A
farewell to arms
Guy
McPherson
19
November, 2012
In
previous essays in this space I have mentioned two phenomena worth
fighting for: the living planet and freedom based in anarchy. I
surrender. I no longer believe the struggle matters on either front.
Kiss goodbye the living planet
I
no longer think we’ll save the remaining shards of the living
planet beyond another human generation. We’ll destroy every —
or nearly every – species on Earth when the
positive feedbacks associated with climate change come
seriously into play (and I’ve not previously considered the
increasingly dire prospects of methane release from
Antarctica or the wildfire-induced release
of carbon from Siberian peat bogs).
Due to numerous positive feedbacks, climate change
hasbecome irreversible
over temporal spans relevant to humans.
Such is the nature of reaching the acceleration phase of the
nonlinear system that is climate catastrophe.
The
climate-change data, models and assessments keep coming at us,
like waves crashing on a rocky, indifferent beach.
The worst drought
in 800 years in
the western United States is met by levels of societal ignorance
and political silence I’ve come to expect. I would be stunned
if this valley — or any other area in the interior of
a northern-hemisphere continent — will provide habitat for
humans five years from now. And climate change is only part of
the story.
My
trademark optimism vanishes when I realize that, in addition to
climate chaos, we’re on the verge of tacking
on ionizing radiation
from the world’s 444 nuclear power plants.
Let’s ignore for now the radioactive waste we’ve
left lying around
without a plan or
already dumped into theworld’s oceans.
When we choke on our own poison, we’ll be taking the whole ship
down with us, spewing a global blanket of radiation in the wake
of collapse. Can we kill every single species on Earth?
Apparently we’re willing to give it a try, and I will not be
surprised by our “success” at this omnicidal endeavor.
Exit anarchy, too
Onto
anarchy. Few
people understand what it is, and even fewer support it. As a
product of cultural conditioning, the typical American confuses
anarchy with chaos or, worse yet, terrorism. Considering the
near-term exit of Homo sapiens from
this planet, it seems a bit ridiculous of me to express concern
about living outside the absurdity that has become mainstream.
Color
me non-judgmental. Minor efforts to sound the alarm, including
my own, fade to insignificance when compared to the juggernaut
of global imperialism. These efforts have long been irrelevant;
it’s my awakening that is new.
And
color me sad, of course, at the societal path we’ve taken. Swept up
in the pursuit of more instead of better, we’ve become the
waves approaching the rocky shore.
We
had an opportunity to return to our tribal roots, as others have
done when civilizations collapsed. Consider, for example, the
survivors from the Olmec, Chaco and Mimbres cultures, all of
whom chose tribalism when civilization failed. Tribalism worked
for two million years in a diverse array of situations. It
worked before and after civilizations arose in specific regions.
For many decades, our version of civilization has been successful
only for a few individuals of one species, yet we keep tinkering
with the system long after it’s
failed.
Despite
considerable evidence to the contrary, we’ve come to
believe industrial civilization is the only way to live. As
we’ll soon discover, it’s the only way to die, at least at
the level of our species.
Resistance is fertile
Lest
I am misunderstood, I’m not suggesting we quit. Giving up is
not giving in: Accepting our fate is not synonymous with jumping
into the absurdly omnicidal mainstream. Just because we’re
opossums on the roadway doesn’t mean we should play possum.
Resistance is fertile, after all. To employ a
bit of The Boss:
“In the end what you don’t surrender, well the world just strips
away.”
Or,
to employ a bit of Zen: Let go, or be dragged.
Or,
to employ a bit of popular culture: Carpe diem.
Or,
to employ a bit of Nietzsche: “Live as though the day were here.”
As
a result of ongoing, accelerating climate change, I’m letting go of
the notion that Homo
sapienswill
inhabit this planet beyond 2030.
I’m letting go of the notion that Homo
sapiens will inhabit
this verdant little valley at the edge of American Empire after
it turns to dust within a very few years. I’m letting go of
the notion that, within a few short years, there will remain any
habitat for humans in the interior of any large continent in the
northern hemisphere. I’m letting go of the notion we’ll
retain even a fraction of one percent of the species currently
on Earth beyond 2050. But I’m not letting go of the notion
of resistance, which is a moral imperative.
I
will no longer judge
people for
buying into cultural conditioning. It’s far easier to live in
a city, at the height of civilization’s excesses, than not. I know
how easy it is to live in a city surrounded by beautiful
distractions and pleasant interactions, and I fully understand
the costs
and consequences of
dwelling there, as well as the price
to be paid in the near future.
I spent about half my life in various cities, and I understand
the physical ease and existential pain of living at the apex of
empire. Also, I know all about the small joys and great
pains associated with living in the country. I spent the other
half of my life in the country and in towns with fewer than
1,000 people. I understand why the country bumpkin is assigned
stereotypical labels related to ignorance and, paradoxically,
self-reliance.
It’s
clearly too late to tear down this irredeemably corrupt system
and realize any substantive benefits for humans or other
organisms. And yet I strongly agree with activist Lierre
Keith:
“The task of an activist is not to navigate systems of
oppressive power with as much personal integrity as possible; it
is to dismantle those systems.”
If
it seems I’m filled with contradictions, color
me hypocritical fully
human in a Walt Whitman sort of way: “Do I contradict myself?
Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain
multitudes.”
Our
remaining time on this orb is too short to cast aspersions at
those who live differently from ourselves, as most people in
industrialized countries have done throughout their lives. Most
people in the industrialized world became cultural crack babies
in the womb. There is little hope to break the addiction of
ingestion at this late point in the era of industry, and I’m
throwing in the towel on changing the minds of typically
mindless Americans. No longer will I try to convince people to give
up the crack pipe based on my perception of morality reality.
I’ll no longer recommend to others the path I’ve taken.
Feeling lucky?
Nietzsche’s
comment about seizing the day, every day, brings to mind the final
words of Joseph Campbell’s 1949 The
Hero with a Thousand Faces:
It is not society that is to guide and save the creative hero, but precisely the reverse. And so every one of us shares the supreme ordeal — carries the cross of the redeemer — not in the bright moments of his tribe’s great victories, but in the silences of his personal despair.
With
the preceding dire news in mind, it would be easy to forget
how fortunate we are. After all, we get to die. That simple fact
alone is cause for celebration because it indicates we get to
live. As I wrote more
than five years ago,
our knowledge of DNA assures us that the odds any one of us
existing are greater than the odds against being a particular
grain of sand on all the world’s beaches. No, the odds are
much greater than that: they exceed the odds of being a single
atom plucked from the entire universe.
To
quote evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, “In the teeth of
these stupefying odds it is you and I that are privileged to be
here, privileged with eyes to see where we are and brains to
wonder why.”
– Guy
McPherson, Transition Voice
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