Erik Michaels Just Doesn’t Get It*
The doomer blogosphere is a distraction
* No modern humans do
Problems, Predicaments, and Technology
Erik’s blog, and his late colleague Michael Dowd’s work, covers many different aspects of ecological overshoot focusing on climate change, pollution loading, and energy and resource decline. Specific areas of interest also include anthropocentrism, hubris, cognitive dissonance, and optimism bias.
On Erik’s Descent Into the Long Dark Night of Our Soul
The first five years I was just getting warmed up. The next five years taught me a whole new realm. The last five years has brought me into a whole new understanding not only of where we are as a species but how the key biological imperatives that drive us into action also drive the evolutionary path we are on. We don’t control those biological imperatives; they control us. I really like Eliza’s article. It’s very realistic; except for thinking that there is a way out. I just don’t see any evidence that our species has the ability to go against the MPP collectively, and even if we instituted a new economic system, civilization itself remains unsustainable. Instituting a new economic system, developing a new civilization, utilizing EVs and non-renewable “renewable” or “clean” or “green” or “sustainable” electricity, and electrification are ALL forms of bargaining with the predicament rather than accepting it. Recently, John Peach and I published an article explaining why electrification, EVs, the energy transition, and the Green New Deal are failures.
Resources and Blogs Erik Feeds On
Note:
Being listed by Erik does not mean that all claims/content of the sites above are dismissible as doomster rants. I do not view Tom Murphy and Jack Alpert as distractions. I value and cite the work of several other of the above as, at least on occasion, as sources information of value.
As I self-identify as an extreme Cornucopian optimist living on an abundant planet, my website is not listed. I trust (hope) it never will be, but just in case, I wanted to disavow any association with what I’ve called “the doomer dynamic” which I view as an existential threat to humanity (as potentially renormalized posterity living properly with the planet in a viable form of civilization) and the biosphere. Doomers cannot understand what their commitment to ‘I-told-you-so’ prevents them from understanding.
My Blogroll of Sites:
[FYI: no agreement or disagreement should be a inferred]
Club of Rome
The Club of Rome, “the first to rebel against the suicidal ignorance of the human condition.” Club of Rome members, associations and partners share transformational thought leadership and co-design solutions for impact.
“I remember an occasion a decade ago [in 1983], when the Club of Rome had persuaded a dozen prime ministers and presidents to discuss world problems with us. We were agreeably surprised by the extent of understanding of the longer term issues which these political leaders displayed. Why then did they not act? At the end of the meeting one of them summed up his position by saying that they all more or less accepted the Club of Rome’s position [when California governor Jerry Brown left office, one of the first things he did was go to Europe to a Club of Rome meeting which the press ignored], despite their ideological difference. However, were he to act on this substantially, he would be out of office, not at the next election, but in a few months. It would take his successor some years to understand the basic problems and if he reacted as he should, equally he would be eliminated politically. The only solution lies in an increase in depth and extent of public understanding of the dangers which confront us.” [From letter to Don Chisholm, 1993, by Alexander King, President Emeritus and Co-Founder of the Club of Rome.]
President Xi must also serve the short-term self interests of members of the Chinese Communist Party (who must serve the People), or he would be out of power ‘in a few months’. Kim Jong-un must serve his system as did Shenzong (Emperor of China) whose word was literally law, who was yet constrained by the system/events. The last Emperor of Rome had to serve his Praetorian Guard until he couldn’t. There are no potentates apart from the system all serve. We the People in various self-serving super-tribal forms auto-organize into competing special interest factions. Politics in all forms must end and will when enough humans (perhaps 0.01%) understand that they must cease to be humancentric (become naturcentric again or die) and instigate a new form of global governance.
One Book to Save the World
Thinking In Systems by Donella Meadows. If you are less-than-clear that human society at large is unsustainable, perhaps this isn’t the blog entry for you.
Resilience.org
Arm of Transition Movement: ‘a community library with space to read and think, but also as a vibrant café in which to meet people, discuss ideas and projects, and pick up and share tips on how to build the resilience of your community, your household, or yourself’. Consider: To What End?
