Thank you for reading my difficult article, and thank you for commenting. When I started a few years ago, I was gentler, but the clock is ticking. Try not to be overwhelmed. You can pick one thing and focus on that, which may lead to others. Inhumane treatment of animals is tough for anyone with a heart. Any of us who has pets know they have thoughts, preferences and emotions, and those who raise livestock humanely will tell you the same about a pig or a cow.
I stopped eating fast food 30 years ago when I learned McDonald's was the biggest cause of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest from slash and burn practices to graze cows and grow feed. I also learned that during the ice age, such places were the only ones where temperate areas remained. When the ice receded, those pockets of life grew back together, which accounts in part for the remarkable diversity of life in the rainforests. Scientists theorize these pockets could have been as small as five square miles, independent areas evolving unique species in each one. So leveling and burning the forests means likely losing species we've never even discovered.
I quit beef entirely ten years ago, and pork shortly after, and don't miss them. Dairy unfortunately is problematic as well in terms of emissions and animal treatment, so I limit that. I eat vegetarian a few days a week, but I can do better.
The problems, including the dehumanization you mention, are largely hidden from us. I started writing because I am aware of this and how short main stream media falls, particularly the gravity of the climate emergency and the 6th extinction. When I'm out, I try to plant little seeds in my conversations, and it's stunning how uniformed or misinformed people are. So I write, have improved my diet, and try to educate when I have a chance, mostly easy stuff (the writing not always so much)!
Many say you and I can't have the impact needed to make the difference needed. I wonder when the words conservation and boycott were eliminated from our vocabulary? Where we put our money is powerful. Bill McKibben and ThirdAct have been advocating putting pressure on banks that sponsor fossil fuel projects. Moving accounts isn't terribly difficult and could make a difference if enough of us take action. Here's a good list of the baddies. https://www.fossilbanks.org/fossil-banks
Maybe I paid extra attention to this because my name is Mary and I knew of the song. This is a really tough read. But you are right. And it's making me think harder about what I can do. It's overwhelming as a big picture but there are things I can do. The thing that really shook me was, although I "know" about environmental impacts of meat etc, and a little about factory farming although I confess I try to block it out, the thing that shook me was thinking about the people int eh plants, killing the animals and butchering , especially in a large plant as opposed to a small farmer, and the dehumanization that must cause to the workers. There is so much dehumanizing/desensitizing of people, it is a root of so much of our problems as a species, our degradation of the world and each other. I know this already but the picture you painted is hard to get out of my head. I think humans are a failed species and I doubt we can ever get out of the trauma loop.
Thank you for the restack, it's appreciated. America's democracy has been wildly imperfect, but there has been progress, albeit slow and fitful. Each one of us has a part in realizing the ambition of a truly free and open country.
Thank you for a remarkable article-- clearly the most thought-provoking thing I've read this week. Difficult to not be overwhelmed when we consider the enormity of what faces us-- which is why we block it out, I suppose. Wishing you the best going forward.
I restacked this with a quick quote from you. Maybe even though America is still following the failed model of past empires, it can still be fixed. We created the model, we can change it.
I read this right after sending a copy of “last week in collapse” to a few select people in my address book. My note was accompanied by the assurance that activists, despite accusations to the contrary, do not “enjoy bad news”; we simply have the courage to read it and deal. Yeees, courage and numbness.
Hi Neil. Being an activist is definitely more of an obligation than an enjoyment! If I know something, I must do something. The silver lining of my brain event is that the mass was benign, although rather large and deep, an overgrowth of nerves. It's likely it grew very slowly for a long, long time. There was a possibility of vocabulary loss, which didn't manifest, as my unfortunate readers can attest. I had to retrain my hand to write, which came back quickly. I have a limp, so apparently my athletic days are over. The incompetence of my insurance and facility I was sent to initially was almost worse than the mass in my head!
Geoffrey, LOL: "... as my unfortunate readers can attest" :)
Thank Heaven you're with us. Of course, had this gone south we wouldn't have known who we're missing... but somehow I have the sense it was really nothing more than your overactively linked neural networks that just ran out of space. :) Your essays are always such a joy to read. Joy because we need thoughtful people like you, and you exist.
