SUBHEAD: The inability to focus on (or even realize) the source of our near term extinction makes it more likely happen.
By Juan Wilson on 8 January 2020 for Island Breath -
(https://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2020/01/another-bottle-neck-approaches.html)
Image above: Photo of four women inside the indigenous fight to save the Amazon rainforest. From (https://www.dazeddigital.com/politics/article/45703/1/the-fight-to-save-the-amazon-rainforest-youth-activist-protest).
Before we get any farther let me say "Here's Wishing You Happy New Year!"
And that is about as optimistic as I can put it. I actually don't think this year is going work out as rosy as many are hoping. Why?
We are facing the results of our wild success as a species. We have overpopulated the world and consequently have demanded too much of the Earth's resources for ourselves. This has meant the development of "agriculture" that consumes the forests that are the "lungs" of the planet.
It has meant the destructive acquisition as well as the poisonous consumption of water, minerals, fossil fuels and other resources. Add to all that - the pollution and contamination from burning and dumping all those resources once they are "garbage".
Okay, Okay! We are selfish monkeys too greedy to get out of our own way.
Historians often categorize human history in the Three-Age System - Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages.
The Stone Age is the longest period of human history lasting from about 2.6 million years ago to about 5,000 years ago. During the latter part of the Stone Age agriculture was developed.
The Stone Age amounts to about 99% of human time on Earth. Most tools and materials humans employed were from found objects modified by hand - materials like stone, wood, grass, shells, bone, pelts and sinew made up all we had.
The Bronze Age began about 2,500BC. The relatively low melting point of tin and copper allowed Neolithic pottery kilns to produce bronze that was used for tools, decorations and weapons. During the Bronze Age writing began, in part to account for trading.
The Iron Age required the technology of higher temperature furnaces than the Bronze Age. The production of iron meant better tools and weapons. Larger more stable communities
But wait there's more... The Iron Age lead to the Steam Age, Coal Age, Oil Age and Atomic Age.
With each step "up?" this ladder human population increased, as well as our demands for land, resources and places to throw out all our crap. We have come to the end of that trail.
The only way for humans to flourish in the near future is to climb down from our high impact on Mother Earth. That is about to happen whether humans want it or not and whether or not the future even includes us.
We have been cornered before. See One Time Through the Bottle Neck - Ea O Ka Aina 7/21/10.
The article describes when humanity was reduced to a few families living at the southern tip of Africa eating shellfish and living in a mammoth cave 200,000 years ago.
We're coming up to another bottleneck and nobody is safe.
My advice... find a place where the biosphere is thick and the human population is thin. Be sure their is food, water and shelter locally accessible. Go indigenous. Make friends. Share what you have and hunker down.
It's going to be a bumpy ride.
See also:
Facing Extinction - Ea O Ka Aina 5/4/19
Kunstler Predictions for 2019 - Ea O Ka Aina 12/31/18
In the Face of Extinction - Ea O Ka Aina 12/4/18
Biodiversity loss is our extinction - Ea O Ka Aina 11/6/18
Too Late Too Little - Ea O Ka Aina 6/20/18
Civilization as Asteroid - Ea O Ka Aina 6/19/18
NTHE is a four letter word - Ea O Ka Aina 3/27/18
Half-Earth, Half-Baked - Ea O Ka Aina 3/25/18
On the Road to Extinction - Ea O Ka Aina 9/13/17
Sixth Mass Extinction Underway - Ea O Ka Aikna 7/11/17
Arctic Methane "May be apocalyptic" - Ea O Ka Aina 3/24/17
Mass Extinction and Mass Insanity - Ea O Ka Aina 12/10/16
Global warming and woolly mammoth - Ea O Ka Aina 7/25/15
Resisting Near-Term-Extinction - Ea O Ka Aina 5/19/13
The Pleasures of Extinction - Ea O Ka Aina 5/17/13
Preparing for Near Term Extinction - Ea O Ka Aina 5/7/13
Extinction Event? - Ea O Ka Aina 2/8/11
By Juan Wilson on 8 January 2020 for Island Breath -
(https://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2020/01/another-bottle-neck-approaches.html)
Image above: Photo of four women inside the indigenous fight to save the Amazon rainforest. From (https://www.dazeddigital.com/politics/article/45703/1/the-fight-to-save-the-amazon-rainforest-youth-activist-protest).
