Right On Track For Collapse

David Trammel's picture

I think that's something too many people don't add into the predictions, that resource depletion is going to get serious about the same time climate change gets serious. There is no way to "grow" our way out of the collapse of civilization we are headed for. We could downsize and do what Greer says, "Collapse Now, and Avoid The Rush", but we won't.

"Society is right on track for a global collapse, new study of infamous 1970s report finds"

"Human society is on track for a collapse in the next two decades if there isn't a serious shift in global priorities, according to a new reassessment of a 1970s report, Vice reported

In that report — published in the bestselling book "The Limits to Growth" (1972) — a team of MIT scientists argued that industrial civilization was bound to collapse if corporations and governments continued to pursue continuous economic growth, no matter the costs. The researchers forecasted 12 possible scenarios for the future, most of which predicted a point where natural resources would become so scarce that further economic growth would become impossible, and personal welfare would plummet.

The report's most infamous scenario — the Business as Usual (BAU) scenario — predicted that the world's economic growth would peak around the 2040s, then take a sharp downturn, along with the global population, food availability and natural resources. This imminent "collapse" wouldn't be the end of the human race, but rather a societal turning point that would see standards of living drop around the world for decades, the team wrote."

As a species, we're doing what every species does: grow until we can no longer do so.
Then, our population will collapse. Like yeast in a dish.

I'd like to think we're too smart for this and indeed, many of us are (all of us who already collapsed and avoided the rush).
But most of us aren't.
Whenever I participate in community outreach with other members of Hershey's little group of eco-warriors, I see the same thing, over and over.
Green technology will save us all so I only need to make the most minor of changes to my lifestyle.

It's maddening.
I have to remind myself of the serenity prayer and focus on what I can change.
My house and backyard is a good example: I'm providing habitat for a wide range of critters and perhaps, that will mean a lot to some creature in the future, including my own children or whoever lives here after us.

That's the other thing I have to remember: you can't save every starfish, but you can save some.
The one that gets the message (i.e., the one you pick up, dying on the beach, and toss back into the ocean) will make it.
But you don't know who gets the message.

So we persevere.