Many people are expecting some degree of approaching collapse -- be it
economic, environmental and/or societal -- thinking that they’ll recognize
the danger signs in time.
As if it will be completely obvious, like a Hollywood blockbuster.
Complete with clear warnings from scientists, politicians and the
media. And everyone can then get busy either panicking or becoming the
plucky heroes.
That's not how collapse works.
Collapse is a process, not an event.
And it's already underway, all around us.
Collapse is already here.
However, unlike Hollywood's vision, the early stages of collapse cause
people to cling even tighter to the status quo. Instead of panic in the
streets, we simply see more of the same -- as those in power do all they can
to remain so, while the majority of the public attempts to ignore the growing
problems for as long as it possibly can.
For both the elite and the majority, their entire world view and their personal sense
of self depends on things not crumbling all
around them, so they remain willfully blind to any evidence to the contrary.
When faced with the predicaments we warn about here at PeakProsperity.com,
getting an early start on prudently shifting your own personal situation is
of vital strategic and tactical importance. Tens of thousands of our readers
already have taken wise steps in their lives to position themselves
resiliently.
But most of the majority won't get started until it’s entirely too late to
make any difference at all. Which is sad but perhaps unavoidable, given human
nature.
If everybody around you is saying “Everything is awesome!”, it can take a
long time to determine for yourself that things in fact aren't:
Real collapse happens slowly, and often without any sort of
acknowledgement by the so-called political and economic elites until its
abrupt terminal end.
The degree of rot within the Soviet Union went undetected until its final
implosion, catching pretty much everyone in the West (as well as in the
former USSR!) by surprise.
Similarly, one day people woke up and passenger pigeons were
extinct. They used to literally darken the skies for hours as they
migrated past, numbering in the billions. Nobody planned on their demise and
virtually nobody saw it coming. Sure, just as there always are, a few
crackpots at the fringes noticed, but they were ignored until it was too
late.
Our view is that collapse of our current way of life is happening right
now. The signs are all around us. Our invitation is for you to notice
them and inquire critically what the ramifications will be -- irrespective of
whatever pablum our leaders and media are currently spewing.
While the monetary and financial elites strain to crank out one more
day/week/month/year of “market stability”, the ecosystems we depend on for
life are vanishing. It's as if the Rapture were happening, but it's the
insects, plants and animals ascending to heaven instead of we humans.
Committing Ecocide
Be very skeptical when the cause of each new ecological nightmare is
ascribed to “natural causes.”
While it’s entire possible for any one ecological mishap, it’s weak
thinking to dismiss hundreds of troubling findings all over the globe for the
same reason.
As they say in the military: Once is an accident. Twice is a
coincidence. But three times is enemy action.
Right now, Australia is in the middle of the summer season and being
absolutely hammered by high heat. Sure it gets hot during an Australian
summer, but not like this. The impact has been devastating:
Australia's Facing an Unprecedented Ecological Crisis, But No
One's Paying Attention
Jan 9, 2019
It started in December, just before Christmas.
Hundreds of dead perch were discovered floating along the banks of
the Darling River – victims of a "dirty, rotten green"
algae bloom spreading in the still waters of the small country town of
Menindee, Australia.
Things didn't get better. The dead hundreds became dead thousands,
as the crisis expanded to claim the lives of 10,000 fish along a 40-kilometre
(25-mile) stretch of the river. But the worst was still yet to come.
This week, the environmental disaster has exploded to a horrific
new level – what one Twitter user called "Extinction level water
degradation" – with reports suggesting up to a million fish have now
been killed in a new instance of the toxic algae bloom conditions.
For their part, authorities in the state of New South Wales have only gone
as far as confirming "hundreds of thousands" of fish have died in
the event – but regardless of the exact toll, it's clear the deadly
calamity is an unprecedented ecological disaster in the region's waterways.
"I've never seen two fish kills of this scale so close
together in terms of time, especially in the same stretch of river,"
fisheries manager Iain Ellis from NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI)
explained to ABC News.
The DPI blames ongoing drought conditions for the algae bloom's
devastating impact on local bream, cod, and perch species – with a
combination of high temperature and chronic low water supply (along with high
nutrient concentrations in the water) making for a toxic algal soup.
