{"id":33860,"date":"2018-04-30T06:56:39","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T11:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=33860"},"modified":"2018-04-30T06:56:39","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T11:56:39","slug":"societal-death-or-transfiguration-cinema-visions-of-humanity-facing-extinction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=33860","title":{"rendered":"Societal Death or Transfiguration? Cinema Visions of Humanity Facing Extinction"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 class=\"headline\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/2018\/04\/30\/societal-death-or-transfiguration-cinema-visions-of-humanity-facing-extinction\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Societal Death or Transfiguration? Cinema Visions of Humanity Facing Extinction<\/a><\/h3>\n<div class=\"post_content\">\n<div id=\"attachment_101685\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-101685 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/dropzone\/2018\/04\/Downsizing-1-510x261.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/dropzone\/2018\/04\/Downsizing-1.jpg 510w, https:\/\/uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/dropzone\/2018\/04\/Downsizing-1-300x153.jpg 300w, https:\/\/uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/dropzone\/2018\/04\/Downsizing-1-768x392.jpg 768w\" alt=\"\" width=\"510\" height=\"261\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Still from \u201cDownsizing.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>How should world society respond to the approach of human extinction compelled by implacable external forces, such as: radioactive fallout after a global nuclear war (as in Nevil Shute\u2019s novel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0307473996\/counterpunchmaga\"><em>On the Beach<\/em><\/a>), or an alien invasion by a species of technologically superior beings from outer space, or an impending collision between Earth and a massive planetoid, or (as seems most likely today) by runaway and irreversible Climate Change?<\/p>\n<p>The general question has long been the seed for spinning out entertaining speculations in fantasy novels and science-fiction movies, but now it has become a serious matter of immediate concern for an increasing number of geo- and social- scientists and social planners. Mayer Hillman, an 86-year-old social scientist, urban planner and senior fellow emeritus of the Policy Studies Institute in England, says (in an article published by <em><a href=\"https:\/\/amp.theguardian.com\/environment\/2018\/apr\/26\/were-doomed-mayer-hillman-on-the-climate-reality-no-one-else-will-dare-mention\">The Guardian<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>on 26 April 2018:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cWe\u2019re doomed. \u2014 The outcome is death, and it\u2019s the end of most life on the planet because we\u2019re so dependent on the burning of fossil fuels. There are no means of reversing the process which is melting the polar ice caps. And very few appear to be prepared to say so. \u2014 I\u2019m not going to write anymore [about the projected consequences of runaway Climate Change] because there\u2019s nothing more that can be said. \u2014 With doom ahead, making a case for cycling as the primary mode of transport [instead of automobiles] is almost irrelevant. \u2014 We\u2019ve got to stop burning fossil fuels. So many aspects of life depend on fossil fuels, except for music and love and education and happiness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Societal Death or Transfiguration? Cinema Visions of Humanity Facing Extinction Still from \u201cDownsizing.\u201d How should world society respond to the approach of human extinction compelled by implacable external forces, such as: radioactive fallout after a global nuclear war (as in Nevil Shute\u2019s novel On the Beach), or an alien invasion by a species of technologically [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[141,5493,215,17718,287,18833,18832,19985,19986],"class_list":["post-33860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-survival-2","tag-climate-change","tag-counterpunch","tag-doom","tag-downsizing","tag-extinction","tag-jr","tag-manuel-garcia","tag-societal-death","tag-transfiguration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33860"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33861,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33860\/revisions\/33861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}