Question Everything
When what is happening in your world doesn’t make sense, when it doesn’t conform to your beliefs about how things should work, it’s time to ask hard questions.
The Simpler Way: Envisioning a Prosperous Descent
A recent article by Ted Trainer. ‘The global economy is undermining the ecological foundations of life, producing perverse inequalities of wealth, and spreading a cultural malaise as ever-more people discover that consumerism cannot satisfy the human craving for meaning [a life-driven purpose]. While industrial civilisation continues this inevitable descent, humankind is being challenged to reimagine the good life, tell new stories of prosperity, and get to work envisioning and building a new world within the shell of the old’. Transition Theory.
15/15\15: Magazine for a New Civilization
A magazine for degrowthers, transitionists, peak-oilers, and radical ecologists seeking a paradigm shift. The human predicament viewed through a political lens darkly. Founded 2015 based on a projection that in 15 years (2030) there would be no more than 15% of the energy with which oil had been supporting the Growth Civilization.
A Prosperous Way Down: Our civilization can thrive in a future where we can live with less
A view through the macroscope via energy principles.
Approaching the Limits to Growth
Paul Chefurka’s journey of discovery through the worlds of energy, ecology, economics and human culture, 2007–2013. Consider his note on Carrying Capacity and Overshoot.
Al Bartlett
The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function.
Stanford Knowledge Integration Laboratory
To understand the causes and cures of “temporal blindness” (lack of temporal causal cohesion) and thus create “cognition based solutions to global problems” Scholars: Change the Coarse
un-Denial
The purpose of the universe…is to increase entropy. The universe abhors an energy gradient and life is its best invention for degrading energy gradients. Humans are the champions of life at degrading energy, and from this perspective, may be the universe’s pinnacle of invention.
Long-run global economic growth
To what extent does our global economy rely on raw materials and energy? Can we decouple global economic innovation and growth from climate change?
The Seneca Effect: What It Is and Why It Is Important For Us
‘It would be some consolation for the feebleness of our selves and our works, if all things should perish as slowly as they come into being; but as it is, increases are of sluggish growth, but the way to ruin is rapid’. (Lucius Annaeus Seneca, 4 BCE-65 CE)
Do the Math
One of my most important messages is that we need to shake the religion of growth. We simply can’t continue growing indefinitely. Either we use our brains to plot a trajectory into steady-state and hope it’s smooth, or we let nature decide how to deal with us. Download: Energy and Human Ambitions on a Finite Planet
Articles by Nate Hagens
As posted to The Oil Drum 2006–2013.
And watch Nate’s 150 hour university course boiled down to 4 hours of 34 video bites for those of us with ADD, Reality 101: What every student (and citizen) should know, and read Economics for the Future.
Jay Hanson and Dieoff.com
I developed an interest in “sustainability” about fifteen years ago when it became clear to me that our present economic system was totally unsustainable and self-destructive.
Alice Friedemann the Energy Skeptic
Peak Energy & Resources, Climate Change, and the Preservation of Knowledge: Collapse or Extinction? After worldwide oil production peaks, there are no substitutes ready to make up the energy shortfall.
Cassandra’s Legacy
This blog deals with the decline of the availability of natural resources, climate change, ecosystem disruption and why all that is happening. The future may not look bright, but it is still possible to face it if we don’t discount the alerts of the modern Cassandras.
Our Finite World
Exploring how oil limits affect the economy.
Adrastia
Adrastia comes from the ancient Greek Adrasteia: “which one can not escape”. The Adrastia Committee aims to anticipate and prepare the decline of the thermo-industrial civilization in an honest, responsible and dignified way.
MAHB: Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere
The Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere: Responding to the human predicament. Reducing the threat of a shattering collapse of civilization.
Wellbeing Economy: An Alliance to Save the World and maybe Humanity
Bring about a transformation of the economic system, of society and of institutions so that all actors prioritize shared wellbeing on a healthy planet.
