the modern-day wouldn’t do the same thing?” ~ Dr. Peter D. Ward

Forbidden Thoughts and Sacred Obligations

12 Monday Jan 2015

Posted by td0s in Peak Oil

≈ 54 Comments

Tags

Afghanistan, Anarchism, antarctic ice sheet, Anti-civ, Climate Change, Coal, cormac mccarthy, Depleted Uranium, ethos, extinction, ferguson, indigenous, Industrial Civilization, Iraq, police, species loss, terrence mckenna, the wolf

By TDoS
Originally posted at Prayforcalamity.com
—

When I was a younger man, I very much wanted to be taken seriously. To be taken seriously was to be asked your opinion. It was to be allowed a seat at the grown-up’s table in politics, economy, and all other matters that intelligent individuals busied themselves with. I wanted to be considered smart by other people who were considered smart. This meant that I had to be skeptical of any claims not supported by the dominant culture, shucking anything deemed mystical or superstitious. To be considered smart meant carrying an attitude of superiority, even open hostility towards anyone who claimed any truth not stamped with approval by the science of the dominant culture. Now I talk to trees.

My younger self would ridicule my present self, haughtily proclaiming the superiority of his well founded, reasonable ideologies. My present self would pity my younger self, and exit the conversation, too tired to expend what little communicative energy I have on someone so seemingly bereft of the ability to even momentarily entertain an idea that ran contrary to their set of inherited cultural dogma.

It is easy now to see that I was in a trap back then. As most young people are, I was attempting to make my way in a culture of accumulation, and thus I had to look and sound the part if I wanted to be accepted into the fold of “productive society.” Since abandoning any ambitions for career I have taken on various forms of employment to get by, and this has meant a lot of work in bars and restaurants. Briefly, I worked in a breakfast cafe in a college town that was home to a popular business school. Working there I would see students, mostly young white men, sitting at tables wearing ties and speaking in the language they were being conditioned to speak. It was strange to witness. I would wonder exactly where the break happened when these young men decided that they wanted to be just like their fathers. They probably wanted to be called “successful” by other people. They probably wanted to be considered smart. This would mean dressing, speaking, acting, thinking and even at their very core believing as their predecessors had initiated them to. They wanted to be taken seriously.

—

The year two thousand and fourteen was the hottest year ever recorded on planet Earth. Over the course of the year we were bombarded with statistics highlighting the peril of our time: Fifty percent of animal life has been killed over the last forty years, the Antarctic ice sheet melt has passed the point of no return, and coal use is still on the rise globally. Even the timid, watered down, almost entirely feckless mainstream US environmental movement is starting to make a tiny bit of sense, in noting that capitalism has got to go if we are to survive. Of course, much of what these liberal environmentalists are seeking is capitalist reform, but I digress.

The truth of the matter is that of course capitalism has to go in order to preserve the habitability of the planet. That’s just the beginning. All of industrial civilization must go, but because this is a forbidden concept amongst the serious folk who attend conferences, do media junkets, or – I don’t know – hold a senate seat, it will never even reach the table to be laughed at. The maintenance of the dominant culture requires that certain ideas are forbidden. Such restriction of thought is achieved in a myriad of ways, including by what Noam Chomsky termed, the “manufacturing of consent.” By and large, forbidden ideas are boxed out of public discourse by professionals who frame debate very narrowly, permitting only officially acceptable viewpoints, which then filter down to the masses.

We saw this recently with the uprisings in Ferguson, Missouri. The people of that city fought the police, and many of them had no problem declaring complete and utter disdain for the police as an institution. Despite the nearly five hundred Americans killed by police every year, and the untold number of assaults, robberies, frame ups, false arrests, and rapes committed by uniformed police officers, the dialog of so-called serious people is forbidden to ever move to a discussion of self defense against these villains, let alone abolishing them from civic life. Peter Gelderloos mentions this in his quinessential three part essay, Learning from Ferguson.

