[The starry background is to remind us that this spaceship Earth has no emergency exit.]

back previous   ecostory 4/2014 next E home Collapse? What if? <<< a quote from the linked web page on civilisation collapse: >>> "...There is, also, a sense in which denial should be seen as a psychological defense operating on the personal level. AGW presents an immense challenge to our lives: to our health and safety and the survival of our grandchildren, and their grandchildren. How will we handle it, when the water fails or the crops fail and the food reserves are empty as the population passes the nine million mark? When when Amsterdam or Kolkata are inundated? When (as in Texas) temperature pushes into the high 30s, for weeks on end? This is the future AGW promises. And there doesn’t seem to be anything we can do about it, so we blank it out, or prefer the trivia of the tabloids, or retreat into a blinkered concentration on the immediacy of everyday concerns…." [Source: http://collapseofindustrialcivilization.com/2013/10/29/it-only-happens-in-the-movies/comment-page-1/#comment-10857] [ AGM = Anthropogenic Global Warming ] <<< end quote >>> Most warnings are still carrying the message "if" we don't change drastically, "then" we will face disaster within one, two or three generations. Nice. But necessarily too optimistic. And AGW is not the only problem. Also consider resource depletion, pollution, biodiversity loss, all accelerated by continued population and economic growth. If the "leaders" and the deluded, exploited, manipulated and dumbed-down masses (and students) would see the size of the overshoot, the huge reduction needed, and the inertia of peope and systems, then it could become clear that humanity has no hope in hell to survive, neither on an industrial level nor at subsistance levels, somewhere in the corner of a remaining jungle area. Forget so-called "future generations" or our grandchildren. The Post Peak Oil downslope may start any time soon. Renewable energies are mostly electricity, depending on fossil fuel technology. The ensueing reduction of industrial and food production might get us before the effects of climate change do so. If people would see that kind of future, what then? How will people react? Continue BAU - Business As Usual? Or would some/many loose control and start an end-time take-it-all-now rage on whatever they can get? Flip out like binge-drinking teenagers and young adults? There was a dicussion on Near Term Extinction, earlier 2013: On the "the irreconcilable acceptance of near term extinction" - Guy McPherson On the "irreconcilable acceptance of near term extinction" - Daniel Drumright On the "acceptance of near term extinction - Gary Gripp Older people may accept. But the younger? In my view awareness could well lead to a breakdown of law and order, way before the resource scarcities and effects of climate change are inevitably leading to the ultimate wars. The image at the bottom may still be too optimistic. Because where will try to get too, without food and water? An accelerated downslope could save more of nature, one could think. But once the nuclear power stations, weapons stockpiles, and nuclear waste sites start failing because of electricity black-outs, and/or get unsupervised, it's a matter of years till the whole world is radioactively contaminated, possibly extinguishing all higher life forms. So it may therefore be better that our leaders, academia, and politics continue spreading the HOT messages of Hope, Optimism and Technology. It will extend our lives for a few years before collapse will eradicate humankind Enjoy the day of today, tomorrow comes anyway. Compare: scenarios   nuclear   fun Also compare: A extensive list of arguments to maintain the growth paradigmn your feedback... .... Also compare: Technology, Money, Optimism, and Hope The quartet that is killing humankind Doomsday Auction home | sitemap | ecostory | change | motivation | energy | scenarios | feedback E ecoglobe for realistic answers 4o26-4n29