As I work my way through this latest journey on the downside of the depressive side of the bi-polar wave, I - of course - have been reading again from Guy McPherson's blog 'Nature Bats Last'. Many 'guest posters' there have been writing about the acceptance of near-term extinction (NTE) and all that this process could entail. It's not a subject I recommend for the faint-of-heart, but if you truly are a tough old bird I suppose it may give you some empty GM food for thought.
So many of the tipping points appear to have been crossed; 400ppm concentration of CO2 in our atmosphere, the melting of the arctic, antarctic, Greenland, many glaciers, the growth of methane seeps in the continental shelf off of Siberia (methane at 1800ppm at latest? more than in 400,000 years I think), continued acidification of our oceans, the wackiness of the jet-stream, the reversing/ceasing of thermohaline currents in the north Atlantic --- the list seems endless. Guy seems quite sure that humanity will be all but gone in a mere 17 years or so, by 2030 - especially in the northern hemisphere (a few laggards may hang on in parts of the global south for a bit, perhaps).
And yet, humanity carries on. People still have children, buy homes (well, some of us), and generally commit and continue -- keeping the faith as I myself have so often encouraged. I wonder if I may be mistaken in encouraging this. Keep calm and carry on, right? I'm not so sure today. I actually cannot fathom why people would deliberately bring a child into this world now, at this point in time. That isn't to say seeing a young child's face doesn't bring a big grin to my face. I do recall this past mother's day walking my dog and passing by a young mother and her friend/sister getting triplets (yes, all three of them) out of the car (an undertaking in itself I'm sure) - and I shouted out a hearty 'Happy Mother's Day' to her; which she replied to with an equally heartfelt 'Thank you!'. Do I want her to interrupt her busy day to check out Guy's blog? I think not. But what do those of us whom are aware (or may become so soon) do? Well, Daniel A. Drumright posited in his essay 'The irreconcilable acceptance of near-term extinction ' that perhaps we should all develop contingency suicide plans - to be put into action at the time of our choosing. It does beat thirsting to death under the beating sun in a 100+ degree wet-bulb temperature hell on earth or beating slaughtered by a bunch of ravenous once human cannibals. Yuk, who even wants to think it? Well, Hollywood does so I suppose the ideas inherent to this meme do hold a macabre fascination for people. Scares me to death (well, almost).
So, as we watch our institutions turn on us all; as we witness a totalitarian police state take shape, as the gates to the FEMA camps start to creak open, as more and more of us slip through the gaping holes in the tatters of our 'safety net', what does one do? I'm thinking of making some room for the rest of you all - clearing the air just a teeny tiny bit. I of course beg for intervention from beyond, but that's pie in the sky...
Here's a link to Guy's blog for you masochists out there:
http://guymcpherson.com/2013/05/on-the-acceptance-of-near-term-extinction/
And, here's a link to an old favorite from my days of dancing to the 'rolling death noise' in Seattle. Maybe we all knew it all along... World Destruction!
Goodbye for now
RtTBt
OmegaMan
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