Absolutely righteous. Haters will hate. Speak the truth. You have my humble support and best wishes for your dear mom. Being with family for her now is everything.
Thank you. The recent death of my father, a hero by any measure, my failing mother, and the reelection of Trump have created the perfect personal storm. My feeling is that life will quickly become intolerable for most of us. I may as well lay it on the line now.
My mother also passed before the election and it has been a perfect storm for me on several levels at once. I see it as an opportunity and discuss it on my blog as an Emergentcy. I teach adaptive strategies through embodiment and anatomy. I am an historian and somatic social theorist but politics, ecology, economics and international relations are not my forte. Thank you for your work.
Sorry about your mother. I never intended to write about politics, economics, or international relations, but it has become necessary. They're all tied together in the predicament we've created. Ultimately, it's our behavior that's doing us in. When one sees the big picture — that the health of the planet dictates our fate — most of the words we hear become nonsensical.
Succinct & accurate summary, verified personally, recently by new acquaintance with the work of Sid Smith & Michael Dowd.
What am I going to do? Loving the work of Joanna Macy & Carolyn Baker, who remind us that it’s civilization which is collapsing … not our capacity to love & be kind in response.
Substack doesn’t make it easy to $upport your work, after being a free subscriber … but I did it! Thanks for asking!!
You have given me many new names to look up, thank you. I have had many readers make recommendations and even send me their own work, books to read. Unfortunately, the truth is, I only have so much time to read and absorb. The situation changes so fast now, articles become outdated quickly, let alone books, which is why I have no intention of trying to write one. I will, however, look up all those names to become acquainted.
Thank you for putting your dollars where my mouth is. It's very much appreciated.
Yep, the re-election of Trump will regress climate action when we needed it most, garunteeing the end of human civilization in the coming decades. It was fun while it lasted.
In Douglas Preston's book Talking to the Ground a Navajo spiritual leader tells him
"the Earth has said ‘Have patience, there is no way you can stop this turn, this cycle. The world is already unbalanced. It’s already on its way, going full momentum. And in this manner, when the world ends, you will eventually go in a peaceful manner. In a respectful manner. Because you human beings, you may be gone, but the Earth is always here. It will revive itself’"
In my opinion, it is by having patience that we will eventually 'go in a peaceful manner'
At my age, given my health situation, I don't have many options besides "having patience." Maybe something surprising might happen and this prophecy will not come to pass, so do what you think is best. As the prophet Micah advised long ago, let's try to act justly, be kind, and not get too puffed up.
Some of us may have the ability to choose a peaceful manner, but I believe most don't have a clue of what's going down. This is my impression from having conversations with random strangers in my daily or weekly forays to buy the basics, like food. Most seemed to have been absorbed by popular culture, and whatever information they receive through traditional media are half-truths at best, or outright lies. As the economy and civilization crumbles, they will be confused and angry. I feel for them. At least, by understanding the situation, one can mentally prepare.
I have not read all your blog pieces so I apologise if you have covered this already, but I would be interested in more detail on your conversations with random strangers - how you bring up the topic of collapse, what reactions you get, whether you open anyone's eyes, etc.
I haven't written specifically about that, but it could be an interesting essay. "Sheep Being Led to Slaughter?" It feels as if for every article I write, there are ten more I can't get to, or become irrelevant as the future comes at us ever faster.
The first cause of mass deaths will be corruption. The second will be the water wars that are inevitable. And an idiot president who was trying to humiliate the Governor of California ended up squandering water needed for growing season this spring and summer. The truly wicked are in charge now, and there will be nothing good.
Yes — corruption (or greed) is a root cause, which is why much of my writing comes back to behavior. Often, lithium mining is taking place in locations of extreme drought, competing with agricultural and drinking water. On average, it takes 500,000 gallons of water to harvest one ton of lithium. It also, as usual, runs over indigenous people. I wrote about these issues a couple of years ago in regard to Thacker Pass, NV.
