We're Living through The End of Civilization, and We Should Be Acting Like It

On the delusions of normal.

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There’s no question anymore. This civilization is ending. You can relax. It’s not up for debate. It’s not a question of hope vs. doom.

It just is.

The chairman of the IPCC has finally admitted that the world has squandered its chance to stay below 1.5C of warming, and that the Paris Climate Agreement has failed. The world has already breached 1.5C, and it’s now heading toward 3C or 4C by the end of the century, if not sooner.

The richest man in the world, once compared to a superhero, spent his weekend cheerleading at a fascist rally for a washed-up reality television star who tried to overthrow the government, and got away with it.

That’s pretty bad.

Even a landmark climate bill “locks renewables and fossil fuels together,” clearing the way for record numbers of oil and natural gas projects. We’re falling back on coal, gas, and nuclear power to fuel the colossal energy demands from data centers and artificial intelligence projects, not to mention more wars.

We wondered what collapse would look like.

Now we know.

Right now, people are casually going into stores and restaurants with “bloody pink eye,” otherwise known as a subconjunctival hemorrhage, a symptom of several serious diseases including H5N1 and Marburg virus.

Bird flu is surging among dairy cows, with a newly reported mortality rate of 10-15 percent. Our government has no plan. They refuse to raise pasteurization standards for dairy. It could hurt the flavor.

That’s their priority.

We face a second major hurricane barely a week after Helene tore through the country, causing the worst flooding in a hundred years. Hurricane Milton will bring an even higher storm surge. Everyone knows FEMA needs triple their $20 billion budget to rebuild after these disasters now, but the money isn’t coming. Meanwhile, a chemical disaster continues emitting toxic fumes across Georgia as government officials lie about the risk to their own citizens.

In the aftermath of these disasters, insurance companies are cutting loose hundreds of thousands of policyholders.

States are letting them.

These disasters have already started slamming our supply chains. Severe weather events like tornadoes and hurricanes are damaging or outright destroying facilities that make crucial medical supplies, taking them offline for months at a time and making drug shortages worse and more frequent. Rescue workers are delivering aid on horseback, a sign of things to come.

These things aren’t front page news.

They should be.

Some of us told everyone that disasters would tear down our infrastructure faster than we could rebuild it under the current system, including our renewable energy grids. Now it’s happening, and there’s still no plan.

It’s just politics as usual.

Often, we don’t even know about these threats until someone tells us on social media. Politicians and their rabid supporters either spread conspiracy theories or make endless excuses for the lack of action. The speaker of the house just told us that disaster survivors can wait until after an election. At the same time, they race billions halfway around the world to bomb children while fighting over oil, natural gas, and computer chips, telling us it’s all for democracy.

They send us expired Covid tests.

Corporate managers force their employees to continue working through disasters until the last possible minute, ensuring their deaths. Then the CEOs of those companies post videos denying responsibility.

Schools tell parents to send their children to school with undiagnosed illnesses, lice, and now diarrhea. Bosses command their employees back to the office, calling them lazy and entitled for wanting time with their families.

The two are connected.

Cities and counties face overwhelming surges in disease throughout the year now, and yet they devote most of their energy to banning masks and shielding companies from liability for all the damage they’re doing.

We know solutions exist, but most Americans reject them because they’re scared to let go of their old comforts and privileges.

Let’s be clear.

We’ve entered the age of consequences. Some of us knew years ago and started preparing the best we could for ourselves and our communities. We’ve learned about everything from water storage to gas masks. We’re even learning plumbing and sanitation. We know, it’s not enough.

Often, our jobs and financial systems trap us in unsustainable death spirals. Even if most Americans wanted to embrace more sustainable routines or go off grid, they couldn’t. They don’t have the time or resources. Laws and HOAs often make it almost impossible to develop any viable alternative.

Some of us build communities online. Sometimes we try where we live. But you know what? It’s kind of hard to build a resilient community when everyone around you thinks you’re weird for caring about people.

What else can we do but try?

There’s still something to live for, and we plan to hang on as long as we can. We pay a third of our income to a corrupt government, and we’re left on our own to form whatever communities we can and prepare however we can for more disasters, more pandemics, more shortages, and more incompetence.

This is it now, the future.

Enjoy.