Blue Planet Club: For Blue Planet Governance
The name Blue Planet Club is chosen to bring our focus toward the pale blue dot, as planet Earth appears when seen from deep space. The pale blue dot name was suggested by cosmologist Carl Sagan in hopes that the fragile appearance of humanity’s only home may arouse within us the emotional and spiritual response need to help us deal with the deteriorating state of our natural world.
The Real Green New Deal
Addresses: ‘overpopulation, ending U.S. empire, restoring democracy while shifting to new political systems…, economic de-growth, what aspects of modern life can be retained in an energy de-intensified world, taking action outside the system now.’ To quibble: there is no ‘U.S. empire’, merely a vestige that, like all other former sovereign powers, has been subsumed into the global ‘monetary culture’ of the Euro-Sino Empire that almost everyone is part of and serves. As for ‘restoring democracy’, ultra-humancentric democracy has served empire-building well, so more democracy will select for making empire-building great again, which will fail to destroy the technoindustrial hegemon of empire-as-usual. But otherwise the RGND vision is practically perfect in every way, although offering ‘the truth’ is political-speak as usual. In science one iterates towards maybe knowing something with all claims considered.
Consciousness of Sheep: The storm is coming — will you be ready?
‘A running commentary on the slow motion train wreck that is Western civilisation in general and its British variant in particular. My sole aim with this website is to raise awareness of the predicament of the “three Es” (Economy, Energy and Environment).’
How to Save the World: 7k+ pages and counting
‘Our purpose on this planet is to play, responsibly, sustainably, lovingly, joyfully, with each other, as part of all-life-on-Earth. To have fun.’ For prattle on steroids, enter the conceptual house of mirrors of Dave Pollard where concepts reference only other concepts. A true believer in belief, a consummate doomer dilettante for the discriminating doomer since 2003. Using mind to seek Mind really is the greatest of all mistakes.
Collapse Blogosphere: They are out there
There is an apparently vast blogosphere for doomers out there that I, as extreme cornucopian optimist, have no interest in. Yet as a gateway drug, The Doomstead Diner contains information that may be of interest to those who can overlook the flashing lights, videos, and vet their sources. The click-bait format, however, will appeal to the teaming multitudes. But the Doomer Dynamic is fruitful and multiplies:
Problems, Predicaments, and Technology
The Crash Course
Post Doom- Living in the Time of Dying
Doom for Dummies
Deep Adaptation
This Civilisation is Finished
Wit’s End
Collapse Survival Site
LIFEITSELF: Tad Patzek, professor of doom
“In this blog, I continue to write about the environment, ecology, energy, complexity, and humans. Of particular interest to me are human self-delusions and mad stampedes to nowhere.”
The Pelican Web: Home of Mother Pelican
A Journal of Solidarity and Sustainability. A bit outside my domain of discourse at times, but science literate and stretching is of value.
Nephologue: Exploring the interplay of thermodynamics, economics, and climate
Tim Garrett, U of Utah.
Damn the Matrix : Or why the world is going to hell.
So, are you cool with getting poor?
Wrong Again: Climate change is not a distraction
Because climate change has been politicized (and despite the near certainty that our trajectory of overshoot and collapse will be about the same even if a magic button could be pushed and the climate went back to 20th century norms for the coming millennia) the military can start to think the unthinkable BECAUSE climate warriors have declared fighting climate change to be this generation’s ‘WWII’. Per military intelligence, ‘Mitigation of new large-scale stresses requires a commitment to learning, systematically, about what is happening…focused on Systems Thinking …. When the facts do not match our strong theories for how the world works, we prefer to change the facts. How can we more quickly recognize the unexpected for what it really is?’ Beware the black swan.
Surplus Energy Economics: How the economy REALLY works — Tim Morgan
This site is driven by the understanding that the economy is an energy system, and not (as conventional thinking assumes) a financial one.
30 Visions of Sustainability: 2017
A curious zeitgeist document by a German multi-national mining company that interviewed 30 experts in various fields including science, economics, philosophy, technology, politics and management, with a focus on sustainability to bake a 30-layer cake. Do you believe in the ignorance of experts?