It is very sad that this fascist coup is going on while the earth is severely burning. However, it is not a mere coincidence. The very same terrorists who are taking over America, such as Trump, Koch Industries, Bezos and Musk and their cohorts, are the same terrorist who are to blame for fast tracking global warming, and for making billions of dollars off doing it.
As if their fascism and humanitarian crimes weren’t bad enough, they are very high risk and want to deregulate and be lawless. They want to enable more corporate crimes and profit and poison, pollute and destroy the earth even more. Everything they do is evil and risks life on earth, such as building nuclear weaponry, increasing fossil fuel use, manufacturing plastics, war threats… The world needs to focus, team up and arrest them and the other paid-off terrorists, for attempting to murder all life on earth. Their "denial" is a cover for first degree murder.
Thank you for your well-wishes. I'm not special, we all face these things.
You are correct on all counts about the people taking control of America. This has been a coup in motion since the Reagan years. These clowns for the most part know damn well climate change and overshoot are real. Increasing the rapidity of these problems reduces the population faster. I feel certain this is the real thinking.
Organizations like The Nature Conservancy have signed up with Bezos' BS Earth Fund. I've known and done work with people in TNC. The tentacles of corruption reach everywhere.
You're right, the world needs to team up, community by community. Our existing organizations haven't been able to get the job done.
It is indeed murder. The Nazis built gas chambers. The corporations have turned the entire planet into one.
Sorry, Geoff, but this coup was completed in 2021, when Our Mad King (wannabe) Donald the 1st was allowed to walk away from the leadership of his insurrection scot-free, even though hundreds of his cultists were later arrested, tried, and jailed for "seditious conspiracy", But not the Grifter-in-Chief, because the cowards at DOJ/FBI/AG were terrified of his MAGATS, after experiencing their furry on Jan. 6, 2021. So, Tramp was allowed to declare victory and continue his faux "presidency" from feckless (anti-)social media platforms and/or one or another of his golf club mini-castles, as he manipulated Congress with the backing of his billionaire co-conspirators. "It's all over, now, baby blue".
Yes, that, and sliding through two impeachments. One could even make the case this coup started decades ago with Reagan. Merrick Garland deserves an honorable mention for fecklessness. What will make people catch on? $20 per carton eggs? Their social security checks not arriving? The next mismanaged pandemic? 30 percent of the populace never catches on, and at least 50 percent can't be bothered to vote, because both parties are bought and paid for, so here we are. Horrific as the first few weeks have been, we haven't seen nuthin' yet.
We are NOT alone! Meritless Garlic deserves the gallows. Our nation is likely to dissolve into homesteads and revitalized small towns in the very near future, and that's the good news. As for the urbanites/suburbanites, well that'll be a very different story. Stay safe, gun-up and get outta Dodge. Have a blessed day!
I've felt for the past few years I've been doing a lot, but the challenge you lay down at the end has given me pause. Am I?
I am doing something, for sure. I've walked away from a career (and income) and now grow food for my community. I work for my household to be as self sufficent as I can, and we now grow 80% of our fresh food, and trade with others for things we don't have. I coordinate a grower collective in our community to increase our food growing capacity in the face of collapse. I've left social media (except substack) out of disgust with the oligarchy, but also with the apathy of half of the online community and disgusting politics of the other half. I write about surviving climate change with as much honesty as I can ... but is my body on the line? Maybe, yes, possibly not. I need to ponder this one.
Margi, as far as I'm aware, you of all my readers know climate change and overshoot best, having lost everything in the Black Summer. The action you have taken since is brave, bold, and smart. Building your own self-sustaining community is a huge endeavor, and one that may preserve a future for humans on the planet.