Before we get any farther let me say "Here's Wishing You Happy New Year!"
And that is about as optimistic as I can put it. I actually don't think this year is going work out as rosy as many are hoping. Why?
We are facing the results of our wild success as a species. We have overpopulated the world and consequently have demanded too much of the Earth's resources for ourselves. This has meant the development of "agriculture" that consumes the forests that are the "lungs" of the planet.
It has meant the destructive acquisition as well as the poisonous consumption of water, minerals, fossil fuels and other resources. Add to all that - the pollution and contamination from burning and dumping all those resources once they are "garbage".
Okay, Okay! We are selfish monkeys too greedy to get out of our own way.
Historians often categorize human history in the Three-Age System - Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages.
The Stone Age is the longest period of human history lasting from about 2.6 million years ago to about 5,000 years ago. During the latter part of the Stone Age agriculture was developed.
The Stone Age amounts to about 99% of human time on Earth. Most tools and materials humans employed were from found objects modified by hand - materials like stone, wood, grass, shells, bone, pelts and sinew made up all we had.
The Bronze Age began about 2,500BC. The relatively low melting point of tin and copper allowed Neolithic pottery kilns to produce bronze that was used for tools, decorations and weapons. During the Bronze Age writing began, in part to account for trading.
The Iron Age required the technology of higher temperature furnaces than the Bronze Age. The production of iron meant better tools and weapons. Larger more stable communities
But wait there's more... The Iron Age lead to the Steam Age, Coal Age, Oil Age and Atomic Age.
With each step "up?" this ladder human population increased, as well as our demands for land, resources and places to throw out all our crap. We have come to the end of that trail.
The only way for humans to flourish in the near future is to climb down from our high impact on Mother Earth. That is about to happen whether humans want it or not and whether or not the future even includes us.
We have been cornered before. See One Time Through the Bottle Neck - Ea O Ka Aina 7/21/10.
The article describes when humanity was reduced to a few families living at the southern tip of Africa eating shellfish and living in a mammoth cave 200,000 years ago.
We're coming up to another bottleneck and nobody is safe.
- With the unemployed, uneducated, lower-class facing homelessness, no healthcare, opioid addiction, violence etc...
- With the white christian, heterosexual, middle-class mired in debt, racial anxiety, self delusion and self absorption ...
- With the elite, educated, privileged, upper-class worried about being over-run and fearful of total ecosystem collapse...
My advice... find a place where the biosphere is thick and the human population is thin. Be sure their is food, water and shelter locally accessible. Go indigenous. Make friends. Share what you have and hunker down.
It's going to be a bumpy ride.
See also:
Facing Extinction - Ea O Ka Aina 5/4/19
Kunstler Predictions for 2019 - Ea O Ka Aina 12/31/18
In the Face of Extinction - Ea O Ka Aina 12/4/18
Biodiversity loss is our extinction - Ea O Ka Aina 11/6/18
Too Late Too Little - Ea O Ka Aina 6/20/18
Civilization as Asteroid - Ea O Ka Aina 6/19/18
NTHE is a four letter word - Ea O Ka Aina 3/27/18
Half-Earth, Half-Baked - Ea O Ka Aina 3/25/18
On the Road to Extinction - Ea O Ka Aina 9/13/17
Sixth Mass Extinction Underway - Ea O Ka Aikna 7/11/17
Arctic Methane "May be apocalyptic" - Ea O Ka Aina 3/24/17
Mass Extinction and Mass Insanity - Ea O Ka Aina 12/10/16
Global warming and woolly mammoth - Ea O Ka Aina 7/25/15
Resisting Near-Term-Extinction - Ea O Ka Aina 5/19/13
The Pleasures of Extinction - Ea O Ka Aina 5/17/13
Preparing for Near Term Extinction - Ea O Ka Aina 5/7/13
Extinction Event? - Ea O Ka Aina 2/8/11
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