The Implosive Extinction of Humans as Carbon Cannibals
HAPPY EARTH DAY 2019 from MR. FISH (1)
The essential fact of human life for the 21st century is that we are carbon-based life forms. We did not have to turn that fact into the slippery slope of carbon profiteering, but here we are at the bottom of that slope. Continue on that course and we cross the event horizon of extinction far sooner than we dare realize, if we aren’t there already.(2)
The Anthropocene Age began at least three centuries ago, arguably much earlier. Since the onslaught of the industrial revolution juggernaut, however, now in its fourth cycle, our rapacious cannibalization of carbon and other resources on Earth has ignited a sixth mass extinction in world history. It is a quintessentially unique event—never has any species on Earth risen to the pinnacle of cognitive presence we humans possess, yet paradoxically, neither has any species on Earth so stupidly wrought its own self-destruction. Anthropocene extinction (AX) is the 21st century reality already and our carbon cannibalization continues to rise.(3)
Unlike any of its precursors (as far as we know), the AX is an implosion event. Prevailing science says the fifth extinction (the Cretaceous, 66 million years ago) occurred due to the confluence of widespread volcanic activity and an asteroid impact. The combined explosive effects wiped 76% of life on Earth out of existence. Similar acts of God or of the causal laws of the cosmos predating humankind likewise were explosive events. In the AX event, however, the human species created a faux ‘civilization’ that, at the end of the day, exploits Earth and all its resources, including humans, to death.(4) The curtain will fall on that tragically absurd charade as human systems fail in the AX unfolding around us. AX is best understood, therefore, as an implosion—the annihilation comes from within humanity ourselves, not from any beyond.
The Earth Day movement will reach its 50th anniversary in 2020. We “sleepwalk into catastrophe,” blindly bound by a nefarious oligarchic capitalist sociopathic contract enslaving us in a “global suicide pact.” It is a slavery we are born into, unless we happen to be in the ruling ultra-elite cabal of oligarchs. Extinction Rebellion (XR) and the Sunrise Movement are strident and rational voices aligned with Earth Day Network in common concern. One clarion voice above most, deservedly so, is that of 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. Pulitzer-winner Chris Hedges and XR co-founder Roger Hallam are truth-telling activists at the forefront.(5)
There are two sides to the AX conundrum: carbon consumption and carbon emission. Rather than use our genetically endowed and divinely bestowed gifts of sentience and sapience to optimize the harmonious resonance of the two processes, they’ve been turned upon each other for profit. We are apparently willing and ready to suffocate and die horrible deaths en masse rather than repent and survive in a rational world founded on that harmonious resonance despite all the differences. Worse yet, Greta is tragically right: “no one seems to be talking about it and nothing has changed.”
We are caught in our own Hobbesian trap. The tyrannous insanity of oligarchic capitalism deconstructed Hobbes’ dilemma between state of nature and social contract to perversely resolve it through human extinction by preemption. Rest assured the oligarchs have exit strategies and escape plans from the trap they’ve set for the other 99.9999% of us that is already being sprung upon us. Its slow motion shifting baseline will tip suddenly into living hell on earth, like a thief in the night. We will eat and burn bodies for food and fuel and furiously rage against the dying of the light, before we will choose life in love over death for profit.(6)
Notes
(1) Clowncrack political cartoon by Mr. Fish (Dwayne Booth).
(2) The UN General Assembly says irreversible climate damage will be reality in a decade (https://www.un.org/press/en/2019/ga12131.doc.htm). I think irreversible damage has already been done to the eco- and biosphere, actually, as thousands of species have already been extinguished by climate change. The famous normal-distribution “bell curve” is a poor model from this perspective. It’s much better seen as an inverted normal distribution “well curve,” with parasites at both ends—cockroaches on one and kleptocrats on the other http://www.jimpinto.com/writings/wellcurve.html.
(3) A philosophical, theological, and scientific explication supporting these claims is in my dissertation, “The End Signs! Are We Getting the Message?” in the Digital Commons of George Fox University (https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/dmin/), or https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ceP4r7lFzT3K9-GebpRTuEDbOuOxE139. On the fourth industrial revolution in the cycle, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Industrial_Revolution and the book by the World Economic Forum Founder and Executive Chairman, Klaus Schwab, https://www.weforum.org/about/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-by-klaus-schwab.
(4) On the five prior extinction events identified by contemporary science, see “The big five mass extinctions” at COSMOS online, https://cosmosmagazine.com/palaeontology/big-five-extinctions. On ‘civilization,’ see Endgame, Volume 1: The Myth of Civilization (https://smile.amazon.com/Endgame-Problem-Civilization-Derrick-Jensen-ebook/dp/B00541YWHM/). For a different perspective with tighter temporal focus on more recent extinction events, see this fascinating Peak Oil article, which supports the thought I expressed in note (2) about already being deep into the AX event, https://peakoil.com/enviroment/the-anthropocene-extinction. The Peak Oil News & Message Boards, at least in this article, is a refreshingly candid and factually clear perspective.
(5) Links to related content: “sleepwalking into catastrophe,” World Economic Forum, 2019 (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-forecast-world-is-sleepwalking-into-catastrophe/); “global suicide pact,” World Economic Forum, 2011 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Un1UibQnME ):Earth Day 2020 (https://www.earthday.org/earthchallenge2020getinvolvedii/); Extinction Rebellion US (https://extinctionrebellion.us/); Sunrise Movement (https://www.sunrisemovement.org/); Greta Thunberg (https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-48017083 and https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews/videos/2419507664746516/UzpfSTExMzE3NDU0NjU6MTAyMTc0NDIwNzg1MDA1MTI/?notif_id=1556052537464173¬if_t=story_reshare); Chris Hedges and Roger Hallam (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=220tv9Jktmg and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfXqq888HPY).
(6) Oligarchic capitalism deconstructs Hobbes’ Choice to replace mutual distrust with global elitist conspiracy enslaving humanity and ravaging the planet for profit. What Len Sweet calls “GRAIN” in his forthcoming book, Rings of Fire (https://smile.amazon.com/Rings-Fire-Walking-through-Volcanic-ebook/dp/B07PJMP4T6/), refers to the advances in Genetics, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence (and information technology), and Nanotechnology the oligarchs will implement to secure their reign and control or dispose of remnant humanity beyond themselves, if any. See “Hobbesian Trap” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbesian_trap), not to be confused with “Hobson’s Choice” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobson%27s_choice).