Perhaps I was too harsh at the end of this essay. For me, Trump and Musk break the threshold of hope. We were already far behind the curve on addressing overshoot and climate change, and being fed pablum about EVs and $56 billion dyke plans to save NYC, not addressing the realities of the inevitable end of oil or increasing violence and cost of climate change. Now we have a saber-rattling administration that is hellbent on theft from the poor and ever shrinking middle class, which can only increase division rather than come together on managing these existential threats.
What you're doing is important. We all have different roles to play. Stay the course. I wish you the best.
Thank you for the reply, Geoffrey. Be assured though, you were not too harsh, by half. I welcome the challenge to my internal assumptions. It's good for my internal dialogue, and that's important.
Over the short time since I sent that message I've been thinking a lot about what 'body on the line' means, in my context (which is wildly different from yours in so many ways). I've come to see that what was a threatening challenge two years ago, is now my normal. I've learned and adapted to my world.
So now, the trick is not to let apathy creep in and say that's enough. Now it's time to reach into the next discomfort. Change doesn't happen without challenge.
We now have Government by the "Three Poisons" described in Buddhism: Greed, Hatred and Delusion.
Geoffrey, excellent post. One of the best essays on our current socioeconomic-political conundrum in the context of climate change abd overshoot I've read. I'm forwarding it on...
It’s heartwarming to have your engagement, Geoffrey. James Fallows does likewise — another one to look up if you don’t know this magnificent old-school journalist. You remind me of each other. Lots of heart.
And, I argue with you. The oligarchs need customers. They can’t let the world go to hell in a good guys vs. bad guys scenario. And the intellect of human beings is in our camp, already the majority and getting bigger all the time. We can be damaged but we’re not going down at their hands.
Thank you, Suzanne. Yes, the oligarchs need customers. This is why I have often implored people to move their money out of fossil fuel sponsoring banks, buy as little as possible, and boycott Amazon and the big boxes. These are low risk ways to have an effect that our shambles of a political system won't produce. Of course, we're past the point when those tools are sufficient, dictatorship is rolling out before our eyes.
The greatest threat is the planet itself, which at the very least is destined to end civilization and possibly our brief tenure on the planet. With oil approaching the end of economic viability, renewables will prove to be a pipe dream as every step requires fossil fuels to build them, from mining to manufacturing to installation.
The overpopulation made possible by oil is destined to crash, ugly, sad, truth, the biggest bubble of all time.
We’d need to be organized to create any effective boycotts. That’s the number one in my save-humanity agenda. Why aren’t we being called to unite by any of our powers that be so that we could make that happen? it maybe time in the cosmic scheme of things for we-the-people to get our act together. With no great leaders who can call us to anything it may be humanity’s challenge to grow into our potential or else.
Thank you, once again, for the bleak but evidence based written examples which led to the putative oilgharcy we now live under. How can the illegalities continue under Executive Power and our country still be labeled a democracy? This is not a question I expect you to answer. It is a sad statement to the legal statutes and constitutional framework crumbling at an accelerated rate in conjunction with rapid climate change.
I feel voiceless. I endeavor to select an in-person protest in DC with like-minded friends and hope to not get arrested.
I hate being bleak, but all the facts lead to difficult conclusions. The abuse of executive power has increased in both parties as a way to get something done, as reasonable agreement on our legislative branch has become virtually impossible. Of course, executive orders are fragile, and easily reversed when a new administration comes to power. It's not real governing.
It's fantastic that you're going to DC. Physical presence is a necessary component of achieving and maintaining reasonable human rights. I want to hear all about it when you get back. We're not voiceless when enough of us speak together.
Absolutely righteous. Haters will hate. Speak the truth. You have my humble support and best wishes for your dear mom. Being with family for her now is everything.
Thank you. The recent death of my father, a hero by any measure, my failing mother, and the reelection of Trump have created the perfect personal storm. My feeling is that life will quickly become intolerable for most of us. I may as well lay it on the line now.
