{"id":58017,"date":"2021-05-24T07:39:03","date_gmt":"2021-05-24T12:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=58017"},"modified":"2021-05-24T07:39:03","modified_gmt":"2021-05-24T12:39:03","slug":"todays-contemplation-collapse-cometh-xvi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=58017","title":{"rendered":"Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh XVI"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh XVI<\/a><\/h3>\n
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Knossos, Greece (1993) Photo by author<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another quick thought on our impending energy cliff situation and comment on an\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0suggesting overconsumption is our greatest threat and that we can be happy without it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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The threats humanity faces are never simple and always multifaceted and intertwined. Overconsumption by a relatively small percentage of our world\u2019s population is certainly one of the contributing factors. As is the way we create and distribute \u2018money\u2019 and our sociopolitical systems, to mention just two.<\/p>\n

Underpinning all of these\u00a0c<\/span>omplexities is energy and the one-time, finite cache of energy provided by fossil fuels has provided a boost to human exploitation of the planet unlike any other time in humanity\u2019s 100,000+ years of existence. In the waning days of this phenomenal energy surplus (be it due to supply constraints because of diminishing returns or some recognition of the negative consequences of its use \u2014 which are many and go far beyond the production of greenhouse gases), scaling back \u2018advanced\u2019 economies\u2019 overconsumption tendencies could help forestall the energy decline we have begun to experience. It is unlikely, however, to prevent it \u2014 I would argue it is mostly magical thinking to hold on to the idea that some \u2018clean\u2019, \u2018renewable\u2019, and \u2018sustainable\u2019 energy source will suddenly appear and save us; a \u2018solution\u2019 that would not in any way address the mountain of other dilemmas we face, such as lack of arable lands and fertile soils, biodiversity loss, the negative repercussions of our past several centuries of expansion and exploitation, and numerous other biophysical limits imposed by a finite planet.<\/p>\n

In fact, I would argue there are many reasons a pullback in our consumer-(profit-)driven societies is unlikely to happen, not least of which is the ruling class\u2019s motivation to expand\/control the wealth-generating systems that provide their revenue stream and the societal repercussions that always seem to arise when a people\u2019s living standards (expectations? entitlements?) are threatened.<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh XVI Knossos, Greece (1993) Photo by author Another quick thought on our impending energy cliff situation and comment on an\u00a0article\u00a0suggesting overconsumption is our greatest threat and that we can be happy without it. *\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0*\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0* The threats humanity faces are never simple and always multifaceted and intertwined. Overconsumption […]<\/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":[2,3,4,7],"tags":[150,1101,7213,3197,5833,30370],"class_list":["post-58017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-energy-2","category-environment","category-survival-2","tag-collapse","tag-olduvai","tag-overconsumption","tag-overshoot","tag-steve-bull","tag-todays-contemplation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58017","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=58017"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58018,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58017\/revisions\/58018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}