"The research found “an almost complete loss of stability over the last century” of the currents that researchers call the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). The currents are already at their slowest point in at least 1,600 years, but the new analysis shows they may be nearing a shutdown.
Such an event would have catastrophic consequences around the world, severely disrupting the rains that billions of people depend on for food in India, South America and West Africa; increasing storms and lowering temperatures in Europe; and pushing up the sea level off eastern North America. It would also further endanger the Amazon rainforest and Antarctic ice sheets."
A couple weeks ago I commented on the collapse of civilization.
I noted that a few years ago I wondered if it would happen in 100 years. Time passed and then I had the same question for 75 years. More time passed and I went down to 50 years. That would be beyond my lifetime - I’m middle-aged. In that comment - I wondered if the beginning of the end could happen in ~25 years. In other words - in my lifetime.
A couple weeks ago - was I way too optimistic? Should I consider retiring in a prepper bunker stocked with decades of food, water, and supplies?
A couple weeks ago - was I way too optimistic? Should I consider retiring in a prepper bunker stocked with decades of food, water, and supplies?
Being a preper is a meme similar to billionares fleeing to NZ or Musk to Mars. Most people were bitching they couldn’t get a haircut or that working from home was too inconvenient and hard to adjust, imagine living a few years inside a bunker most will have mental issues within weeks.
That said depending where you live you probably don’t want to stick around. What is going to destroy the US is not the culmination of all climate disasters but the breakdown of society. Think food lines, Katrina 2.0 but 5-10x worse going on for months leading to small scale skirmishes and eventually civil war and balkanization.
This can happen decades before climate change becomes irreversible.
Currently I would give a reasonable chance that mishandling the eviction moratorium is eventually going to have long term consequences and it should be a good confirmation sign that the US is heading towards worst case scenario or not.
The “worst case” has such a long tail.
I periodically see economists talk about portable water being the next oil economy, but I don’t think anyone really grasps what they means.
Folks talking about building rockets to Mars using fortunes they accrued as middle men for international shipping just a decade or two ago aren’t the guys who will be leading the charge into the next big crisis.
Even then, for all it is worth, we are a relatively small population on enormous continent. I don’t think civilization will just vanish in a puff of finance capital smoke. There’s far too much stuff and too many people who know how to use it for us not to adapt. It’s just a question of how much pain we’re going to experience as we go.
This is my line of thinking. The fuckers that want to run aren’t the ones that actually keep things running.
If they run, fine, the ones that do will take over. If they don’t and they begin to cut back on the alienated exploitation and start hurting the people that directly do the work of maintaining their society, there will be a massive revolutionary pushback. This is the peak of contradiction. Cowardly capitalists telling the workers to kill themselves and their communities because they don’t think it’s profitable to keep them alive anymore.
