New York Magazine
CLIMATE CRISIS
It is not often that an article about climate change becomes the most hotly debated item on the internet. But David Wallace-Wells’ lengthy essay published in New York Magazine did exactly that. The full text of the essay –admittedly a worst-case scenario- which has kicked up a firestorm of debate online, along with selected responses….
Read More about Viral essay: The Uninhabitable EarthCLIMATE CRISIS
From Forbes Magazine: With all of the knowledge of future mapping, do the world’s financial leaders know something we don’t? Consider how many of the richest families have been grabbing up massive amounts of farmland around the world. All property far away from coastal areas and in locations conducive to self-survival, farming and coal mining….
Read More about The shocking connection between doomsday maps and billionaire land acquisitionsBookshelf
Richard Reese writes: In ‘Scarcity: Humanity’s Final Chapter?’ Christopher O. Clugston analyses 89 key non-renewable resources that are essential to the existence of our industrial global society, and finds that 63 of them have peaked globally. His conclusion is that the only possible outcome for a society that is dependent on these resources, is collapse….
Read More about Bookshelf: Scarcity – Humanity’s Last Chapter?
Bookshelf
This review by Alice Friedmann of Nafeez Ahmed’s new book has 3 parts: 1) Why states collapse for reasons other than economic and political 2) How Bio-Physical factors contribute to systemic collapse in Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Nigeria 3) Predictions of when collapse will begin in Middle-East, India, China, Europe, Russia, North America…
Read More about Red alert: A timeline for global collapseALTERNATIVES
The 2017 Center For Progressive Urban Politics Summit brought together an amazing panel that consisted of John Michael Greer, James Howard Kunstler, Chris Martenson, Frank Morris, and Dmitry Orlov. In this video, the panelists talk about global issues ranging from politics, the economy, the food we eat, immigration, labor, poverty, minorities, war, and much more….
Read More about Watch: Leading thinkers on the converging crises and alternatives
Countercurrents.org
ALTERNATIVES
From Countercurrents.org: Human cultural evolution can be regarded as an enormous success in many respects. However, thoughtful observers agree that civilization is entering a period of crisis. As all curves move exponentially upward: population, production, consumption, etc, one can observe signs of increasing environmental stress, while the existence of nuclear weapons threaten civilization with destruction….
Read More about Information theory pioneer John Scales Avery on the planet’s converging crisesConflict/Dispossession
The New Yorker reports: Survivalism, the practice of preparing for the collapse of civilization, tends to evoke a certain picture: eg. the religious doomsayer. But in recent years survivalism has expanded to more affluent quarters, taking root in Silicon Valley and New York City, among technology executives, hedge-fund managers, and others in their economic cohort….
Read More about Some of the world’s wealthiest are preparing for the crackup of civilisation
Bookshelf
Nafeez Ahmed writes: A new research study by HSBC on global oil supply shows that the bulk of the world’s oil production has peaked and is now in decline. Welcome to a new age of permanent economic recession driven by our ongoing dependence on dirty, expensive, difficult oil — unless we choose a fundamentally different path….
Read More about Brace for the coming oil, food and financial crash
Education/Awareness
The final stages of capitalism, Marx predicted, would be marked by global capital being unable to expand and generate profits at former levels. Capitalists would begin to consume the government along with the physical and social structures that sustained them. These assaults would destroy the host. This final stage of capitalism is what Trump represents….
Read More about Richard Heinberg: The Peak Oil President?Conflict/Dispossession
We face awesome global environmental challenges. Climate change, food production, overpopulation, the decimation of other species, epidemic disease, acidification of the oceans. Together, they are a reminder that we are at the most dangerous moment in the development of humanity… Now, more than at any time in our history, our species needs to work together….
Read More about Stephen Hawking: This is the most dangerous time for our planet
ECOCIDE/EXTINCTION
Please don’t read this unless you are feeling strong. This is a list of 13 major crises that, I believe, confront us. From Trump to climate change, this multi-headed crisis presages collapse. And there’s no hope of exiting the ‘other side’ if political alternatives are shut down. Sorry to say that it’s not happy reading….
Read More about George Monbiot: The 13 impossible crises we are facing now
Culture/Cognition
Donna Harraway: I’m going to propose that the Cthulucene might be a way to collect up the questions for naming the epoch, for naming what’s happening in the airs, waters, and places, in the rocks, oceans, and atmospheres. Perhaps needing both the Anthropocene and the Capitalocene, but offering something else, something just maybe more livable….
Read More about Anthropocene, or the art of living on a damaged planet
CLIMATE CRISIS
Ugo Bardi writes: Their oversized antlers were beneficial for Irish Elk males in sexual competition. However, the weight of the antlers was also a burden and it has been argued that it was perhaps the main reason that led to the extinction of this species. With humans, we may consider language to be the same. …
Read More about How the greatest technology ever developed backfired on us
CLIMATE CRISIS
In this article, Sagar Dhara examines Capitalism’s crucial tipping points: The first, the impending energy and natural resource crisis, related to the sourcing of raw materials. The second, inequality, related to the production of goods and services. The third, global warming, which is related to greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) in excess of the earth’s sink capacity….
Read More about Global capitalism is facing three tipping pointsCLIMATE CRISIS
Chris Martenson writes: The data seems to confirm this: Humanity is not going to painlessly wean itself off of fossil fuels. Instead, we will hit some sort of a wall: a food/population crisis, a climate crisis, or a debt/fiscal/economic crisis. Each of those candidates has its roots in our global society’s addition to fossil fuels….
Read More about Industrial civilisation can’t wean itself off fossil fuels painlessly
Elanthemag.com
Bookshelf
Virtually everything in our homes, everything in our stores, got there on a truck. Prior to that, 90 percent of those items were transported on a ship and/or a train. If trucks, trains, and ships stopped running, our global economy and way of life would stop too. Alice Friedemann’s new book examines precisely this prospect….
Read More about Bookshelf: When trucks stop running, so does civilizationCLIMATE CRISIS
AUTHOR Prof. Mark Lindley, University of Hyderabad School of Economics DESCRIPTION/EXCERPT The galloping environmental degradation is complicated. Let me distinguish seven aspects of it, as a step toward developing a comprehensive understanding of it. (Some of these seven are closely linked to each other in a cause-and-effect or overlapping way.): 1. Renewable natural resources being…
Read More about A few reflections on the galloping environmental degradationEducation/Awareness
The Future of Humanity Institute, Oxford University The Future of Humanity Institute is a leading research centre looking at big-picture questions for human civilization. The last few centuries have seen tremendous change, and this century might transform the human condition in even more fundamental ways. Using the tools of mathematics, philosophy, and science, we explore…
Read More about Three Leading Think-tanks Studying Global CrisesCLIMATE CRISIS
(Editor’s Note: Some of the most important academic research into mankind’s present and future is being conducted at the Melbourne Sustainability Society Institute at the University of Melbourne. Here are links to some of their most important papers) Is Global Collapse Imminent? by Graham Turner. Dr Turner gathered data from the UN (its department of economic and social…
Read More about Melbourne University research on Energy, Climate Change, Collapse, Resilience and Transition