Rethinking Everything: — George Mobus
‘I am on record for believing that civilization is close to collapse and one might readily suppose that I would think it too late to rethink what we are doing’, but….
MEGACANCER: Exploring the pathology of industrial civilization — James
There is only one possible catagory: Uncatagorized. The concerns expressed are outside the consensus narrative.
Reg Morrison: A fresh perspective on life
Our time-bomb is mysticism. Its delivery system is language. And its hiding place? The unfathomable coils of our DNA.
Our time bomb is our belief in belief.
Its delivery system is bewitchment by means of language.
And its hiding place?
In the depths of our genes and memes.
Of Two Minds: Charles Hugh Smith
The notion that consequence can be as easily managed as PR is the ultimate artifice and the ultimate delusion.
Doomberg: Chicken Little gets a terminal.
Discriminating doomers pay for their fresh meat. Doom-leaning bias, but often publish factual information that utilizes loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes) to favor doomer concerns.
Collapse Musings: Alan Urban muses.
Subscribe to read, go to survialist store to shop. Read his stuff on Medium if you subscribe to Medium (but free to read titles).
George Tsakraklides: Deep Doomer Dude.
‘As an ordinary passenger in our doomed car, I refuse to go down the cliff without the dignity of being self-aware of my situation, as much as I know that the brakes are already broken. I prefer to stare the abyss in the eye and die with my eyes open, rather than looking down the LCD abyss of my phone, scrolling through the memes of The System. Unapologetically hopeless, defiantly desperate’…, but alive and well, a thriving pathogen signaling on social media.
Surviving C21: Our existential emergency, by Julian Cribb.
Politics is one of the four great mass delusions (the others are money, religion and humanism).
Our World Together: The global crisis of sustainability.
We can’t solve a problem if we do not understand its nature and scale. (1) (2) (3)
OK Doomer: Jessica Wildfire’s blog.
Sometimes, you just want to know you’re not alone. That’s the point of OK Doomer.
Post Doom: Regenerative conversations exploring overshoot grief, grounding, and gratitude..
Michael Dowd has a foreboding sense of climate chaos, societal breakdown, and economic and ecological “doom” is now widespread. Acknowledging our predicament and working through the stages of grief takes one only to the midpoint: acceptance. What lies beyond? Michael Dowd (with occasional co-hosts) invites 90 guests (recorded over 4 years) to share their personal journeys along this trajectory and especially the gifts they have found on the other side.
Problems, Predicaments, and Technology: This blog covers many different aspects of ecological overshoot.
The Reverend Erik Michaels believes we modern humans are well into ecological overshoot.
Doomers’ Visions of the Future: Primer on the diversity of beliefs held by the best doomster minds.
Dante’s (Charles’) guided tour of hell (as/is other people).
Aurelien: Been there, done most of it. Time to write about it now.
Western governace insider, retired, who may know enough to have an opinion about how the world socioeconomic-political system works, which adds to a biophysical understanding of how the world system works. No apparent interest in understanding viable futures.
B: The Honest Sorcerer.
A critic of modern times, offering ideas for honest contemplation… How he came to believe that civilization is unsustainable.
The R-word.
A venue for writings about non-violent, eco-cultural revolution. James R. Martin, independent scholar in human ecology, ecological design and eco-philosophy.
Boiling it down: There are no true stories.
Humanity is colliding with Nature.
A damaged biosphere will persist.
We humans may not be part of it.
There are no political solutions.
∴ endeavor to tell likely stories.
Don’t believe anything: Pre or Post Doom. Your image of the past, present, future is not the past, present, future. The extinction of modern humans, sooner being better, is the condition that will come anyway and could be the best thing ever. Or not.
Your ancestors played the game for perhaps four billion years to thereby become ancestors. Play the game, stupid.
Rule 1: Gaia doesn’t care what you believe, so why should you? Stop listening to primate prattle, including the voices in your head.
Rule 2: Listen to Nature who has all the answers about what works to persist long term by maximizing the empower to the Gaian system and subsystems.