"understanding that this civilization is already dead"

[apocryphal]

Made me think.

"The biggest problem climate change poses isn’t how the Department of Defense should plan for resource wars, or how we should put up sea walls to protect Alphabet City, or when we should evacuate Hoboken. It won’t be addressed by buying a Prius, signing a treaty, or turning off the air-conditioning. The biggest problem we face is a philosophical one: understanding that this civilization is already dead. The sooner we confront this problem, and the sooner we realize there’s nothing we can do to save ourselves, the sooner we can get down to the hard work of adapting, with mortal humility, to our new reality.

The choice is a clear one. We can continue acting as if tomorrow will be just like yesterday, growing less and less prepared for each new disaster as it comes, and more and more desperately invested in a life we can’t sustain. Or we can learn to see each day as the death of what came before, freeing ourselves to deal with whatever problems the present offers without attachment or fear.

If we want to learn to live in the Anthropocene, we must first learn how to die."

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/20 ... cene/?_r=0

[jacob]

Paywall

“We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them” (some physicist). In particular, our problem is that our "level of thinking" is technology (Prius, solar cells, sea walls, ...) and government action (wars, treaties, carbon credits, rationing, ...).

From my experience, it is pretty rare to come across someone who actually acknowledge this. This is part of why I gave up on environmentalism---they mostly wanted to design cool new gadgets to save 10% on energy costs. The minority which does see this problem tend to retreat, bug out if not literally, then at least figuratively---and prepare for "death" at the human-scale level (the correct level for solving this problem) and ignore the government- and technology-scales.---These latter ones just serve to kick the can down the road.

[Felix]

One major problem with disaster prevention is that if it works, nothing happens, and all you see is what it costs. I liked how the Juniper book put dollar values on some of the preservation results for that reason.

[Tyler9000]

Meh. Rhetorical escalations like this only reinforce the perception that global warming is, as Michael Crichton would put it, the religion of choice for modern urban athiests.

[workathome]

I suppose that's the problem. Any radical break in mentality from the status quo is automatically dismissed because it is a break from status quo. As if the mini tech-and-population-bubble of the last 100 years is how things have always been and always will be, forever and ever. The majority's awareness is too limited in scope to budget for next month, have little chance of pulling off early retirement, and an infinitesimal small chance of comprehending the negative consequences of today's actions on the next generation. Economy and technology are the modern solutions to all problems and religion. History can't even be understood except on a scale of increasingly progressive stages of technology and economic developments, culminating in ever more perfected states of human existence.

It requires a paradigm shift to think differently.

[apocryphal]

The next 50 years will be interesting. Has there ever been a society or species that has not consumed to the limits of their ability? I would like to think we'd be able to act abit better than bacteria

Jacob - nytimes paywall is easily defeated, just clear your cookies, at least it works for me.

[tonyedgecombe]

The next 50 years will be interesting. Has there ever been a society or species that has not consumed to the limits of their ability?

Well what is different this time is birth control, we do seem to be slowing the rate of growth. I'm not convinced we can do it time though.

[Nomini]

Very interesting article, but the author is quite right that people cannot accept that kind of thinking. The pill is so bitter, it is impossible for most to swallow.