Scale Matters Immensely

Scale as I generally use the term means “a distinctive relative size, extent, or degree” (that is a definition from Merriam-Webster). [See also the glossary page for this and further definitions of certain words as I often use them.] This post will simply brush the surface of scale and the problems inherent with a lack of sense about it. I foresee it rearing its head frequently so long as I continue writing here.

Most people would easily understand the difference between an inch and a mile. But in many mundane and usual things we do, use, and influence, most people only consider the scale of what they’re doing to be on a personal level; e.g. we wouldn’t normally think of the sidewalk we are walking on as a product of a massive amount of material needed to produce it. It, as so many other things we simply take for granted, is a product of how we evolved and used the planet’s resources for our own benefit. We don’t notice it because during most of human existence, the only thing that really mattered was the immediate surroundings we found ourselves in.

Yet modern, industrial life that I live in, and that anyone who can use a computer to read this lives in, is a result of immense use of resources that have visibly and invisibly damaged the plant. Also it is the end result of the  infrastructure that took the whole of human history to develop, create, and implement.

For many hundreds, if not thousands, of years, we have acted as though the earth was a bargain basement of stuff for our use and benefit. Throughout the most of human recorded history, this was not an immediate problem, as the earth is quite large relative to an individual person or the small groups of us who congregated together, and the damage inflicted by our various activities remained minimal.

But based within our genes is an unrelenting desire to propagate and spread our DNA. We have managed this quite superbly. Human migration has brought us to the point where there really are no hospitable regions left that might be considered “empty” (and many regions I would term “inhospitable” are also rife with us).

The necessity to produce offspring and to continue the species guaranteed our survival. It is part of the nature of all life. In the past it was necessary to produce a fairly large number of offspring within any family to ensure descendants. Modern life, as found in the industrialized world, with technology, medicine, and the elimination of the competition that other life forms formerly furnished humans, has changed “the rules of the game.”

The scale of humanity (our numbers) is now so immense that the planet would likely be damaged even if we individually live being immensely frugal with its resources. Our desire for personal convenience leads us away from  being conservationists, regardless. That should not be unexpected.

Any individual person still doesn’t, even if using and/or having an immense amount of “stuff,” create a lot of damage to our planet, when considered simply on an individual basis. But because we do not magically get “stuff” that appears out of nowhere (despite what many seem to believe), and because it is created for many, rather than individuals, the damage we do now is pronounced.

Though this is the case, most of us do not ever consider what that means in the larger sphere (scale) of things, nor what it shall likely mean for the future of humans (our own descendants), the earth, and the remaining other species we still haven’t exterminated when we are collectively past with the present living generations.

The concept of scale extends beyond the numbers of our plentiful species. It needs to be considered when applying personal habits and situations to larger groups or activities. It is very imperative to consider it when looking for so-called “solutions” to the ecological catastrophe that confronts us within the predicament we presently face, for saviors on the horizon seem to be few and far between, though misguided and miscreant ones are around every corner.

In the future I plan to be more specific about particular instances of delusional scalability.

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TEOTWAWKI: The Process of Systemic Collapse as I Discovered It

The planetary crises (an ecological catastrophe), which today affect all life forms on the earth, have been, in one form or another, a looming topic that has changed and affected my life for the past seven years. This began with my first brush with the movie, “The End of Suburbia,” a film about peak oil. Peak oil, aka petroleum depletion, exists within a broader category of finite resources depletion (some things, such as fossil fuels, minerals, etc. do not get readily replaced when we use them).

The journey since the afternoon when I first saw that film has taken me far.

The deeper I explored the problems facing human beings in today’s world, the less optimistic I became about our collective ability to manage the situation(s) we face.

For several years my concerns about peak oil managed to haunt my life (save for major health issues, which also rear their head at times). After the immediate shock wore off of rediscovering that a situation in the world wasn’t exactly as I thought it was, or at least not on a timeline I believed it was, I was inspired to participate in a spate of activism. At first I believed wholeheartedly such activity could and would be helpful (and even though it wasn’t on a scale that makes a difference to the world, the process certainly was for me).

