A Plea to Scientists, Teachers, Influencers, and Politicians Everywhere

Clover Hollow Covered Bridge, Virginia

SPECIAL NOTE: Before I make my plea, I want to establish the fact that this idea is a version of my own personal hopium. I highly doubt any of this will make any difference with the possible exception to my readers. Perhaps this will be passed on to others, providing the catalyst for them to begin their own personal journey exploring acceptance. Admittedly, this article probably isn't for beginners, but then again, NONE of my articles are really designed for beginners. The material I discuss generally isn't pleasant, even for experienced readers. Of course, here's a laugh for everyone since it is so true:

Onto the plea...

PLEASE stop using the word, "problem," to describe ecological overshoot and all its symptom predicaments such as climate change. 

There is literally a huge difference between a problem with a solution and a predicament with an outcome, and there are mountains of empirical evidence pointing to the fact that overshoot, climate change, energy and resource decline, biodiversity loss, pollution loading, extinction, etc. are all predicaments for which there are no solutions. 

Nonacceptance of these facts is understandable but unacceptable, as it fosters a cultural conditioning of ordinary people to believe that some sort of "solution" is right around the corner when in reality this could not be further from the truth. Technology use and innovation are precisely what have brought us to this point in time. These are behaviors of ours, and they cause ecological overshoot. Continuing to promote the idea that there is some sort of solution which will "fix" any and/or all of these predicaments only makes the existing predicaments worse as businesses and individuals promote technological ideas that only increase overshoot, not reduce it.  

By utilizing the words, "predicament" and/or "dilemma" to describe these predicaments, you are honoring facts rather than falsehoods. We are addicted to technology use, plain and simple. Certain kinds of technology will probably always be with us as long as we inhabit this planet - things like fire, the wheel, and basic hand tools. Other types of technology will disappear as a result of energy and resource decline, a key symptom predicament of ecological overshoot, producing the outcome of collapse and die-off. 

You don't have to accept these facts. Addicts often deny their addiction for years. They try bargaining with it, but it doesn't change or go away. They try stopping for awhile, but go back to the exact same behaviors as soon as they pick it back up again. The only way anything changes for the better is when they finally accept the actual reality - the truth. Only then does their life begin to change for the better. 

The same is true for those who deny that overshoot is a predicament with an outcome, not a problem with a solution. They try to bargain with the predicament, but nature does not negotiate. So all these attempts to "solve" what is seen as a "problem" go absolutely nowhere. Meanwhile, efforts to try to "solve" the predicament only end up increasing overshoot instead of reducing it. Increasing overshoot tends to increase all the symptom predicaments which are produced as a result of overshoot, which is why emissions continue rising. Pollution loading continues increasing. Ocean acidification increases. Biodiversity loss increases. Extinction increases. Global temperatures increase. Tree decline increases. Cryosphere loss increases - and on and on and on. For those who are new to this, this is where we're going.

My last article had a considerable amount to do with bargaining, so if you want to see where we've been recently with regard to that, check it out! Suffice it to say, literally millions of people are using ignorance, hubris, and stupidity in an attempt to fight everything from drugs (the war on drugs) to climate change to genocide to social justice. They are all literally symptoms of overshoot. Not one of them can be reduced without reducing overshoot. 

More acceptance is also necessary to realize precisely where we are as a species. Most people are unaware that civilization itself is unsustainable. Very few are aware that electricity generation is just a blip in time. Needless to say, if people are to actually accomplish any results, they must fight overshoot - not individual symptoms of overshoot, which will have no effect whatsoever (as long as overshoot continues to increase, so too will symptom predicaments). 

Now, I don't want to depress anyone or make anyone feel bad. My intention is to share information, not make people feel bad. Still, for anyone expecting results on climate change, you can pretty much rule out any improvements during your lifetime. See Denial of Reality for details for that claim. The one exception here would be a nuclear winter, which might reduce climate change for a decade or two, but in this case the "solution" would most likely be worse than the predicament.

I'm not an expert, nor have I ever claimed to be one. I have simply spent over the last 40 years studying climate change and more than the last decade studying overshoot because I have always wanted to understand them thoroughly. I do think I have a rather extensive amount of knowledge on both topics along with an impressive list of symptom predicaments which I am also quite familiar with. It's very important to me that people understand the reality of the situation and not get wrapped up in false beliefs and denial. I don't have any more answers than the next person, but I keep asking questions regularly and routinely because I want to know WHY all of this is happening and what the best course of action is. I also keep my mind open, looking for anything that might be useful to help reduce the level of harm the predicaments we face will cause. Sometimes conditions change and new realities develop as a result.

Our communities and societies need the facts surrounding the predicaments we face. Claiming that they are problems gives people a false sense of security that just isn't warranted. Discovering what makes humans happy and why we lack agency is important. Comprehending these without resorting to optimism bias is sometimes difficult for people, who often go into reductionism which doesn't work in the wider frame of reference (see why "solutions" are really just bargaining).

I wanted to keep this article short and sweet, so to speak. I hope I have accomplished that task. Overall, I want to encourage people to Live Now, and I often use pictures to augment this and to inspire folks. Here is my latest set of pictures. Enjoy!

P.S. I am reminded of "Let It Be" by The Beatles from Psychological Mechanisms to Deny Reality and Employ Optimism Bias, quote:

"How can one balance the inevitable desire that other people understand these situations and issues with the knowledge that we can only control our own behavior and lack agency to control other people? As The Illusion of Control article (link above in the first paragraph) demonstrates, we have little if any agency to control many different things, not just other people. We often suffer optimism bias, thinking that we can do certain things, that in reality we really can't. This is why denial of reality is so pernicious - it creeps up on us many times without us being conscious of it. These reasons combined with more recent acceptance on my part has convinced me more and more that I need to just let it be. Yes, that iconic Beatles song has an actual meaning to it about acceptance of reality/actuality, in this case the inevitable demise of The Beatles as a group."