I still don't get why, when things are so obvious, it is always just a few people who read, like, comment, share, and subscribe to articles such as this one. There should be at least a billion people aware and approving of this. Maybe most of us are ignorant and naive, but surely there should be at least 10-15% of people able to look at things with open eyes and a rational mind. How far we are from where we have to be!
The scariest thing is not the 10 colossal challenges we face, but the fact that humanity doesn't even come close to anything able to tackle them.
Collectively, humans have never been good at solving major problems. They rely on leaders to get them out of messes. Unfortunately, today we choose leaders interested only in their own short-term political power and money. So, we will get what we deserve.
I get that. What I don't get is why the people who see things as we do are so few. It doesn't even feel like it's about our inability to organize and address the issue. It's about 99% of people refusing to admit there is an issue, when, as you point out, there are more of them at the same time, and they are all massive. Anyway, thank you for the important work that you do!!
Most people feel powerless to do anything in which case the default which maintains their ability to keep functioning and not succumb to total despair is to look the other way.
an entire humanity living in denial. that is sad, counter productive, and, obviously, the main problem we have to address. everything else becomes irrelevant until humans somehow develop the courage to understand they are in danger.
The connection between lived physical every day reality and embodying it as knowledge has been effectively bypassed with the global rise in visual communications media. Human beings as a species do tend to deny when they fear suffering but the ecocidal suffering is here and yet the majority are still doubling down on denial nonetheless. This is a consequence of most becoming numbed to reality by the way our brains are rewired by the heroine fix style emotional manipulation inhererent in film, TV and now even more extremely, here on social media.
Abstraction has become the default worldview. Look at how insane the tech bros are. A simple version is that we have become hypnotised by visual technology without realising it.
I agree up to a point. But the denial behavior is common across geography, social classes, religions, education level, and all ages, even though some of these groups don't consume much visual media. It seems to me almost like denial is a secret desire that overwrites the rational functioning of most people, and social media is merely one of the instruments that they rely on to achieve the desired result. Obviously, I'm speculating now.
Agreed. There are many reasons for this deadly denial all particular to person and place. All we can do is stay informed as best we can. Warn where we think we might be heard and prepare to triage for our own survival.
Looked at in purely biological terms, denial (and the conservatism from which it springs, is a survival strategy - it means sticking to the behaviour your think you understand that works best. However, it fails when things change radically in the living environment and your species is unable to adapt. Then denial becomes a sentence to extinction. Denialists are thus creatures that refuse to accept change, probably because they do not understand it.
It’s so nice when older people acknowledge the scale and depth and complexity of the crises we face. While I’m blessed with so many elders, I’ve still had to have so many conversations with people born in the 60s dismissing my concerns about the state of the world, always saying something like “I grew up during the Cold War, your fears are overblown.” Or “every generation has something to deal with.” Genuinely, as an almost 30 year old, thank you for laying it all out and not minimizing what we face today. 🙏🏼
The reason many older people do not accept the current state of the world is that their knowledge of it is frozen in the time when they were young. They have not learned how greatly things have changed since they last had an open, inquiring mind. Also, there is now a very great deal of science to read in order to catch up, and most people are too busy, or lazy, to re-educate themselves, and reorient to the modern world.
tragically we are screwed along with all the other life forms-how one species became so parasitic as to destroy an entire planet is beyond comprehension. It absolutely breaks my heart every time I see an animal in the wild struggling to survive knowing that their species will also fall with the rest of us. I am of the opinion that we also deserve extinction due to the fact that we are armed with mass amounts of knowledge but did not mitigate this collapse
True. But you can say the same about the Safe Planetary Boundaries, the Global Footprint and sundry other indicators. There are no "true predictors" because science is not in the business of prophecy - merely of reporting what the data says. Ignoring them, however, is not a sensible strategy for survival.
this is a whole new level of worry. experienced nothing quite like this. extracting trump’s immigration eos because they told us exactly what has occurred. even he is inconsequential at this point in view of the apocalypse he has hastened for us all.
I didn’t want to undermine the importance of the Doomsday Clock for spurring policy to help solve important issues, nor the value of scientific forecasting even if never precise. I do think, however, it was still important to add that context with my comment. Hope that makes sense.
Even the rate at which the planet is approaching The Event Horizon is accelerating dramatically!
Before The End, a short period of total surveillance police state will coalesce.
Ancient writings predict this, most notably Revelation chapters 13, 14. Those who submit to this surveillance state may face even grimmer suffering after The End, in Hell!
I still don't get why, when things are so obvious, it is always just a few people who read, like, comment, share, and subscribe to articles such as this one. There should be at least a billion people aware and approving of this. Maybe most of us are ignorant and naive, but surely there should be at least 10-15% of people able to look at things with open eyes and a rational mind. How far we are from where we have to be!