(Source)
Watching the video above showing grown men crying over the loss of
100-year-old fish is heartbreaking. This fish kill is described as
“unprecedented” and as an “extinction level event", meaning it left no
survivors over a long stretch of waterway.
We can try to console oursleves that maybe this was just a singular event,
a cluster of bad juju and worse waterway management that combined to give us
this horror -- but it wasn’t.
It's part of a larger tapestry of heat-induced misery that Australia is
facing:
How one heatwave killed 'a third' of a bat species in Australia
Jan 15, 2019
Over two days in November, record-breaking heat in Australia's
north wiped out almost one-third of the nation's spectacled flying foxes,
according to researchers.
The animals, also known as spectacled fruit bats, were unable to
survive in temperatures which exceeded 42C.
"It was totally depressing," one rescuer, David
White, told the BBC.
Flying foxes are no more sensitive to extreme heat than some other
species, experts say. But because they often gather in urban areas in large
numbers, their deaths can be more conspicuous, and easily documented.
"It raises concerns as to the fate of other creatures who
have more secretive, secluded lifestyles," Dr Welbergen says.
He sees the bats as the "the canary in the coal mine for
climate change".
(Source)
A two-day heatwave last November (2018) was sufficient to kill up to a
third of all Australia's known flying foxes, a vulnerable species that was
already endangered. As those bats are well-studied and their deaths
quite conspicuous to observers, it raises the important question: How
many other less-scrutinized species are dying off at the same time?
And the death parade continues:
Are these data points severe enough for you to recognize as signs of
ongoing collapse?
Last summer was a time of extreme draught and heat for Australia, and this
summer looks set to be even worse. This may be the country's 'new
normal' for if the situation is due to climate change instead of just an
ordinary (if punishing) hot cycle.
If so, these heat waves will likely intensify over time, completely
collapsing the existing biological systems across Australia.
Meanwhile, nearby in New Zealand, similar species loss is underway:
'Like losing family': time may be running out for New Zealand's
most sacred tree
July 2018
New Zealand’s oldest and most sacred tree stands 60 metres from
death, as a fungal disease known as kauri dieback spreads unabated across the
country.
Tāne Mahuta (Lord of the Forest) is a giant kauri tree located in the
Waipoua forest in the north of the country, and is sacred to the Māori
people, who regard it as a living ancestor.
The tree is believed to be around 2,500 years old, has a girth of
13.77m and is more than 50m tall.
Thousands of locals and tourists alike visit the tree every year to pay
their respects, and take selfies beside the trunk.
Now, the survival of what is believed to be New Zealand’s oldest living
tree is threatened by kauri dieback, with kauri trees a mere 60m from Tāne
Mahuta confirmed to be infected.
Kauri dieback causes most infected trees to die, and is
threatening to completely wipe out New Zealand’s most treasured native tree
species, prized for its beauty, strength and use in boats, carvings and
buildings.
“We don’t have any time to do the usual scientific trials anymore, we just
have to start responding immediately in any way possible; it is not ideal but
we have kind of run out of time,” Black says, adding that although there is
no cure for kauri dieback there is a range of measures which could slow its
progress.
(Source)
People are rallying to try and save the kauri trees, although it’s unclear
exactly how to stop the spread of the new fungal invader or why it's so
pathogenic all of a sudden. It could be due to another natural sort of
cycle (except the fungus was thought to have been introduced and spread by
human activity) or it could be a another collapse indicator we need to finally
hear and heed.
It turns out that New Zealand is not alone. Giant trees are dying all over
the globe.
2,000-year-old
baobab trees in Africa are suddenly and rather mysteriously giving
up the ghost. These trees survived happily for 2,000 years and now all
of a sudden they're dying. Are the deaths of our most ancient trees all
across the globe some sort of natural process? Or is there a different
culprit we need to recognize?
In Japan they're lamenting record low squid catches. Oh well, maybe
it’s just overfishing? Or could it be another message we need to heed?
