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From Trucker Boycotts To Grid Down – There’s Only One Way To Survive A Food Crisis
From Trucker Boycotts To Grid Down – There’s Only One Way To Survive A Food Crisis If there is one reality that Americans need to accept, it’s that every system has a breaking point and there are no exceptions. Human beings are built to adapt and this has given us incredible resilience, but it also […]
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CLXIII–Keep Calm and Carry On
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CLXIII Mexico (1988). Photo by author. Keep Calm and Carry On Today’s Contemplation is my comment on a recent post by Allan Urban that speaks to his experiences attempting to share his learnings on ‘collapse’. For those that have read it, you can likely recognise similar reactions from others; I certainly did. After […]
Feedback Loops and Unsustainable Systems
Feedback Loops and Unsustainable Systems Mountains as seen from Tennessee Welcome Center I have brought up feedback loops (both positive and negative) many times in this space. I’ve also brought up unsustainable systems in one way or another in practically every article, since they are endemic in human society and at the root of every predicament. It would be very simple […]
COP27: The Reasons for a Failure
COP27: The Reasons for a Failure The COP27, in itself, wouldn’t deserve a comment. It is over, and that’s it — been there, done that, and nobody cared. But I think it is a good occasion to reproduce this text by Stuart B. Hill that nicely explains why we make mistakes all the time when […]
Donella Meadows: Sustainable Systems
Donella Meadows: Sustainable Systems
How Breakdown Cascades Into Collapse
How Breakdown Cascades Into Collapse Maintaining the illusion of confidence, permanence and stability serves the interests of those benefiting from the bubbles and those who prefer the safety of the herd, even as the herd thunders toward the precipice. The misconception that collapse is an all or nothing phenomenon is common: Either the system rights itself with a […]
The Early Roots of a Modern Crisis
The Early Roots of a Modern Crisis This is our challenge: to move a world of almost 8 billion people, most involved in an economic system with tremendous inequality, a clear imperative to expand, and a chronic tendency to stagnate, toward some real rapprochement with earth. This is a monumental challenge. If nothing else, the […]
A simple way to understand what’s happening … and what to do
A simple way to understand what’s happening … and what to do The world seems to be coming apart at the seams. It’s critical to understand why, so that we can avoid the worst and find the best responses so as to move toward the environmentally and socially healthy future we want. It turns out that […]
Is the pandemic causing an exodus from big cities?
Is the pandemic causing an exodus from big cities? Thomas Homer-Dixon, the Canadian student of complex systems and author of The Upside of Down, wrote in his 2006 book that “September 11 and Katrina won’t be the last time we walk out of our cities.” Today, many big-city dwellers appear to be seeking refuge in less […]
Why Covid-19 Demands Our Full Attention
Why Covid-19 Demands Our Full Attention This is an unprecedented moment for our hyper-connected planet There’s a reason we’ve re-directed so much of our attention towards reporting on and trying to understand the novel coronavirus (covid-19) that originated in Wuhan, China in December. The heart of our approach is to be “systems thinkers.” “Learn how […]
Responding to Collapse: Uncertain Future Forum Wrap-Up
Responding to Collapse: Uncertain Future Forum Wrap-Up When we invited Dahr Jamail, Meghan Kallman, Taylor Brorby, and Winona LaDuke to answer the admittedly difficult and emotionally charged question that is this forum’s topic, we didn’t expect to get the “right” answer from any of them. There is no “right” answer. What’s “right” is subjective—very much dependent […]
Chaos of Weather Record Heat Wave Coming – Fraud of Linear Predictions
Chaos of Weather Record Heat Wave Coming – Fraud of Linear Predictions This weekend the forecasts are calling for a blistering, dangerous heat wave which is poised to scorch the southeastern U.S. over the Memorial Day weekend. I warned that our computer was showing a sharp increase in volatility in the weather. The winters would […]
