It is our very creativity, our extraordinary ability as a species to organize ourselves to solve problems collectively, that leads us into a trap from which there is no escaping. He wasn’t surprised that I had called to ask him if our compounding crises signaled the start of a major societal rupture, but he also wasn’t in a rush to answer. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the total net worth of America’s billionaires, all 686 of them, has jumped by close to a trillion dollars. THE MOST LETHAL VIRUS IS NOT COVID. Decades of greenwashing, empty rhetoric, and regulatory capture by the fossil fuel industry have brought us to this precipice: As you can see, any mitigation efforts at this late date rely heavily on the fantasy of carbon capture with nonexistent technologies that, truthfully, will never scale up to the enormous problem. Animal Minds and the Foible of Human Exceptionalism, Book review of Turchin’s “Secular Cycles” and “War & Peace & War”, Burning Energy to Keep Cool: The Hidden Energy Crisis in Saudi Arabia, Capitalism cannot solve our ecological collapse: articles by Richard Smith, Chatham House: Sustainable Energy Security, Christopher Clugston ~ Research Papers and Essays, Climate and collapse: Only through the insurrection of civil societies will we avoid the worst, Climate and Social Stress: Implications for Security Analysis (2012), Climate Change is Simple – We Do Something or We're Screwed, Dangerous Climate Warming: Myth & Reality, Dennis Meadows: “There is nothing that we can do”, Earth may be 140 years away from reaching carbon levels not seen in 56 million years, Energy Return on Energy Invested (ERoEI) for photovoltaic solar systems in regions of moderate insolation, English version of German military peak oil study, Eric R. Pianka: The Vanishing Book of Life on Earth, FOURTH NATIONAL CLIMATE ASSESSMENT Volume II: Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States, FRACKING GONE WRONG: FINDING A BETTER WAY. New breed of U.S. survivalists prepped for collapse of civilization by Sebastien Duval. In our telephone conversations he was courteous but laconic, taking time to think before speaking, seldom offering more than he was asked. IPCC Discovers Infographics – Communicates Climate Change, Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – February 14, 2021, Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – February 7, 2021, Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – January 31, 2021, Steve Keen vs. Nordhaus – regarding humankind’s greatest ever crisis, Statues, street names, and contested memory, DENVER CELEBRATES THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF RUSSELL MEANS, Museletter #335: Insurrection, pandemic, and censorship, Museletter #334: 2020: The Year Consensus Reality Fractured, Faith in Climate Action — The Church’s Response to Hothouse Earth, Social Distancing and Waiting Until It’s Safe Enough to Re-open, Free to be yourself. A prairie? The ninth-century desertion of the cities of Southern Lowland Classic Maya civilization has been ascribed to war, peasant uprisings, deforestation and drought. Nature is in ‘unprecedented’ decline. He took a job with the U.S. Forest Service, which was hiring archaeologists to assess the potential impacts of any project undertaken on public land. "What we have, in what passes for US democracy in 2012, is a kabuki play that Cicero put to papyrus 1948 years earlier. A “chiefly apparatus” — authority and a nascent bureaucratic hierarchy — emerged to allocate resources. All of the conditions he predicted when he made the bet either currently exist, or will within the next few weeks. This decline is a direct result of human activity, the most devastating being changes in land and sea use, including natural habitat destruction. It’s not hard to imagine a Third World War being ignited by deteriorating environmental conditions and resource depletion as nations fall under the sway of propaganda from demagogues inciting fear, hatred, and violence. US Gov. Utah, where Tainter lives — he teaches at Utah State — was reopening its gyms, restaurants and hair salons that very day. With Earth Overshoot Day arriving ever earlier each year, we have arrived at the last stage of global civilization’s doubling time. Today, Cline says, “we have almost all the same symptoms that were there in the Bronze Age, but we’ve got one more”: pandemic. Do you know how to put an ocean back together? Without question, this is one of the most important interviews we’ve published all year. Ahmed, N. 2020. History suggests it is likely, but we have the unique advantage of being able to learn from the wreckages of societies past. GBOAT: Is This the Greatest Bubble of All Time? The climate crisis, as it continues to unfold, will give us additional opportunities to panic and to grieve. Why Are Americans Getting Their Medical Degrees in Cuba? Wiping out an entire continent’s flora and fauna does not register on the Stock Market. We see today that nothing has changed to prevent Australia’s natural treasures from disappearing into the black void of the Anthropocene extinction, never to be seen or heard from again. Many of the academics studying collapse are, like Tainter, archaeologists by training. 