To all this we can add the numerous scientific articles now decrying the
'insect Apocalypse' unfolding across the northern hemisphere. The Guardian
recently issued this warning: “Insect collapse: ‘We are destroying our life support
systems’”. Researchers in Puerto Rico's forest preserves recorded a 98%
decline in insect mass over 35 years. Does a 98% decline have a natural
explanation? Or is something bigger going on?
Meanwhile, the butterfly die-off is unfolding with alarming speed. I
rarely see them in the summer anymore, much to my great regret. Seeing
one is now as exciting as seeing a meteor streak across the sky, and just as
rare:
Monarch butterfly numbers plummet 86 percent in California
Jan 7, 2019
CAMARILLO, Calif. – The number of monarch butterflies turning up
at California's overwintering sites has dropped by about 86 percent compared
to only a year ago, according to the Xerces Society, which organizes
a yearly count of the iconic creatures.
That’s bad news for a species whose numbers have already declined
an estimated 97 percent since the 1980s.
Each year, monarchs in the western United States migrate from inland areas
to California’s coastline to spend the winter, usually between September and
February.
“It’s been the worst year we’ve ever seen,” said Emma Pelton, a
conservation biologist with the Xerces Society who helps lead the annual
Thanksgiving count. “We already know we’re dealing with a really small
population, and now we have a really bad year and all of a sudden, we’re kind
of in crisis mode where we have very, very few butterflies left.”
What’s causing the dramatic drop-off is somewhat of a mystery.
Experts believe the decline is spurred by a confluence of unfortunate
factors, including late rainy-season storms across California last March, the
effects of the state’s years long drought and the seemingly relentless
onslaught of wildfires that have burned acres upon acres of habitat
and at times choked the air with toxic smoke.
(Source)
Note the “explanation” given blames the decline on mostly natural
processes: late storms, droughts and wildfires. I believe that's because the
article appears in a US paper, so no mention was permitted of neonicotinoid
pesticides or glyphosate. Both of these are highly effective decimators of
insect life -- but their highly profitable for Big Ag, so for now, any
criticism is not allowed.
Sure a 97% decline since the 1980’s might be due to fires,
droughts and rains. But that’s really not very likely. There have
always been fires, droughts and rains. Something else has shifted since
the 1980’s. And that “thing” is human activity, which has increased its
willingness to destroy habitat and spray poisons everywhere in pursuit of
cheaper food and easier profits.
The loss of insects, which we observe in the loss of the beautiful and
iconic Monarch butterfly, is a gigantic warning flag that we desperately need
to heed. If the bottom of our billion-year-old food web disintegrates,
you can be certain that the repercussions to humans will be dramatic and
terribly difficult to ‘fix.’ In scientific terms, it will be called a
“bottom-up trophic cascade”.
In a trophic cascade, the loss of a single layer of the food pyramid
crumbles the entire structure. Carefully-tuned food webs a billion
years in the making are suddenly destabilized. Life cannot adapt
quickly enough, and so entire species are quickly lost. Once enough
species die off, the web cannot be rewoven, and life … simply ends.
What exactly would a “trophic cascade” look like in real life? Oh,
perhaps something just like this:
Deadly deficiency at the heart of an environmental mystery
Oct 16, 2018
During spring and summer, busy colonies of a duck called the common eider
(Somateria mollissima) and other wild birds are usually seen breeding on the
rocky coasts around the Baltic Sea. Thousands of eager new parents vie for
the best spots to build nests and catch food for their demanding young
broods.
But Lennart Balk, an environmental biochemist at Stockholm University,
witnessed a dramatically different scene when he visited Swedish coastal
colonies during a 5-year period starting in 2004. Many birds couldn’t
fly. Others were completely paralyzed. Birds also weren’t eating and had
difficulty breathing. Thousands of birds were suffering and dying from this
paralytic disease, says Balk. “We went into the bird colonies, and we were
shocked. You could see something was really wrong. It was a scary situation
for this time of year,” he says.
Based on his past work documenting a similar crisis in several Baltic Sea
fish species, Balk suspected that the birds’ disease was caused by a
thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency. Thiamine is required for critical metabolic
processes, such as energy production and proper functioning of the nervous
system.