The scariest thing is not the 10 colossal challenges we face, but the fact that humanity doesn't even come close to anything able to tackle them.
Collectively, humans have never been good at solving major problems. They rely on leaders to get them out of messes. Unfortunately, today we choose leaders interested only in their own short-term political power and money. So, we will get what we deserve.
I get that. What I don't get is why the people who see things as we do are so few. It doesn't even feel like it's about our inability to organize and address the issue. It's about 99% of people refusing to admit there is an issue, when, as you point out, there are more of them at the same time, and they are all massive. Anyway, thank you for the important work that you do!!
Most people feel powerless to do anything in which case the default which maintains their ability to keep functioning and not succumb to total despair is to look the other way.
an entire humanity living in denial. that is sad, counter productive, and, obviously, the main problem we have to address. everything else becomes irrelevant until humans somehow develop the courage to understand they are in danger.
The connection between lived physical every day reality and embodying it as knowledge has been effectively bypassed with the global rise in visual communications media. Human beings as a species do tend to deny when they fear suffering but the ecocidal suffering is here and yet the majority are still doubling down on denial nonetheless. This is a consequence of most becoming numbed to reality by the way our brains are rewired by the heroine fix style emotional manipulation inhererent in film, TV and now even more extremely, here on social media.
Abstraction has become the default worldview. Look at how insane the tech bros are. A simple version is that we have become hypnotised by visual technology without realising it.
I agree up to a point. But the denial behavior is common across geography, social classes, religions, education level, and all ages, even though some of these groups don't consume much visual media. It seems to me almost like denial is a secret desire that overwrites the rational functioning of most people, and social media is merely one of the instruments that they rely on to achieve the desired result. Obviously, I'm speculating now.
Agreed. There are many reasons for this deadly denial all particular to person and place. All we can do is stay informed as best we can. Warn where we think we might be heard and prepare to triage for our own survival.
Boggles the mind, doesn’t it. My very fist post here was about this Denial.
Looked at in purely biological terms, denial (and the conservatism from which it springs, is a survival strategy - it means sticking to the behaviour your think you understand that works best. However, it fails when things change radically in the living environment and your species is unable to adapt. Then denial becomes a sentence to extinction. Denialists are thus creatures that refuse to accept change, probably because they do not understand it.
It’s so nice when older people acknowledge the scale and depth and complexity of the crises we face. While I’m blessed with so many elders, I’ve still had to have so many conversations with people born in the 60s dismissing my concerns about the state of the world, always saying something like “I grew up during the Cold War, your fears are overblown.” Or “every generation has something to deal with.” Genuinely, as an almost 30 year old, thank you for laying it all out and not minimizing what we face today. 🙏🏼
The reason many older people do not accept the current state of the world is that their knowledge of it is frozen in the time when they were young. They have not learned how greatly things have changed since they last had an open, inquiring mind. Also, there is now a very great deal of science to read in order to catch up, and most people are too busy, or lazy, to re-educate themselves, and reorient to the modern world.
tragically we are screwed along with all the other life forms-how one species became so parasitic as to destroy an entire planet is beyond comprehension. It absolutely breaks my heart every time I see an animal in the wild struggling to survive knowing that their species will also fall with the rest of us. I am of the opinion that we also deserve extinction due to the fact that we are armed with mass amounts of knowledge but did not mitigate this collapse
The Doomsday Clock is an influential warning meant to smack policymakers on the backside to DO SOMETHING about it, not a true predictor.
True. But you can say the same about the Safe Planetary Boundaries, the Global Footprint and sundry other indicators. There are no "true predictors" because science is not in the business of prophecy - merely of reporting what the data says. Ignoring them, however, is not a sensible strategy for survival.
we will surely become extinct sooner rather than later.
Well, the average duration for a species is 10 million years. It looks like we'll be lucky to make it to the end of the current century...
this is a whole new level of worry. experienced nothing quite like this. extracting trump’s immigration eos because they told us exactly what has occurred. even he is inconsequential at this point in view of the apocalypse he has hastened for us all.
I didn’t want to undermine the importance of the Doomsday Clock for spurring policy to help solve important issues, nor the value of scientific forecasting even if never precise. I do think, however, it was still important to add that context with my comment. Hope that makes sense.
Well said. friend. Have a blessed evening!
Reaching midnight was always inevitable. What has changed is the rate at which we are approaching it.
When falling off a cliff, it is best to close your eyes...
No matter what happens, a few humans will, unfortunately, survive.
Even the rate at which the planet is approaching The Event Horizon is accelerating dramatically!
Before The End, a short period of total surveillance police state will coalesce.
Ancient writings predict this, most notably Revelation chapters 13, 14. Those who submit to this surveillance state may face even grimmer suffering after The End, in Hell!
Actually, police states will be few. Chaos, dominated by petty warlords is more likely. Or so history would suggest.