As I learned more and reacted to the influx of knowledge I was amassing on peak oil, my interpretation of the problem led many others to conclude I was being “too negative,” but for me the process of understanding the world and its reality as best I could has taken precedence over any intentional belief in false or untenable promise.

I am painfully aware this is not often the situation for many people, or how they apparently function in the world, either by necessity or by choice.

It became evident to me, probably by 2007 if not sooner, that peak oil was a symptom of a bigger, systemic problem of human activity as it exists in an industrialized world, and there are other issues equally dire in this situation. These are:

•     Finite resource depletion (petroleum is but one of many things on the planet that we have simply used up or to near exhaustion)
•     Global climate change
•     Massive species extinction
•     Overpopulation

Presently I focus much of my concern on population, for in my analysis of where we are headed, its most likely outcome is the most catastrophic, and as a topic it certainly suffers from the largest inundation of mass denial. Though all of the issues above are interconnected to one another in some way, overpopulation, and the increasing numbers of our species, exacerbates them and, I believe, likely will be the unrelenting stress that brings everything else down with it.

Overpopulation concern led me directly into two related arenas, ecology and evolutionary psychology, both of which I consider important to any discussion of where I see us heading and how we might or will cope (or not).

Many people would add economic collapse to my list of four issues above, but it is connected to, and ultimately a result of resource depletion and the population that uses and needs resources for survival and comfort. They both are connected, as well, to an agricultural food crisis that has begun.

The word predicament came to be used a few years ago by many others who are concerned over these issues. As I define it, a predicament is not a problem that has a solution in the traditional sense of the word. Many people seem to spend their life jumping at any solution that sounds feasible, without trying to understand it may have limitations, and often they become angry or distressed if their latest savior-of-an-answer is analyzed or even questioned for its likelihood of success. Because I feel that we are facing an unsolvable situation, I don’t react this way. Yet I understand such an reaction. From the time we are children, we have been raised to try to solve any problem that presents itself (I assume this is partly or mostly an innate sense, inherited with our intelligence). This ability has been a good survival tactic for us through the ages. But though we may do this fine on a personal scale, the scale of the issues today are immense, the rules may change when certain limits are passed, though we have no inclination to acknowledge that.

Predicaments can be mitigated, though the road to reasonable mitigation is strewn with roadblocks from the baggage of culture, and these do not particularly bode well in the “short” term. We need a revolution of thinking on a mass scale. I don’t believe we can do that.

And, even if we were to do everything in the best interest of our species and the planet, beginning today, we really needed to address the big predicament long ago, at a time when it would have been much less apparent than now, and inevitably even more resistance to “rocking the boat” would have been the result.

This systemic-wide predicament led me into delving deeper into what it is about human beings that makes us special and unique, trying to find how we got here, though I mean neither “special” nor “unique” to be words used with a sense of hubris as so often they are used by many. Instead, consider them neutral, for there are both dangerous and vile aspects, as well as beautiful and heartening things in what it is that we, the species, are and do.

I honestly can tell people I am no less happy and joyful today than I was when I began learning about peak oil, and I am grateful, most of the time, to have learned what I have learned. Due to health issues, I am particularly glad that I still am alive. I think this just may be a personality trait, Regardless, somehow I am able to keep all the dire news at bay, as my spirits are generally high.

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Re-Initiation

I have not done any writing here since I first moved my domain to Sonic.net a few years ago and posted once or twice (since removed). I have frequently thought about starting again, but always I seem to keep myself busy with other unending projects that I create for myself. I find the past year or so that I am more geared up to respond to what others write or post in the places I frequent rather than starting conversations on my own. It was not always this way.

Lately, however, I have again felt compelled at times, to write down thoughts that I may either need to clarify in my own mind more or just to keep a record of how I am perceiving the world at this moment. I don’t think these would in any way be popular or even all that useful for most people, though possibly for some. A lot of my opinions alienate others, but I am not interested in winning any popularity contests. If anyone chooses to respond to anything I end up writing here, it’s certainly fine.

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