To allow people to fight back against the police, or to allow discussion of eliminating the police is forbidden because the police are a necessary component of a society of haves and have nots. In fact, I would be willing to bet there is a strong correlation between people who adamantly and unquestioningly support the police, and personal wealth, for the obvious reason that the more you have the more you have to lose. That means being happy that the taxpayers subsidize the jackboots who prevent even a public forum that might hint at discussing a redistribution of wealth.

After the Vietnam War, the propaganda ministers in the state realized that showing dead bodies on TV and in magazines had a demoralizing effect on the general public. Apparently the American population had some level of functioning empathy for other human beings, so broadcasting the corpses of dead US servicemen and even half burnt Vietnamese children soured their taste for carnage. Since realizing this, the US has locked out media that isn’t “embedded” from war zones, and despite the over a million dead in Iraq and Afghanistan, ten years of war haven’t found themselves plastered on the nightly news in any unbecoming fashion, despite the plentiful material. The children born deformed due to depleted uranium poisoning caused by US munitions should have been enough to wrench even the blood thirstiest of hawk bellies in the US, but their visages were never given a chance.

Forbidding an image and forbidding an idea are both attempted for the same reason; control. If you control what people think, you can control how they act. Even the most ardent critics of US policy will proclaim up and down their patriotism, less they be banished from serious forums. Sit and think for a few moments and I imagine you could come up with your own short list of forbidden ideas, never to be discussed, not by serious people. Civilization and its dominant culture have been practicing this tactic of control since inception, and there is an idea that has been so terrifying to the rulers of the civilized world that stamping it out has been an ongoing and bloody task for over ten thousand years. The most forbidden of ideas, is that the Earth is alive.

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Serious people are concerned with objectivity. They perceive the universe to be a clockwork machine governed by laws and made of various inert bric-a-brac that can be manipulated to serve their purposes. Whether this manifests as a logging company cutting down a forest for timber, a meat packing concern quickening the rate at which they slaughter cows, or bulldozers scraping away layers of Earth in order to access the bitumen deposits beneath, the source of the thinking is the same. The land is dead. Inert. It is raw material waiting to be put to purpose by human hands. Further, knowledge and understanding of the universe and its lifeless bodies is to be achieved only through the application of western scientific principles. Anything that cannot be observed and quantified with the five human senses does not exist.

Even things that are alive, like trees and animals can be reduced with a trick of thinking into nothing but their component pieces. Trees don’t have brains, so they cannot think or feel or experience, so they are worthless except as corpses. Animals may have brains, but those brains lack significant cortex or numbers of neurons, and so they cannot think or feel or experience, so they are worthless except as corpses. Throughout the history of civilization this rationale has been applied to humans as well. Whenever anyone is in the way of some expectation of power or wealth, they are reduced to nothingness, just a fleshy sum of their cells with a measly few watts of current surging through them. Not sophisticated, not refined; much like animals really, and animals are worthless except as corpses, so let the homicide begin. This mental twisting is the death rite of civilization. It is the lullaby people in business suits sing so they can stay focused on the cash while they order another chimpanzee vivisected, purchase a new gas lease, or sign off on limited airstrikes over a civilian population.

In my life I have walked through forests clear cut for oil pipelines. I have driven through the shale plays of West Texas. I have seen copper mines, and coal mines, and all sorts of other massive holes blasted and scraped into the face of the planet. Many people have seen these things. Of course, many people work in these places and on these projects. The difference is that upon the witnessing I feel something very somber that nags at me from the inside. It is the feeling that gripped you as a child when you saw someone joyfully inflict pain upon someone helpless or weak while you were powerless to interfere. Because of this feeling I could never participate in ecologically destructive activities. It would feel wrong, like treachery, like stabbing my mother in the gut for a paycheck.

And I think this feeling matters. This feeling is part of the foundation of my personal ethos from which my principles blossom. In short, my feelings of connectivity with the living world create in me a sense of responsibility to protect her, and a refusal to accept harming her for personal gain. Often I wonder why so few people feel this particular empathy, but then I know the answer. People have been trained by the dominant culture to think of all of these environmentally degrading activities as harmless. They have been raised since childhood by people themselves raised since childhood to believe that the Earth is dead. They have been told by respectable people to believe that forests are not alive and that plants do not feel and that at the end of the day, everything is arbitrary and meaningless. There is an undercoat of nihilism which makes progress possible.