Sweet, thank you. I actually have wondered if that part of my brain was overactive, causing that mass of nerves. If I hadn't had the tumor, it's doubtful I would have turned to writing. I'd still be biking and hiking in the mountains I miss so much. I dreamed about both this morning. Bitter-sweet.
I grew up with a father who was an environmentalist and politician and farmer. I always knew that we would do ourselves in. I did not think it would be in my lifetime. I am 57.
When I was 13, I argued vehemently to my father that the planet would be better off if humans disappeared and allowed the other species to flourish. He countered, “But Beethoven, Bach, Socrates, Plato, Picasso…”
Yes, we are an amazing creature, aren’t we?
But the hubris took over.
Humility could be our salvation.
I read again this week The plan to put a parasol bw Earth and sun is (naturally) clever humans’ next survival plan.
That all life evolved synchronously and synergistically over millenia is lost on people.
Any one of our “solutions” is going to require a domino of fixes.
I read this week that whales have a premonition prior to their death. Acting on the premonition, they swim away from the pod, and do an interesting death dance, which culminates in a leap high out of the water, flipping over backwards and sinking deep deep deep to the ocean floor. Along the way, myriad of life forms attach in an intricate choreographed display of interdependent nurturing.
Me paraphrasing.
I also read that a flower has a negative electrical charge until a bee comes and drinks the nectar. And the bee has a positive electrical charge. After the nectar is consumed, the flower signal changes to alert other bees not to bother stopping by.
These are just tiny examples of nature.
We think we’re so fucking smart.
Humility could be our salvation. (Another ROADMAP msg; ROADMAP is a climate fiction series I wrote).
There is a general theme now to embrace Indigenous philosophy globally. Behind most environmental movements, and even into Hollywood, is a thrust of that perspective, which places humans WITHIN Nature’s balance.
Too bad it’s always a day late and a dollar short.
California and Los Angeles are getting inundated by an atmospheric river right now. Up to ten inches of rain are possible in some areas, and hundreds of thousands are without power. I agree, we won't see the end of humanity in our lifetime (I am 62), but we could still experience the crumbling or implosion of society. California failing, the fifth-biggest economy on the planet, would be devastating in itself. Groundwater is running low, and agriculture is under duress all over the world. These realities, along with a burgeoning fascist movement and increasing climate migration, are unnerving. They could easily work together. You and I will likely see and have experiences we wish e could avoid.
I too, in my teens, had an unshakeable feeling what humanity was doing was off track and self-destructive. Both you and your father were, right. We're capable of great beauty, and great folly. All was sustainable until we discovered fossil fuels.
I often think of whales. I tend to think they are great communicators and thinkers with their sonar, which can travel so far. Because they don't have hands, they haven't created tools. Maybe that has enriched their inner life and made them far wiser about the world. Elephants visit the bones of their lost relatives. Dogs and cats use inflection in their voices when they communicate with us, just like ours. Bees are fascinating, too, far more than the automatons we make them out to be. They show personalities. Variation in nature, is what keeps it moving forward, an endless experiment of adaptation.
I fully subscribe to the Indigenous view of the world, sensitive, in rhythm and sustainable. Here is a fascinating film about bees made by a man in his backyard garden during the Covid lockdown. There is so much to see when we open our eyes.https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/my-garden-thousand-bees-about/26263/
Nell, thank you for sharing that... the whale and the bee especially. I am always in awe of Mama Nature's breadth of life, and of mankind's extraordinary hubris. And yet, as your father said, But Picasso and Socrates... and Hypatia and Queen Nzinga :)
Thank you for reading my difficult article, and thank you for commenting. When I started a few years ago, I was gentler, but the clock is ticking. Try not to be overwhelmed. You can pick one thing and focus on that, which may lead to others. Inhumane treatment of animals is tough for anyone with a heart. Any of us who has pets know they have thoughts, preferences and emotions, and those who raise livestock humanely will tell you the same about a pig or a cow.
