What if it were too late to save the world? What if rising threats to natural support systems on which all life depend, posed by humanity’s industrial way of life, have already done so much damage that collapse of the global industrial economy is inevitable? If so, it is no longer possible to save everybody from the awful consequences. Yet, it remains possible for any individual, family or community that immediately and thoroughly adopts sustainable living practices to weather even a civilizational collapse. Anyone who undertook such a difficult course would, of course, first have to be convinced the danger is real.
The gravity of the situation is hard to appraise because negative effects of industrial practices are not publicly discussed, let alone dealt with. This is primarily because industries doing the damage are making a great deal of money while doing so. In order to keep the status quo, they freely spend money on political influence and propaganda designed to distract people from the fact that they are taking profits for themselves and leaving consequences for others. Another reason for lack of comprehension is experts’ narrow field of view. Researchers who grapple with specialized problems of increasing complexity seldom look up, or across, to see what is going on in other experts’ bore holes. But, when a generalist surveys the field and puts expert analyses side-by-side, the magnitude of the danger becomes apparent.
A generalist consulting a specialist about the state of civilization support systems needs to know what motivates the specialist. For instance, when the housing bubble was in mid-collapse in 2007, realtors were not a reliable source of information on the state or future of the market. (During virtually every day of the years’ long collapse, some realtors’ association announced the worst was over, the bottom had been found, and happy days were here again.) Another example is “fracking.” To find out whether hydraulic fracturing of shale gas is dangerous, do not ask a university receiving major funding from companies that practice fracturing. As Upton Sinclair put it, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”
Therefore, a survey of specialists whose salaries do not require lack of comprehension reveals a stunning array of injuries and stresses on the natural world – many planetary in scale and existential in nature. Global climate change is only one of them and not necessarily the most immediately dangerous. A review of the top three threats, more or less in descending order of urgency, may help form a decision about taking drastic personal action.
Threat #1: Humanity is Running Out of Oil
Nothing about modern life is possible unless oil and gas are both plentiful and cheap. And nothing is more remarkable about modern life than the fact that people know oil is finite, yet they continue to live as if it is inexhaustible. The United States burns roughly 20 million barrels of oil per day – one-quarter of the world’s... Full Article
