Climate Depression

May 24, 2010 (don't miss updates at bottom)

Occasionally I experience moments of deeply felt grief when I consider the changes humans have made to the planet, are making, and will continue to make in the foreseeable future. I grieve that humans are collectively so stupid, so lacking in foresight, and so utterly dependent upon the basic animal forces of competition and conformism. One would think that the information currently available to mankind is more than sufficient to induce us to stop our current course of resource exploitation, population explosion, and greenhouse gas emissions. But, as it turns out, the forces of money, competition, social conformity, and wishful thinking are more powerful than reason. Men are slaves to systems: to the corporations they work for whose shareholders expect profits on their investments; to the banks they owe money to; to the environmentally harmful infrastructure they grew up with and cannot get away from; to the votes of an ignorant, emotion-driven electorate too shortsighted and uninformed to understand long-term risks; to the big corporations who fund their political campaigns; to social expectations that require living an environmentally harmful life; to electronic media and games that continually press their pleasure buttons and reduce their ability to act in the real world; to national and group affiliations that determine their attitudes for them.

The worst thing that ever happened to humanity may be the discovery of fossil fuels. Up until this point human lifestyles were of necessity sustainable. Periods of unsustainable development were brief and ended in local collapse. All the developments made possible by fossil fuels — all the technology and gains in health, longevity, and prosperity — may well end up to be absolutely worthless. Our system of ethics tells us that Hitler was the ultimate evil because he hideously destroyed millions of people for as trivial a reason as their race, which was hardly even externally distinguishable. However, I would argue that an even greater evil would be to systematically destroy one's own habitat to the point that it can no longer sustain human life. And that is what we are doing today, at a slow enough pace that few non-scientists are fully aware of it.

It is the ultimate tragedy of the commons. Since it is in everyone's short-term personal or group interests to consume fossil fuels and other resources to pursue economic wealth and political strength, we continue to do so, even as the long-term consequences are becoming frighteningly clear. A world where most of the carbon that ever took part in organic life is released into global circulation in the geological twinkling of an eye, "just for fun." A world where positive feedback loops trigger ever greater global warming, even as human civilizations crumble and consumption nosedives. A world where most species go extinct because their habitats are lost, they are not able to adapt quickly enough to the rapid changes in their environment, and the other life forms they are interconnected with have disappeared, creating a snowball extinction effect. A world where the oceans are too acidic to support complex ecosystems. At this point the only hope seems to be in things that might exist that we don't yet know about: some new supertechnology, some hitherto unknown negative feedback climate mechanism, some unknown planetary wisdom.

And all of this for what? Because fossil fuels briefly made life easier for one species: Homo Sapiens. I often look around at the big buildings, the car-filled roads, the plastics, the endless quantities of throw-away goods shipped from afar, the supermarkets filled with processed foods, meats, grains, and produce from distant lands, the modern medicines and medical advances, the electronics that have "transformed our lives," all the myriad little devices that run on some form of high-energy fuel, and feel that all of this is utterly worthless. We have made our lives a bit easier (but not even happier!) in the short run at the price of sustainability in the long run. We hardly notice that thousands of species have gone extinct. We think that technology has lifted us above the plant and animal world.

Perhaps most disheartening is the realization that we may be responding on an organizational level too late to make a difference. Here we are, waiting till summer arctic ice disappears completely, to begin to make the switch from fossil fuel intensive agriculture to organic and permaculture alternatives. Let's wait till coral reefs disappear completely before we phase out gasoline-driven cars. Biodiversity a problem? First let's scrape the topsoil off the Alberta tar sands and see what happens. Sea level rise to soon displace millions in poor, low-lying regions of the world? First let's re-outfit our spacious, energy guzzling homes with more effective insulation. Our problem solving seems to lag generations behind the actual situation.

Things are not too bad yet at the moment — just high unemployment, some bank failures, and a steadily growing national debt. But so many environmental vectors seem to be pointing in a direction that looks genuinely miserable.

Added Nov. 2010
Recently, as I've begun preparing for post-grad studies in geography, I've read a number of things that suggest that climate change effects might not be quite as disastrous as I believed when I wrote this essay. I tend to believe that, due to economic collapse as a result of Peak Fossil Fuels, we will simply not reach the CO2 levels necessary for the most dire predictions to come true. Furthermore, our greenhouse gases may just save us from the next ice age. As I study climate science further my views will continue to develop. However, I still generally sympathize with the mood of this essay, even though my thoughts are now focused on other subjects.

Added Nov. 2011
Also, "population explosion" seems to be becoming less and less of an issue. In much of the world fertility rates are below replacement or rapidly approaching replacement. It is doubtful world population will ever surpass 9 billion. Much land — particularly small plots and urban and suburban areas — could be intensively cultivated without negative side effects to feed many more mouths. This and related changes will likely happen on their own through cultural and policy shifts as food prices rise.

Also, I have been developing a mindset that "the world is fundamentally okay" and try not to worry about things I cannot change. Instead, I am interested more in trying to understand the nature of processes and where they are headed so that I can make the best decisions for me personally.