False Beliefs and Denial, Part Two


Atlantic Ocean, Kure Beach, North Carolina


I wrote an article about false beliefs and denial a while back, and that topic is what today's article is about, although it comes about as part of a different article. This article is considerably shorter than the first, although I linked many of my other articles here for clarification to more fully explain this short article.

This new article out by the Washington Post claims to detail reasons why climate doomers are replacing climate deniers and yet the article provides wording indicating climate change as "a problem with solutions" rather than the symptom predicament it actually is. Because it is a symptom predicament of ecological overshoot, the claims in the article about technological solutions just don't pan out. These so-called "solutions" are marketing claims, pure and simple, and that is all they will ever be. This is precisely due to what is required for modern, advanced technology to exist.

While I understand that few people realize these facts, I also realize that those facts will not change. Advanced technology use cannot be made sustainable, period, because technology use itself is what supports the platform of civilization. People really just don't comprehend the complexity of civilization and how much energy the platforms of infrastructure require to operate and maintain. Because of these blind spots, most people do not understand the root issues of our unsustainability, which allows them to uncritically accept the fairy tales the author of the Washington Post spins (with help from scientists who likewise don't or won't look at these facts). 

I actually wrote an article about "doomism" a while back which covered many of these themes and, not surprisingly, Hausfather was featured in it, too. The sad truth to all of this is that these types of articles don't do anything but promote hope from those who are ignorant to the facts, as contained here in my article Denial of Reality. As can be seen in that article, climate change is a predicament, not a problem, and as such it can not be stopped. It can be reduced, and that is the best that is possible. As a result, people like Hausfather are actually unknowingly promoting the worsening of climate change through the magical thinking of technology use, precisely what is causing ecological overshoot and climate change. We can not and will not reduce emissions by fighting climate change, because the only way to reduce emissions is to reduce ecological overshoot.

I have written a collection of over 100 articles which point all of this out, where people who believe in fantasies, myths, and fairy tales would have you believe in the power of human ingenuity. It is people like the author of the WP article who are unfortunately bargaining to maintain civilization. Robin Wall Kimmerer describes How the Myth of Human Exceptionalism Cut Us Off From Nature. 

It is this addiction to hope which is in itself denial of reality. Bruce Meder points this out in a review for a book titled, Hospicing Modernity. Dave Pollard also adds to this theme with his latest article which contains this quote:

"For those who have moved beyond hope, and acknowledged that human civilization on this planet has reached its inevitable “Endgame”, Andrew uses the phrase “Hospice Earth”. He defines this as the idea “that at the end of the world we’re all in hospice together, both to and for each other — [and this] becomes strangely comforting”, and cites Jamey Hecht as saying it “enjoins us to take care of each other as things fall apart, and to continue to honor the beauty and nobility of life even as the sun sets on our species”."


The last paragraph of the WP article is pretty hilarious, quote: 

"For his part, Youra has advice for those who are suffering from the same sort of fatalism that he once felt. “Stop engaging excessively with negative climate change content online and start engaging in your community,” he said. “You can be one of those voices showing there is support for the solutions.”


Predicaments don't have solutions, they have outcomes. Sorry. For those who want good advice, mine is to not postpone your joy - Live Now!



Comments

  1. Kevin HesterMarch 27, 2023 at 3:25 PM

    Bravo Erik, laser guided as always.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fredd GunterMarch 27, 2023 at 4:26 PM

    I first got hold of this article through Collapse Chronicles on You Tube. Keep up the good work.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousMarch 28, 2023 at 4:57 AM

    Yes, we had fun with that WAPO article on Twitter. There is clearly an orchestrated campaign currently to blame "climate doomers" for the lack of action.
    What the authors of these campaigns don't realise is that doomers are not about climate change, we are about growth-overshoot-collapse, of which climate change is merely one symptom.
    It is bemusing that a few thousand of us can have so much influence, that MSM scientists and reporters feel obliged to write entire books and multiple twitter posts denigrating us.

    It all stems from siloed thinking - climate scientists may be great at climate science, but many of them are shit at overshoot!

    ReplyDelete

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