I stopped eating fast food 30 years ago when I learned McDonald's was the biggest cause of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest from slash and burn practices to graze cows and grow feed. I also learned that during the ice age, such places were the only ones where temperate areas remained. When the ice receded, those pockets of life grew back together, which accounts in part for the remarkable diversity of life in the rainforests. Scientists theorize these pockets could have been as small as five square miles, independent areas evolving unique species in each one. So leveling and burning the forests means likely losing species we've never even discovered.
I quit beef entirely ten years ago, and pork shortly after, and don't miss them. Dairy unfortunately is problematic as well in terms of emissions and animal treatment, so I limit that. I eat vegetarian a few days a week, but I can do better.
The problems, including the dehumanization you mention, are largely hidden from us. I started writing because I am aware of this and how short main stream media falls, particularly the gravity of the climate emergency and the 6th extinction. When I'm out, I try to plant little seeds in my conversations, and it's stunning how uniformed or misinformed people are. So I write, have improved my diet, and try to educate when I have a chance, mostly easy stuff (the writing not always so much)!
Many say you and I can't have the impact needed to make the difference needed. I wonder when the words conservation and boycott were eliminated from our vocabulary? Where we put our money is powerful. Bill McKibben and ThirdAct have been advocating putting pressure on banks that sponsor fossil fuel projects. Moving accounts isn't terribly difficult and could make a difference if enough of us take action. Here's a good list of the baddies. https://www.fossilbanks.org/fossil-banks
Thank you, glad the article had some meaning for you. The enormity of our situation can indeed be overwhelming. The lack of unified world leadership is disheartening. We need profound societal changes no one has the courage to talk about. Just read this on the Guardian about AMOC, perhaps good for your chronicle. We're running out of time. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/09/atlantic-ocean-circulation-nearing-devastating-tipping-point-study-finds
Maybe I paid extra attention to this because my name is Mary and I knew of the song. This is a really tough read. But you are right. And it's making me think harder about what I can do. It's overwhelming as a big picture but there are things I can do. The thing that really shook me was, although I "know" about environmental impacts of meat etc, and a little about factory farming although I confess I try to block it out, the thing that shook me was thinking about the people int eh plants, killing the animals and butchering , especially in a large plant as opposed to a small farmer, and the dehumanization that must cause to the workers. There is so much dehumanizing/desensitizing of people, it is a root of so much of our problems as a species, our degradation of the world and each other. I know this already but the picture you painted is hard to get out of my head. I think humans are a failed species and I doubt we can ever get out of the trauma loop.
Never give up Mary. Never. Life doesn't...!
I just can say thank you…. And deeply know in the heart the wind also brings love, from elsewhere
It pleases me when my writing resonates for someone. Thank you for telling me.
Thank you for the restack, it's appreciated. America's democracy has been wildly imperfect, but there has been progress, albeit slow and fitful. Each one of us has a part in realizing the ambition of a truly free and open country.
Thank you for a remarkable article-- clearly the most thought-provoking thing I've read this week. Difficult to not be overwhelmed when we consider the enormity of what faces us-- which is why we block it out, I suppose. Wishing you the best going forward.
I restacked this with a quick quote from you. Maybe even though America is still following the failed model of past empires, it can still be fixed. We created the model, we can change it.
Thanks for your essay.
I read this right after sending a copy of “last week in collapse” to a few select people in my address book. My note was accompanied by the assurance that activists, despite accusations to the contrary, do not “enjoy bad news”; we simply have the courage to read it and deal. Yeees, courage and numbness.
So, what kind of tumor?
Hi Neil. Being an activist is definitely more of an obligation than an enjoyment! If I know something, I must do something. The silver lining of my brain event is that the mass was benign, although rather large and deep, an overgrowth of nerves. It's likely it grew very slowly for a long, long time. There was a possibility of vocabulary loss, which didn't manifest, as my unfortunate readers can attest. I had to retrain my hand to write, which came back quickly. I have a limp, so apparently my athletic days are over. The incompetence of my insurance and facility I was sent to initially was almost worse than the mass in my head!