My mother also passed before the election and it has been a perfect storm for me on several levels at once. I see it as an opportunity and discuss it on my blog as an Emergentcy. I teach adaptive strategies through embodiment and anatomy. I am an historian and somatic social theorist but politics, ecology, economics and international relations are not my forte. Thank you for your work.
Sorry about your mother. I never intended to write about politics, economics, or international relations, but it has become necessary. They're all tied together in the predicament we've created. Ultimately, it's our behavior that's doing us in. When one sees the big picture — that the health of the planet dictates our fate — most of the words we hear become nonsensical.
Succinct & accurate summary, verified personally, recently by new acquaintance with the work of Sid Smith & Michael Dowd.
What am I going to do? Loving the work of Joanna Macy & Carolyn Baker, who remind us that it’s civilization which is collapsing … not our capacity to love & be kind in response.
Substack doesn’t make it easy to $upport your work, after being a free subscriber … but I did it! Thanks for asking!!
You have given me many new names to look up, thank you. I have had many readers make recommendations and even send me their own work, books to read. Unfortunately, the truth is, I only have so much time to read and absorb. The situation changes so fast now, articles become outdated quickly, let alone books, which is why I have no intention of trying to write one. I will, however, look up all those names to become acquainted.
Thank you for putting your dollars where my mouth is. It's very much appreciated.
Sid Smith — HTETEOTW (how to enjoy the end of the world)
Michael Dowd — Post Doom, No Doom
Joanna Macy — The Great Turning, The Work That Reconnects
Carolyn Baker — over a dozen books, like UNDAUNTED, on sanely, healthily responding to collapse
Yep, the re-election of Trump will regress climate action when we needed it most, garunteeing the end of human civilization in the coming decades. It was fun while it lasted.
That is the sad situation we're in. No great awakening for Homo sapiens.
In Douglas Preston's book Talking to the Ground a Navajo spiritual leader tells him
"the Earth has said ‘Have patience, there is no way you can stop this turn, this cycle. The world is already unbalanced. It’s already on its way, going full momentum. And in this manner, when the world ends, you will eventually go in a peaceful manner. In a respectful manner. Because you human beings, you may be gone, but the Earth is always here. It will revive itself’"
In my opinion, it is by having patience that we will eventually 'go in a peaceful manner'
At my age, given my health situation, I don't have many options besides "having patience." Maybe something surprising might happen and this prophecy will not come to pass, so do what you think is best. As the prophet Micah advised long ago, let's try to act justly, be kind, and not get too puffed up.
Some of us may have the ability to choose a peaceful manner, but I believe most don't have a clue of what's going down. This is my impression from having conversations with random strangers in my daily or weekly forays to buy the basics, like food. Most seemed to have been absorbed by popular culture, and whatever information they receive through traditional media are half-truths at best, or outright lies. As the economy and civilization crumbles, they will be confused and angry. I feel for them. At least, by understanding the situation, one can mentally prepare.
I have not read all your blog pieces so I apologise if you have covered this already, but I would be interested in more detail on your conversations with random strangers - how you bring up the topic of collapse, what reactions you get, whether you open anyone's eyes, etc.
I haven't written specifically about that, but it could be an interesting essay. "Sheep Being Led to Slaughter?" It feels as if for every article I write, there are ten more I can't get to, or become irrelevant as the future comes at us ever faster.
The first cause of mass deaths will be corruption. The second will be the water wars that are inevitable. And an idiot president who was trying to humiliate the Governor of California ended up squandering water needed for growing season this spring and summer. The truly wicked are in charge now, and there will be nothing good.
Yes — corruption (or greed) is a root cause, which is why much of my writing comes back to behavior. Often, lithium mining is taking place in locations of extreme drought, competing with agricultural and drinking water. On average, it takes 500,000 gallons of water to harvest one ton of lithium. It also, as usual, runs over indigenous people. I wrote about these issues a couple of years ago in regard to Thacker Pass, NV.
https://geoffreydeihl.substack.com/p/showdown-at-thacker-pass
I wish the best of health to you and your family.
