Problems, Predicaments, and Technology

Today we shall investigate this question: What would it take for humanity to experience radical transformation of individual and collective consciousness within the next decade? This picture looks inviting, doesn't it? But does it realistically represent the world we collectively live in today? In one word, NO. One look at the news stories of today can easily show how individuals, groups, corporations, and nations of all stripes are arguing and fighting for attention, for purposes, and for goals and strategies. Look at social media and it is ripe with every flavor of disagreement known to society. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that there are few things everyone can agree on, and even when one IS found, nobody can agree on the ways to solve what everyone agreed the problems are. Now, throw in a PREDICAMENT instead of a problem and guess what happens? From my experience, when a predicament is put into the mix, most people still look at it from the same standpoint the...

  The Koocanusa Bridge is the only bridge connecting the east and west sides of Lake Koocanusa in Montana and is Montana's highest (215 feet above the river) and longest bridge. A bridge too far? What will be the consequences of energy and resource decline on the healthcare industry? Will medicines be affected? Unfortunately, energy affects every one of us in very distinct ways. While these questions are very important ones indeed, energy and resource decline will affect far more than just the healthcare industry. It  will affect parts of our daily lives in almost every way imaginable. Agriculture and food and water security will be one important area of concern. Another area of great concern will be climate change and collapse , as collapse will reduce the level of energy available to deal with the increasing incidences of extreme weather events and natural disasters caused by climate change. Think about a piece of infrastructure - ANY infrastructure - how did that piece...

Naples Beach and Pier, Florida It really requires some true grit to begin making the determination that one needs to move to avoid serious consequences from any particular predicament; and the older one is, the more difficult it is to leave a loved area. Almost no area will be left untouched by climate change and all the other predicaments caused by ecological overshoot, but one predicament in particular, Sea Level Rise (SLR), brings forth a whole host of issues that many don't know about. Sadly, I had the experience of attempting to explain this to a friend who got mad at me for posting scientific articles regarding the situation. Many people are suffering from denial of reality  surrounding these issues, which doesn't help. Overwhelmingly, the easiest issue that almost everyone can see is street flooding caused by high tides (sunny day flooding). This makes the situation impossible to ignore, and building streets higher doesn't resolve the issue of water coming UNDERNEAT...

I distinctly remember my first introduction to the initialism (or abbreviation or acronym) "NTHE" which ushered me into a whole new set of exploration. I was a member of a climate change group on Facebook at the time (which I had been a member of for quite some time) and I saw a post which was discussing it. I hadn't seen this abbreviation before and wondered what it meant, so I did a search and a whole list of links was presented (as usual) along with the spelled out version, Near Term Human Extinction. I clicked on one which took me to a website blog by Dave Pollard . I started reading and was introduced to another person, Carolyn Baker, with whom Dave had a video interview with. Through this video, I was introduced to another person, a professor by the name of Guy McPherson. A video of him presenting information at an Indiana university, DePauw, where my grandmother attended, was available; so I watched it. The information was stark and I noticed the looks on the ki...

At first glance, my thoughts regarding this topic are that I've actually probably covered most of it in my very first blog post here.  However, I decided to try a new twist by asking members of a group I run what they'd like me to write about, and this was the first idea mentioned. There are particular angles of this topic which I have also covered here  under the topic of denial and here  under the topic of optimism bias. It is very important to cover the topic of psychology, because most people are affected in one way or another by predetermined beliefs and feelings based upon their worldview, upbringing, and schooling. No two people are going to agree 100% on everything; but utilizing logic, critical thinking, and consensus can minimize disagreements to a rather large extent. Before I go any further, I need to point out that I am NOT pro-fossil fuels. For some reason, some people have gotten the misguided notion that I am some sort of fossil fuel shill, which couldn't ...