Climate change, civilizational collapse, and the metaverse from a broader perspective – Ryan Schultz
Of course now, There That’s a blog post title designed to grab attention, right? 😉
I was one of those people who, at the height of the bird flu scare, stockpiled rice, beans and N95 masks to prepare for the (then) impending pandemic. Well, we have a pandemic, but I was wrong about that. when and why its.
Well, I’ve been reading a fair amount of books lately and following a lot of intelligent and knowledgeable people about mastodons. And I feel like I’m in a somewhat similar situation to the one I’ve been in for the past 10 years. Van Jeon: I’m sure something bad is going to happen, but like the pandemic, I’m probably wrong about when and why. What’s so bad about that? Climate change (fueled by capitalism that promotes growth at all costs and maximizes shareholder value) is leading to widespread agricultural failure, leading to famine, war, and the collapse of civilization.
Interesting topic, right?
But I have a growing belief that our society will see more and more things that were unimaginable even at the beginning of this year. A wildfire caused by a hurricane swept through the Hawaiian city of Lahaina, killing 100 people before they could escape. Heavy rain fell in Derna, Libya, causing a dam to collapse and flooding. 11,300 10,100 people are dead and missing.
And my home country, Canada, is not immune. This summer, an unprecedented bushfire season forced nearly every city and town in the Northwest Territories to evacuate. The tropical storm named Lee quickly turned into a Category 5 hurricane due to unexpected ocean warming, and as I write this, it finally ran aground as a still-fierce storm attacking the maritime region.
My typical reaction to depressing events like this is summarized in the following picture:
But the truth of the matter is that as things become more and more clear, there are only so many things you can do to stick your head in the sand like an ostrich. It’s not okay.
Recently I read Jessica Wildfire’s Medium post. the world has already ended. In it she wrote:
We talk a lot about saving the world or preventing the collapse of civilization, but we don’t talk about what that actually means. We don’t talk about which world or which civilization we are trying to save.
This can’t happen.
This civilization is gone. This world is gone. It has already ended for millions of people. Some of us haven’t felt it yet. For most of us, it has never been easy. It was never fair, but there was some predictability. There was a level of comfort and convenience. It’s gone now. The situation will not get better. They will never go back to the way they were.
Now, when the pandemic hit, I suddenly shifted my blog content from “news and views on social VR, virtual worlds, and the metaverse” (as stated in this blog’s tagline) to the wall, to the dismay and even annoyance of some of my regular readers. I did. Comprehensive coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic. So you all will be very happy to hear me say the following: ~ no I plan on turning this into a doomsday blog about the end of the world.
but.
From now on, my writing about the metaverse will be about how we I think I will We are in the early stages of social upheaval, perhaps even collapse, caused by climate change. For example, what will happen to virtual reality headset sales as more and more people struggle to put food on the table and make ends meet? And as the metaverse evolves, how many people will accept this as an alternative to air travel to attend conferences, given that air travel adds to the overall toll of global warming? How can we use virtual worlds and social VR to educate people about the challenges facing our world? What happens to VR/AR/MR/XR headset manufacturing if components from Indian, Chinese or US companies are affected by supply chain issues due to climate change?
So, this blog will first of all be about virtual reality and the metaverse, but in the future it will cover everything that is happening currently, including climate change and its possible impacts. And if I deviate from that perspective, please feel free to contact me.*
Updated September 21, 2023: One of the people I follow on Mastodon and who posts regularly on this topic under the pseudonym Bread and Circuses (link in profile) recently wrote the following (link in post):
Okay, now we…
If current trends continue, within 30 years human industry, commerce, and land use will transform the planet’s livability to the extent that modern industrial society will collapse. This would be a total disaster. Hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, of the most vulnerable among us will die. Not to mention the thousands of plant and animal species we will be extinct.
Doesn’t sound good, right? And this is what happens in our current course. This includes a belated (and much applauded) shift to “renewables” for most electricity production. Sorry, but that’s not enough to prevent what’s to come.
Obviously I’m not the only one who can see this. Many scientists are now sounding similar alarms.
Even the rich and powerful can see it. So they are silently buying large tracts of land in New Zealand and building luxury bunkers, hoping to overcome the apocalypse by doing so.
Government and industry leaders have a clear idea of what will happen next. And if they use their brains (which not everyone does), they will realize that the only way to prevent a catastrophic collapse is to immediately transition to a post-growth economy.
Except, it means the cessation of capitalism. Well, we can’t have that! So now we are making plans to drastically change the environment to overcome the problems arising from environmental changes.
Yes, you read that right. Capitalists want to use fossil fuel technology to solve all the damage caused by fossil fuel technology. 🥴
Mastodon friend Geoffrey Deihl (aka Sane Thinker, @gdeihl) recently published a thorough investigation and evaluation of these plans.
“Stratospheric Aerosol Injection: Earth’s Last Chance Dance?”
See https://geoffreydeihl.substack.com/p/stratospheric-aerosol-injection-earths.
*Time for a full-fledged confession. Hello, I still have no intention of recycling plastic. 😱 I recently purchased a new gasoline car instead of a hybrid or electric car. 😱😱 And I booked plane tickets to see the rest of my family. 😱😱😱 I am a climate change hypocrite just like the next person. All I can do is continue to educate myself and try to do better.
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