Geoffrey, LOL: "... as my unfortunate readers can attest" :)
Thank Heaven you're with us. Of course, had this gone south we wouldn't have known who we're missing... but somehow I have the sense it was really nothing more than your overactively linked neural networks that just ran out of space. :) Your essays are always such a joy to read. Joy because we need thoughtful people like you, and you exist.
Sweet, thank you. I actually have wondered if that part of my brain was overactive, causing that mass of nerves. If I hadn't had the tumor, it's doubtful I would have turned to writing. I'd still be biking and hiking in the mountains I miss so much. I dreamed about both this morning. Bitter-sweet.
Neurofibroma?
Not on the auditory nerve?
Keeping an eye on that, I’m sure.
I, too, have become fearless.
I grew up with a father who was an environmentalist and politician and farmer. I always knew that we would do ourselves in. I did not think it would be in my lifetime. I am 57.
When I was 13, I argued vehemently to my father that the planet would be better off if humans disappeared and allowed the other species to flourish. He countered, “But Beethoven, Bach, Socrates, Plato, Picasso…”
Yes, we are an amazing creature, aren’t we?
But the hubris took over.
Humility could be our salvation.
I read again this week The plan to put a parasol bw Earth and sun is (naturally) clever humans’ next survival plan.
That all life evolved synchronously and synergistically over millenia is lost on people.
Any one of our “solutions” is going to require a domino of fixes.
I read this week that whales have a premonition prior to their death. Acting on the premonition, they swim away from the pod, and do an interesting death dance, which culminates in a leap high out of the water, flipping over backwards and sinking deep deep deep to the ocean floor. Along the way, myriad of life forms attach in an intricate choreographed display of interdependent nurturing.
Me paraphrasing.
I also read that a flower has a negative electrical charge until a bee comes and drinks the nectar. And the bee has a positive electrical charge. After the nectar is consumed, the flower signal changes to alert other bees not to bother stopping by.
These are just tiny examples of nature.
We think we’re so fucking smart.
Humility could be our salvation. (Another ROADMAP msg; ROADMAP is a climate fiction series I wrote).
There is a general theme now to embrace Indigenous philosophy globally. Behind most environmental movements, and even into Hollywood, is a thrust of that perspective, which places humans WITHIN Nature’s balance.
Too bad it’s always a day late and a dollar short.
Our power to disrupt Nature shows no bounds.
Nell Thomas
Family Physician
Minden ON
CANADA 🇨🇦
California and Los Angeles are getting inundated by an atmospheric river right now. Up to ten inches of rain are possible in some areas, and hundreds of thousands are without power. I agree, we won't see the end of humanity in our lifetime (I am 62), but we could still experience the crumbling or implosion of society. California failing, the fifth-biggest economy on the planet, would be devastating in itself. Groundwater is running low, and agriculture is under duress all over the world. These realities, along with a burgeoning fascist movement and increasing climate migration, are unnerving. They could easily work together. You and I will likely see and have experiences we wish e could avoid.
I too, in my teens, had an unshakeable feeling what humanity was doing was off track and self-destructive. Both you and your father were, right. We're capable of great beauty, and great folly. All was sustainable until we discovered fossil fuels.
I often think of whales. I tend to think they are great communicators and thinkers with their sonar, which can travel so far. Because they don't have hands, they haven't created tools. Maybe that has enriched their inner life and made them far wiser about the world. Elephants visit the bones of their lost relatives. Dogs and cats use inflection in their voices when they communicate with us, just like ours. Bees are fascinating, too, far more than the automatons we make them out to be. They show personalities. Variation in nature, is what keeps it moving forward, an endless experiment of adaptation.
I fully subscribe to the Indigenous view of the world, sensitive, in rhythm and sustainable. Here is a fascinating film about bees made by a man in his backyard garden during the Covid lockdown. There is so much to see when we open our eyes.https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/my-garden-thousand-bees-about/26263/
Nell, thank you for sharing that... the whale and the bee especially. I am always in awe of Mama Nature's breadth of life, and of mankind's extraordinary hubris. And yet, as your father said, But Picasso and Socrates... and Hypatia and Queen Nzinga :)