{"id":58413,"date":"2021-06-28T09:14:16","date_gmt":"2021-06-28T14:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=58413"},"modified":"2021-06-28T09:14:16","modified_gmt":"2021-06-28T14:14:16","slug":"todays-contemplation-collapse-cometh-xxiii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=58413","title":{"rendered":"Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh XXIII"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh XXIII<\/a><\/h3>\n
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Tulum, Mexico (1986) Photo by author<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Today\u2019s thought was motivated by another Tyee\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0that carries on the notion of \u2018clean energy\u2019 and the \u2018magical thinking\u2019 needed to buy into such narratives.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0 \u00a0 *\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0*<\/p>\n

As long as language is being manipulated (e.g., \u2018clean energy\u2019 is a gargantuan oxymoron), magical thinking employed (e.g., \u2018green hydrogen\u2019 or some iteration of it has been on the books for 2+ centuries and is still far, far away, if ever, given the physical and economic hurdles\/roadblocks), and fundamental causes of our dilemmas conveniently ignored (e.g., our pursuit of the infinite growth chalice on a finite planet), the \u2018solutions\u2019 we so desperately seek will always elude us (if they even exist).<\/p>\n

Despite relatively general recognition of humanity\u2019s impending \u2018challenges\u2019, we continue to follow the \u2018Business-As-Usual\u2019 (BAU) scenario painted for us by Meadows et al. in their 1972 Limits to Growth<\/a>. Our \u2018leaders\u2019 talk a good talk but the reality (given the obvious lack of \u2018progress\u2019 in mitigating our issues and their increasingly probable negative consequences) is that we have painted ourselves into a corner from which we apparently cannot extricate ourselves (except through some very convoluted narrative creations).<\/p>\n

There is overwhelming and increasing evidence that there is a significant reckoning in terms of energy decline (and various other resources) in our future, regardless of our wishes, ingenuity, and technology. The complexities of our globalised, just-in-time, and highly resource-dependent industrialised societies are losing their support systems in terms of the resources they require. We have encountered significant diminishing returns on our investments and can no longer \u2018afford\u2019 them. All the talk of \u2018solutions\u2019 is, at this point, seemingly reflective of the first four stages of grief outlined by Kubler-Ross<\/a>: denial, anger, bargaining, and depression.<\/p>\n

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

Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh XXIII Tulum, Mexico (1986) Photo by author Today\u2019s thought was motivated by another Tyee\u00a0article\u00a0that carries on the notion of \u2018clean energy\u2019 and the \u2018magical thinking\u2019 needed to buy into such narratives. *\u00a0 \u00a0 *\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0* As long as language is being manipulated (e.g., \u2018clean energy\u2019 is a gargantuan oxymoron), magical […]<\/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":[2,3,6,7],"tags":[150,209,31385,14273,14545,3197,5833,30370],"class_list":["post-58413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-energy-2","category-liberty","category-survival-2","tag-collapse","tag-diminishing-returns","tag-kubler-ross","tag-medium","tag-narrative-control","tag-overshoot","tag-steve-bull","tag-todays-contemplation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58413","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=58413"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58415,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58413\/revisions\/58415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}