It is very sad that this fascist coup is going on while the earth is severely burning. However, it is not a mere coincidence. The very same terrorists who are taking over America, such as Trump, Koch Industries, Bezos and Musk and their cohorts, are the same terrorist who are to blame for fast tracking global warming, and for making billions of dollars off doing it.
As if their fascism and humanitarian crimes weren’t bad enough, they are very high risk and want to deregulate and be lawless. They want to enable more corporate crimes and profit and poison, pollute and destroy the earth even more. Everything they do is evil and risks life on earth, such as building nuclear weaponry, increasing fossil fuel use, manufacturing plastics, war threats… The world needs to focus, team up and arrest them and the other paid-off terrorists, for attempting to murder all life on earth. Their "denial" is a cover for first degree murder.
Thank you for your well-wishes. I'm not special, we all face these things.
You are correct on all counts about the people taking control of America. This has been a coup in motion since the Reagan years. These clowns for the most part know damn well climate change and overshoot are real. Increasing the rapidity of these problems reduces the population faster. I feel certain this is the real thinking.
Organizations like The Nature Conservancy have signed up with Bezos' BS Earth Fund. I've known and done work with people in TNC. The tentacles of corruption reach everywhere.
You're right, the world needs to team up, community by community. Our existing organizations haven't been able to get the job done.
It is indeed murder. The Nazis built gas chambers. The corporations have turned the entire planet into one.
Sorry, Geoff, but this coup was completed in 2021, when Our Mad King (wannabe) Donald the 1st was allowed to walk away from the leadership of his insurrection scot-free, even though hundreds of his cultists were later arrested, tried, and jailed for "seditious conspiracy", But not the Grifter-in-Chief, because the cowards at DOJ/FBI/AG were terrified of his MAGATS, after experiencing their furry on Jan. 6, 2021. So, Tramp was allowed to declare victory and continue his faux "presidency" from feckless (anti-)social media platforms and/or one or another of his golf club mini-castles, as he manipulated Congress with the backing of his billionaire co-conspirators. "It's all over, now, baby blue".
Yes, that, and sliding through two impeachments. One could even make the case this coup started decades ago with Reagan. Merrick Garland deserves an honorable mention for fecklessness. What will make people catch on? $20 per carton eggs? Their social security checks not arriving? The next mismanaged pandemic? 30 percent of the populace never catches on, and at least 50 percent can't be bothered to vote, because both parties are bought and paid for, so here we are. Horrific as the first few weeks have been, we haven't seen nuthin' yet.
We are NOT alone! Meritless Garlic deserves the gallows. Our nation is likely to dissolve into homesteads and revitalized small towns in the very near future, and that's the good news. As for the urbanites/suburbanites, well that'll be a very different story. Stay safe, gun-up and get outta Dodge. Have a blessed day!
DOGE: the Department of Greed and Exploitation
Bodies on the line ...
I've felt for the past few years I've been doing a lot, but the challenge you lay down at the end has given me pause. Am I?
I am doing something, for sure. I've walked away from a career (and income) and now grow food for my community. I work for my household to be as self sufficent as I can, and we now grow 80% of our fresh food, and trade with others for things we don't have. I coordinate a grower collective in our community to increase our food growing capacity in the face of collapse. I've left social media (except substack) out of disgust with the oligarchy, but also with the apathy of half of the online community and disgusting politics of the other half. I write about surviving climate change with as much honesty as I can ... but is my body on the line? Maybe, yes, possibly not. I need to ponder this one.
Margi, as far as I'm aware, you of all my readers know climate change and overshoot best, having lost everything in the Black Summer. The action you have taken since is brave, bold, and smart. Building your own self-sustaining community is a huge endeavor, and one that may preserve a future for humans on the planet.