17, Beauty and the Bleach.Skin-whitening trend ravages Senegalese women (Trailer) Premiere 02/19, Of Ice and Fame. Polly Cleveland on Monopoly on The Analysis, Helen Lachs Ginsburg, Jobs-for-All Scholar-Activist, Review of “Liberty from All Masters,” by Barry C. Lynn, Team Human Serialization #37 & 38: The Damage We Do to Ourselves When We Try to Function Like Computers, Team Human Serialization #36: On the Internet of Things, We People Are the Things, Team Human ep. Net-zero emissions by 2050: Leadership or climate colonialism? to Drop Julian Assange Case, We have become enslaved by our impatience, A history of hype behind Cambridge Analytica, Social Media’s Threat to Free Speech is Real, The Gamers’ Uprising Against Wall Street Has Deep Populist Roots, Tackling the Infrastructure and Unemployment Crises: The “American System” Solution, Black Women Senators: And Then There Were None, Heating Arctic May Be to Blame for Snowstorms in Texas, Scientists Say, San Francisco May Usher in a New Era of Public Banking, Eddie Glaude Jr., James Baldwin, and Black History, School district gets in trouble: decides to count Asians as “whites” to highlight a bigger academic deficit between whites and people of color, New Polish law chills the work of historians; forbids accusing Poles of complicity with Nazis against Jews in WWII, More on the complete degeneration of modern pop music, Life found deep beneath an Antarctic ice shelf, A “Letters” discussion between Adam Gopnik and me on ways of knowing, Review: Scott Anderson, Four CIA spies at the dawn of the Cold War — a tragedy in three acts (2021), Trumpist coup reveals fascist threat and Left’s philosophic void, The Trump administration’s fear of teenagers, No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference, by Greta Thunberg–book review, Climate strikes as resistance and revolutionary potential: the connection with Marcuse’s concept of the liberation of nature as determinant between socialism and fascism, ¿Qué es el socialismo? What is the rebuttal of this absurd article? Others are historians, social scientists, complexity scholars or physical scientists who have turned their attention to the dynamics shaping the broadest scope of human history. The crisis in Texas underscores the deadly risks when the grid goes down. Documentaries. Finding a Home for the ‘Politically Homeless’: Could a UK Version of Spain’s Podemos Party Work In Britain? As the benefits of ever-increasing complexity — the loot shipped home by the Roman armies or the gentler agricultural symbiosis of the San Juan Basin — begin to dwindle, Tainter writes, societies “become vulnerable to collapse.” Stresses that otherwise would be manageable — natural disasters, popular uprisings, epidemics — become insuperable. I am making such material available on a non-profit basis for educational, research and discussion purposes in my efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. In the field’s early years, archaeologists tended to focus on the biggest and most wondrous structures they could find, the remains of monumental architecture abandoned for centuries in deserts and jungles. Cartoon: Freedom of speech is absolute, but... ‘Our Indifference To Ourselves’ – Beyond The ‘Virtue’ Of Self-Sacrifice – Part 2, ‘Our Indifference To Ourselves’ – Beyond The ‘Virtue’ Of Self-Sacrifice – Part 1, Fox guest on possible troop withdrawal from Afghanistan: "The solution is more blood, sweat, and tears", Fox host defends Trump: "Just because you use harsh language doesn't mean your intent is to denigrate another race", Fox News is talking more about abortion than the Democratic debates did, Media Roots Radio: Music Industry Protects Predators, Marilyn Manson’s Reckoning, Empire Files: What Everyone Missed About Biden’s Double-Speak on Ending Yemen War, Empire Files: Afghanistan Mercenary Shocker + US Says Nuclear War “Very Real Possibility”, Joint New Zealand - German 3D survey reveals massive seabed gas hydrate and methane system, Noctilucent clouds: further confirmation of large methane releases, The rentier resurgence and takeover: Finance Capitalism vs. Industrial Capitalism. ", #Cancelled – a discussion on censorship vs. cancel culture, Disney Villains Had It Right – The Heroes Were Wrong, Posts that I especially recommend today: Wednesday, February 17, 2021, Posts that I especially recommend today: Tuesday, February 16, 2021, Posts that I especially recommend today: Monday, February 15, 2021. Recently, Tainter tells me, he has seen “a definite uptick” in calls from journalists: The study of societal collapse suddenly no longer seems like a purely academic pursuit. What Happened After Civilization Collapsed : Throughline What happens after everything falls apart? The next twenty years will be the final tick of the clock in which our mass resource extraction, consumption, and waste irreparably damage the planet’s regenerative abilities and life support systems. First-time guest Fred Markert of TheIsaacNewtonProject.com is a widely acclaimed expert in the rise and fall of human civilizations. When one way doesn’t work, we try another. Conversations with Great Minds – Climate Scientist Dr. Curt Stager. Complexity rose to meet the challenge. WhatsApp. Trade routes seize up, and cities are abandoned. My interview from yesterday on the latest about the Khashoggi matter, The Great Reset: The Final Assault on the Living Planet [It’s Not a Social Dilemma – It’s the Calculated Destruction of the Social, Part III], It’s Not a Social Dilemma – It’s the Calculated Destruction of the Social [The Enclosure of Africa, Part II], It’s Not a Social Dilemma – It’s the Calculated Destruction of the Social [Part I], COMMENTS on ‘Green’ billionaires behind professional activist network that led suppression of ‘Planet of the Humans’ documentary, MAJOR UPDATE: The Daily Banter Is Closing Down And Moving Exclusively To Email, Watch Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Rips Apart Dark Money In