For generations people have been bullied into believing that the nagging in their conscience is an illusion caused by the brain. When a forest makes you feel good, it is you fooling yourself. When you feel deep love for a place or for other living beings, it is an illusion, merely a sudden influx of serotonin in some receptor in your gray matter. And who are you anyway? Just some cells, some neurons, some electricity. What is your love? Your desire? Your fear? They are nothing. Reflexes. Chemicals. The aimless, endless spinning of molecules through space and time. Reduce it all down, break it into pieces. Scatter them until you feel nothing at all. Now go make some money. Be productive. For Christ’s sake, be serious.

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My friend is indigenous to the land now called Canada. I ask him what it means to be a warrior, to have as a component of one’s culture a warrior society. He points me to talks given by other first nations people which elucidate that in various indigenous languages the word “warrior” is understood differently than it is in English. It isn’t aggressive, on the offense, macho, seeking to conquer. To be a warrior is to be a shield bearer, a person who takes very seriously their sacred obligation to maintain the health of the land so that it can be passed on for many generations to come. The ethos of such people forms their worldview, and this worldview informs their actions. The end result is a relationship with one’s home that is not about domination and taking, but acting with reciprocity. Such a mindset is a barrier against excess and greed and wanton destruction of the land.

Under the dominant culture, there are no sacred obligations. We are told from birth that work, production, and the pursuit of material wealth is the path taken by serious people. Those who rebuff their instruction to accumulate for the sake of accumulation are losers and bums. If one wants to defend their home, such intuitions are bent to the cause of imperial full spectrum dominance. Home is converted to country, and the battlefield is determined by a board of directors. This is not an ethos with a future. It is a toxic set of ideas and myths that will guide human minds to the edge of the world and then over. This idea is a parasite, and its hosts are pushing the ecosystems of the Earth to the brink.

My friend tells me about the deal the wolf made with mother Earth:

“The wolf signed a contract with Mother Earth. The contract is this. The wolf may compete with all other life for survival. The wolf may not force other life into extinction for the purpose of eliminating competition. The wolf may not damage habitat to eliminate competition. The wolf may not wage war to prevent other life from feeding on the wolf. If the wolf abides by these laws and is able to compete, the wolf will survive in brotherhood with all other life. All life signs this contract, except for a group of humans. Until those people sign on the dotted line they will be doomed. They may already be doomed.”

What strikes me about this is that to make a contract with another is to stand as equals. Speaking of other beings or of the living planet herself as even able to enter into a contract is to grant to them the deference that they exist as you do; alive, dignified, valuable.

The dominant culture never seeks to stand equal with anything. It seeks only to dominate. It never presents obligations to its acolytes to defend other beings or the land. It makes demands of the land. The stark differences between these two perspectives is striking. One asks you to be a warrior and to take up a shield in defense of your mother. The other commands you to take up a sword – or a plow, or an axe, or a bulldozer – and to plunge it into her breast.

I am not in any way suggesting that non-native people need to appropriate native culture. What I am suggesting is that if the ethos of civilization goes unchallenged, then no matter how much awareness is raised and no matter how much people try to convert modern industrial society into a sustainable twin of itself, they will find only failure. After all, as Terrence McKenna said and I have oft quoted, culture is our operating system, and the dominant culture has a starting point where the land is already dead, so how then can it take us anywhere but to a future where this founding principle is materialized? Garbage in, garbage out.

How we go about changing the ethics, myths, and founding truths of people trapped in the cage of industrial civilization is not something I have a prescription for. In “The Road” Cormac McCarthy wrote:

“Where you’ve nothing else construct ceremonies out of the air and breathe upon them.”

So I walk my land and I talk to the trees. Maybe they can hear me and maybe they can’t. All of the serious people will laugh at my wasted breath. Smart people will try to convince me that I am only talking to myself. And maybe they are right. Maybe I am a madman babbling over hill and holler. But I can tell you this much for certain; I will never cut these trees down, and neither will my daughter. So in the end, who gives a damn?