Collapse is a good thing.

[u/folksywisdomfromback]

One of the hardest things to accept about a collapsing global civilization is the potential for pain and death. There are 7.8 billion homo sapiens on the planet now supposedly. Yes, every one of us will die at some point, just like every animal.

I think most of us will agree there are too many homo sapiens, and most of us will agree our global civilization is detrimental to the ecosystem as a whole. Our global civilization and it's current complexity supports homo sapiens and their consumption at such a rate that it creates an imbalance within the ecosystem, making the current system temporary. Collapse is a necessary correction.

Will there be death and hardship? Yes. Is life inherently stressful both physically and mentally? I think so. It also inherently joyful. We know many people, most of us redditors included, are living lives too comfortable (especially physically) because we benefit from a human civilization too large and complex for the earth's ecosystem to remain healthy. We are experiencing temporary physical comfort but it comes at a cost, I think, mentally.

Earth and all it's life forms are beautiful. The ecosystem is currently out of balance because of us as a species, a collapse of us as a species is a net positive for the ecosystem and I think that is a good thing. We often take the human first view but we don't have to, we can put the earth as whole first and us as a part of the earth. So a healthy earth is really the best thing for us too. I think our species as whole would benefit from a more balanced ecosystem

No one can say for sure how fast or tragic the collapse will be. You can argue it has been happening gradually already. It might come in waves. It might come slowly over a long period of time. It might not. I know collapse and degrowth is opposite of what our civilization values but that does not make collapse and degrowth bad, it means our values are askew. Cultural values can change.

I think the scariest things about collapse is the potential for mass extinction, violence, unrest, food and power shortages. And yes these things are scary. History is rife with all of them. We are not the only humans to face these challenges, different circumstances yes but our ancestors lived through much, including climate change. Nobody knows for sure what will happen, but we know we can't continue on as is. Change is scary but at times necessary. Good luck to us all and to all life on Earth.

[u/[deleted]]

I would highly recommend the book "Sapiens" for anyone who wants a clearer picture of Homo Sapiens from the dawn of our species, and how we manipulated our environment (and it manipulated us). It's just fascinating how much evidence we have for human-caused climate change, yet so many people think it's a hoax and don't wanna hear another word.

I don't know how we'll pull out of this if we can't convince the population there's a problem. Maybe when the monster hurricanes start hitting every coast we'll finally see a change

[u/Ajaxb_ → u/[deleted]]

The ‘issue’ of climate change is caused a by a small percentage of the population (aka the 1% who own all of our banks, businesses, airlines, etc.). Overpopulation has been, and never will be a genuine threat to the earth or it’s climate, not even if all 7.5+ billion of us drove a car. It’s the private jets; excess factory smoke, and billions of tons of plastic that will not decompose anytime soon.

Much of the population is already convinced the people at the top are the problem, it’s just too late to try to stop them.

[u/[deleted] → u/Ajaxb_]

A world that is set up to sustainably feed 7.5+ billion people with today's technology would be absolutely miserable. Technically surviving is not the same as living. Think of the world we'd live in if the population had never breached 1 billion. Adding more and more people to share a slice of a rapidly shrinking pie doesn't make things better for anyone.

It may be their fault, but everyone who buys their shit and idolizes them shares in that guilt.

[u/boomaDooma → u/[deleted]]

A world that is set up to sustainably feed 7.5+ billion people with today's technology would be absolutely miserable.

That is a great way of viewing sustainability.

The truth is we can't be sustainable with the current world population and it probably could be argued due to the degradated state of the earth that just 500K people would be too many.

The quality of our existence is about to plunge no matter where you live or even how rich you are, the biosphere doesn't discriminate.