Politics In 5 Astonishing Minutes, Eddie Haskell's State Of The Union Was An Infuriating Study In Gaslighting, Trump Described By U.S. Intelligence Officials As Willfully Ignorant, The Second Biggest Scam Ever: Plastic Recycling, Plunder – a call for submissions for Dark Mountain: Issue 20, Fracking industry advances with phase one exploratory applications in South Africa, What the closure of a small Suffolk factory says about the future of the automotive industry, Digging yourself a hole: how Australia is keeping coal current, Marx and Colonialism – Zombie-Marxism Part 3.2 – What Marx Got Wrong, Why rare and valuable metals are not recycled. “What do you do if you’re still here after the story of failure has already been written?” asks the Native American scholar Michael V. Wilcox, who teaches at Stanford University. (The mineral division of Gulf Oil Corporation was mining the mountain for its uranium deposits.) Tainter, who grew up in San Francisco and has spent all of his adult life in the West, has never been one to play Cassandra. The chaos was considerable, but Tainter seemed calm. If societies are not in fact unitary, problem-solving entities but heaving contradictions and sites of constant struggle, then their existence is not an all-or-nothing game. What happened on a national level happened locally as well, with police budgets eclipsing funding for social services in city after city. These airport passengers say he's heading to Cancun, Green energy companies encouraged to sue Tucker Carlson over lie that Texas power grid is 'totally reliant on windmills', Texas leaders failed to heed warnings that left the state's power grid vulnerable to winter extremes: experts, 'Blood is on Abbott's hands': Anger at GOP leaders surges as food, water shortages compound Texas power crisis, UK job losses: retail redundancies grow as Asos buys Topshop. In September, nearly 23 million Americans reported going without enough to eat, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. My Husband Just Confessed to Having a Teen Daughter. Eric H. Cline, who teaches at the George Washington University, argued in “1177 B.C. 5 min read. Next ‘stop’ Kara Sea in the Arctic Ocean? The little virus that could is not done with us, is it? Possible causes of a societal collapse include natural catastrophe, war, pestilence, famine, and depopulation. specialized roles and the institutional structures that coordinate them, in order to solve problems. Try decades (or longer), Brazil’s Angra 3 nuclear reactor: a political undertaking, not a common good, Inside the rise of Cathie Wood, the rockstar stock-picker whose ETFs are dominating 2021, The startup behind MrBeast Burger explains the business of influencer 'ghost kitchens', A New York City waitress was fired for refusing a COVID-19 vaccine over fertility concerns, Goldman Sachs org chart: Take a look at the Wall Street bank's top 125 executives, 10 things you need to know before the opening bell, Biden will pay the WHO $200 million as he reverses Trump's attempts to withdraw from the organization, Bitcoin hits new high of above $52,600 before paring gains - as the currency's market value nears $1 trillion, Australia's PM slams Facebook's 'arrogant' move to 'unfriend' the nation, after government pages were inadvertently silenced as part of a purge of news content, Google kicked Donald Trump's official campaign app from the Play Store because it no longer worked, but the iOS version is still live, US life expectancy fell by a year during the COVID-19 pandemic, in the most dramatic drop since World War II, Automation and SJWs: A Conversation with James Howard Kunstler, It's official. More than a billion creatures(excluding frogs, insects, other invertebrates, or livestock) are estimated to have perished, and the wildlife that do manage to survive the country’s apocalyptic conditions are now at risk of starvation. Photo Credit: Noah Berger. 2/10/21 Who Are the Ultimate War Profiteers? Dutch appeals court rushes to the defense of tyranny, overrules Hague district court and reinstates illegal curfew. Maybe all of them do eventually. Their studies have generated rival explanations of why societies collapse and civilizations die. ‘The health of the people should be the supreme law’, Crisis in the Amazon: A Planetary Challenge, Climate Change Threatens Homes of Boston’s Most Vulnerable, Miami Beach’s Housing Crisis Worsened By Climate Change, Viviendas asequibles en riesgo de inundaciones costeras, Amy Westerfelt: The Reason COVID-19 and Climate Seem So Similar: Disinformation, Bill McKibben's response to Michael Moore's Planet of the Humans, WaPo: The Congo rain forest is losing ability to absorb carbon dioxide. Tumblr. By Carolyn Baker, Collapsing Into The New Administration Amid Pandemic Lunacy, By Carolyn Baker, Collapse Changes Everything: Stop Whining For Perfection, By Carolyn Baker, Auction through 8/10 to support Blackjewel miners blocking train tracks, Auction of painting to benefit workers organizing for improved conditions at Amazon warehouse in Chicago, Some Functions of Art in the Revolutionary Movement. By Steven Gimbel, Ph.D., Gettysburg College Like human beings, who are born, go through different phases, and eventually die, maybe human cultures too follow a trajectory that ends in their collapse. Just as apocalyptic dystopias, with or without zombies, have become common fare on Netflix and in highbrow literature alike, societal collapse and its associated terms — “fragility” and “resilience,” “risk” and “sustainability” — have become the objects of extensive scholarly inquiry and infrastructure.