{"id":2146,"date":"2020-01-03T18:39:55","date_gmt":"2020-01-03T18:39:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/?p=2146"},"modified":"2021-07-05T17:29:42","modified_gmt":"2021-07-05T17:29:42","slug":"collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/2020\/01\/03\/collapse\/","title":{"rendered":"Collapse!"},"content":{"rendered":"\nI know that it is very difficult to predict with any accuracy about what will happen to humans  &#8212; there are too many factors to consider. Nonetheless, there are some generalizations which can be made.  One is that the sun will burn out is some 4 to 5 billion years. Another is that given finite resources, infinite growth is impossible.  It is this last generalization which has been at the horizon of my thinking &#8212; made explicit by Thomas Malthus, who in 1789 published an essay noting that resources (specifically food) grow arithmetically, while populations grow exponentially. The conclusion seemed obvious to me: there is a limit to \ngrowth. And a report by that name, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.donellameadows.org\/wp-content\/userfiles\/Limits-to-Growth-digital-scan-version.pdf\">&#8220;The Limits to Growth&#8221;<\/a> was published in 1973, using a computer to take into account various factors.  [Here is a documentary about this project:<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kz9wjJjmkmc\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p><p>The criticism was that the predictions failed. This is true. But the claim that there is a limit to growth with finite resources seems to me to be a truism, as does Paul Ehrich&#8217;s &#8220;The Population Bomb&#8221; (1968).  Again, the criticism of these books was not that there is a population problem, but a disagreement about the severity of it, and what will take care of this problem.\n<p>\nWe are now living in the midst of an ecological crisis, as well as with other possible global collapses.  This impending sense of collapse has been analyzed and proclaimed by a host of people. One of them is Jared Diamond in his book &#8220;Collapse&#8221; (2005).  Below is his 2003 TED talk on this subject:<p>\n<div style=\"max-width:854px\"><div style=\"position:relative;height:0;padding-bottom:56.25%\"><iframe \nsrc=\"https:\/\/embed.ted.com\/talks\/lang\/en\/jared_diamond_why_do_societies_collapse\" width=\"854\" height=\"480\" style=\"position:absolute;left:0;top:0;width:100%;height:100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><\/div>\n<\/P><p>\nRecently, I came across the compelling documentary film &#8220;Prophets of Doom&#8221; (2011):<\/p><p><iframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" \nsrc=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rE3ROkFoVMM\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" \nallowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\t\n<p>It includes the following six &#8220;prophets&#8221;:\n<li>Michael Ruppert (1951-2014): &#8220;Confronting Collapse,&#8221; &#8220;Crossing the Rubicon&#8221;\n<li>Nathan Hagens \n<li>John Cronin: &#8220;The Riverkeepers&#8221;\n<li>James Howard Kunstler: &#8220;The Long Emergency,&#8221; &#8220;Home From Nowhere&#8221;\n<li>Hugo De Garis\n<li>Robert Gleason: &#8220;End of Days&#8221;\n\n\n\n<\/P><p>Chris Hedges, The Myth of Progress and the Collapse of Complex Societies  \n<\/P><p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GotSNw6s6GE\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<\/p><p>Kirkpatrick Sale, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/books\/edition\/The_Collapse_of_2020\/SAv0DwAAQBAJ?hl=en&#038;gbpv=1&#038;printsec=frontcover\">The Collapse of 2020<\/a>, 2020.\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"333\" height=\"499\" src=\"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/collapse-of-2020-kirkpatrick-sale.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2654\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/collapse-of-2020-kirkpatrick-sale.jpg 333w, https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/collapse-of-2020-kirkpatrick-sale-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 333px) 85vw, 333px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I know that it is very difficult to predict with any accuracy about what will happen to humans &#8212; there are too many factors to consider. Nonetheless, there are some generalizations which can be made. One is that the sun will burn out is some 4 to 5 billion years. Another is that given finite &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/2020\/01\/03\/collapse\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Collapse!&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-predictions","category-ecological-bullshit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2146"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2655,"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2146\/revisions\/2655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}