Perhaps I was too harsh at the end of this essay. For me, Trump and Musk break the threshold of hope. We were already far behind the curve on addressing overshoot and climate change, and being fed pablum about EVs and $56 billion dyke plans to save NYC, not addressing the realities of the inevitable end of oil or increasing violence and cost of climate change. Now we have a saber-rattling administration that is hellbent on theft from the poor and ever shrinking middle class, which can only increase division rather than come together on managing these existential threats.
What you're doing is important. We all have different roles to play. Stay the course. I wish you the best.
Thank you for the reply, Geoffrey. Be assured though, you were not too harsh, by half. I welcome the challenge to my internal assumptions. It's good for my internal dialogue, and that's important.
Over the short time since I sent that message I've been thinking a lot about what 'body on the line' means, in my context (which is wildly different from yours in so many ways). I've come to see that what was a threatening challenge two years ago, is now my normal. I've learned and adapted to my world.
So now, the trick is not to let apathy creep in and say that's enough. Now it's time to reach into the next discomfort. Change doesn't happen without challenge.
Thank you for the shake up. 🙏
We now have Government by the "Three Poisons" described in Buddhism: Greed, Hatred and Delusion.
Geoffrey, excellent post. One of the best essays on our current socioeconomic-political conundrum in the context of climate change abd overshoot I've read. I'm forwarding it on...
Thank you, Mark. Those of us writing about these things are only as effective as how far the words are shared.
Grateful for your clear-eyed perception & your courage to willingly risk becoming, to most, (to borrow Ibsen’s phrase) “an enemy of the people”
It’s heartwarming to have your engagement, Geoffrey. James Fallows does likewise — another one to look up if you don’t know this magnificent old-school journalist. You remind me of each other. Lots of heart.
And, I argue with you. The oligarchs need customers. They can’t let the world go to hell in a good guys vs. bad guys scenario. And the intellect of human beings is in our camp, already the majority and getting bigger all the time. We can be damaged but we’re not going down at their hands.
Climate is something else…
Thank you, Suzanne. Yes, the oligarchs need customers. This is why I have often implored people to move their money out of fossil fuel sponsoring banks, buy as little as possible, and boycott Amazon and the big boxes. These are low risk ways to have an effect that our shambles of a political system won't produce. Of course, we're past the point when those tools are sufficient, dictatorship is rolling out before our eyes.
The greatest threat is the planet itself, which at the very least is destined to end civilization and possibly our brief tenure on the planet. With oil approaching the end of economic viability, renewables will prove to be a pipe dream as every step requires fossil fuels to build them, from mining to manufacturing to installation.
The overpopulation made possible by oil is destined to crash, ugly, sad, truth, the biggest bubble of all time.
We’d need to be organized to create any effective boycotts. That’s the number one in my save-humanity agenda. Why aren’t we being called to unite by any of our powers that be so that we could make that happen? it maybe time in the cosmic scheme of things for we-the-people to get our act together. With no great leaders who can call us to anything it may be humanity’s challenge to grow into our potential or else.
Thank you, once again, for the bleak but evidence based written examples which led to the putative oilgharcy we now live under. How can the illegalities continue under Executive Power and our country still be labeled a democracy? This is not a question I expect you to answer. It is a sad statement to the legal statutes and constitutional framework crumbling at an accelerated rate in conjunction with rapid climate change.
I feel voiceless. I endeavor to select an in-person protest in DC with like-minded friends and hope to not get arrested.
Well wishes to you and family.
I hate being bleak, but all the facts lead to difficult conclusions. The abuse of executive power has increased in both parties as a way to get something done, as reasonable agreement on our legislative branch has become virtually impossible. Of course, executive orders are fragile, and easily reversed when a new administration comes to power. It's not real governing.
It's fantastic that you're going to DC. Physical presence is a necessary component of achieving and maintaining reasonable human rights. I want to hear all about it when you get back. We're not voiceless when enough of us speak together.
Best wishes to you and your family
Thanks, Jan, it's one step at a time dealing with that situation. We'll get there.