Why Hope is Hopium
Sleeping Bear Dunes, Michigan
Posts
Burning Man - The Failure of the Green New Deal
This article is a collaboration with John Peach, from Wild Peaches . John Peach is an applied mathematician who held a research position at MIT Lincoln Laboratory until retirement in 2020. As lead investigator of a team of physicists and mathematicians at MIT, he spearheaded development of an atmospheric lidar propagation model accounting for scattering, refraction, and object response. This technology enabled 3D mapping of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria to locate and assess damage, expediting recovery efforts. As part of the disaster relief program, he made three trips to assist FEMA on-site with model implementation, and co-authored the paper “To Expedite Roadway Identification and Damage Assessment in LiDAR 3D Imagery for Disaster Relief Public Assistance.”
It Bears Repeating: Best Of...Volume 2
In addition to my regularly scheduled article this week, I also am providing a link to this hugely popular collaboration of writers started last year and continued with Volume 2 this year. With a Foreword by Erik Michaels and Afterword by Dr. Guy McPherson, authors include: Dr. Peter A Victor, George Tsakraklides, Charles Hugh Smith, Dr. Tony Povilitis, Jordan Perry, Matt Orsagh, Justin McAffee, Jack Lowe, The Honest Sorcerer, Fast Eddy, Will Falk, Dr. Ugo Bardi, and Steve Bull. IT BEARS REPEATING: BEST OF...VOLUME 2 For those interested in accessing last year's compilation, follow this link: IT BEARS REPEATING: BEST OF...VOLUME 1
Are YOU Ready For Collapse?
Recently I have seen a string of articles and videos that repeat the same basic theme - that within the next 5 years we face umpteen different symptoms of collapse . I don't like attempting to attach timelines to any of this, and so I am simply repeating the theme that I see in all of these articles - none of this is my own assessment. I will say that I agree with the assessments. We're running out of road, folks. As for whether anyone is ready or not, I think very few if any truly are. We've been discussing this for decades, now the time is drawing near for issues to develop that will be extremely difficult for society to deny (although people still will because that is what we do). I mentioned most of all this in my recent article about our actual reality . Still, the warning bells are getting louder. This article from Alice Friedemann mirrors my own feelings about the situation, quote: " The only way I can see this being prevented or the end of oil delayed a few ye
A Plea to Scientists, Teachers, Influencers, and Politicians Everywhere
Clover Hollow Covered Bridge, Virginia
What is Our Actual Reality?
The Blue Ridge Discovery Center in Konnarock, Virginia I read many articles every month, which allows me to detect certain patterns within these articles. (I am working on slowing down on the number.) A large percentage of most of them contain so much bargaining and hopium that a reader who understands the predicaments we face can only laugh or cry at them. I try to glean what I can from them and ignore the parts of denial of reality and optimism bias , but some articles are so full of crap it's just not funny. Here's a prime example of what I'm talking about (although I often list these types of articles and have even written entire articles based upon them, named appropriately, Fantasies, Myths, and Fairy Tales ). That article (the prime example) lists an issue caused by several different symptom predicaments of ecological overshoot , namely, pollution loading , climate change, and ocean acidification (also a symptom of climate change). Now, to be sure, the bleac
Psychological Mechanisms to Deny Reality and Employ Optimism Bias
Backbone Rock in northern Tennessee
Cultural Programming - Who Will Stand Up For What's Right?
The view from Pretty Place Chapel , South Carolina
The "Solution" Obsession
Picture of Table Rock Mountain in South Carolina taken from Bald Ridge Heritage Preserve
Changing Perspectives
Lake Jocassee as seen from the boat ramp at Devils Fork State Park in South Carolina
New Developments and Accepting Our Predicaments Without Blame
Forest clear cut along Chattooga Ridge Rd. in South Carolina
Exploring Acceptance
Seeing the forest through the trees can be difficult; this is the Section Eight Woods in the Cache River Wetlands in Southern Illinois
What's a Hyperobject and Why Can't We Control Them?
Playhouse (for the landowners' grandchildren) in Jonesboro, Illinois Four of my articles over the past couple of years are part of a four-part series titled, " So, What Should We Do? " The first three articles were written, one after the other, back in 2021 after I discovered our lack of free will which condemns us to make choices based upon our biological (see the Maximum Power Principle ) and cultural conditioning (see this article ). This led me to realize that we truly lack agency to be able to control hyperobjects such as nature, climate change, ecological overshoot , the biosphere, etc. Not only is the predicament of overshoot too difficult for most people to grasp, many people unfortunately place it in the category of problems (with answers or solutions) rather than predicaments (with outcomes). Attempting to reduce issues seen as problems tends to turn those issues into bigger problems and/or predicaments. Often this is due to those working on these issues