This essential micronutrient is produced mainly by plants, including
phytoplankton, bacteria, and fungi; people and animals must acquire
it through their food.
“We found that thiamine deficiency is much more widespread and severe than
previously thought,” Balk says. Given its scope, he suggests that a pervasive
thiamine deficiency could be at least partly responsible for global wildlife
population declines. Over a 60-year period up to 2010, for example,
worldwide seabird populations declined by approximately 70%, and
globally, species are being lost 1,000 times faster than the natural rate of
extinction (9, 10). “He has seen a thiamine deficiency in several
differ phyla now,” says Fitzsimons of Balk. “One wonders what is going on.
It’s a larger issue than we first suspected.”
(Source)
This is beyond disturbing. It should have been on the front pages of every
newspaper and TV show across the globe. We should be discussing it in
urgent, worried tones and devoting a huge amount of money to studying and
fixing it. At a minimum, we should stop hauling more tiny fish and
krill from the sea in an effort to at least stabilize the food pyramid while
we sort things out.
If you recall, we’ve also recently reported on the findings showing that
phytoplankton levels are down 50% (these are a prime source for thiamine, by
the way). Again, here's a possible “trophic cascade” in progress:
(Source)
Fewer phytoplankton means less thiamine being produced. That means less
thiamine is available to pass up the food chain. Next thing you know, there’s
a 70% decline in seabird populations.
This is something I’ve noticed directly and commented n during my annual
pilgrimages to the northern Maine coast over the past 30 years, where
seagulls used to be extremely common and are now practically gone.
Seagulls!
Next thing you know, some other major food chain will be wiped out and
we'll get oceans full of jellyfish instead of actual fish. Or perhaps
some once-benign mold grows unchecked because the former complex food web
holding it in balance has collapsed, collapsing Big Ag's "green
revolution" into grayish-brown dust.
To add to the terrifying mix of ecological news has been the sudden and
rapid loss of amphibian species all over the world. A possible source
for the culprit has been found, if that’s any consolation; though that
discovery does not yet identify a solution to this saddening development.
Ground Zero of Amphibian 'Apocalypse' Finally Found
May 10, 2018
MANY OF THE world's amphibians are staring down an existential
threat: an ancient skin-eating fungus that can wipe out entire forests' worth
of frogs in a flash.
This ecological super-villain, the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium
dendrobatidis, has driven more than 200 amphibian species to extinction or
near-extinction—radically rewiring ecosystems all over Earth.
“This is the worst pathogen in the history of the world, as far as
we can tell, in terms of its impacts on biodiversity,” says Mat
Fisher, an Imperial College London mycologist who studies the fungus.
Now, a global team of 58 researchers has uncovered the creature's origin
story. A groundbreaking study published in Science on Thursday
reveals where and when the fungus most likely emerged: the Korean peninsula,
sometime during the 1950s.
From there, scientists theorize that human activities
inadvertently spread it far and wide—leading to amphibian die-offs across the
Americas, Africa, Europe, and Australia.
(Source)
Frogs, toads and salamanders were absolutely critical parts of my
childhood and I delighted in their presence. I cannot imagine a world without
them. But effectively, that’s what we’ve got now with so many on the
endangered species list.
This parade of awful ecological news is both endless and worsening. And
there is no real prospect for us to fix things in time to avoid substantial
ecological pain. None.
After all, we can’t even manage our watersheds properly. And those are
dead simple by comparison. Water falls from the sky in (Mostly) predictable
volume and you then distribute somewhat less than that total each year.
Linear and simple in comparison to trying to unravel the many factors
underlying a specie's collapse.
But challenges like this are popping up all over the globe:
Fear And Grieving In Las Vegas: Colorado River Managers Struggle
With Water Scarcity
Dec 14th, 2018
On stage in a conference room at Las Vegas's Caesars Palace, Keith
Moses said coming to terms with the limits of the Colorado River is like
losing a loved one.
"It reminds me of the seven stages of grief," Moses
said. "Because I think we've been in denial for a long time."
Moses is vice chairman of the Colorado River Indian Tribes, a group of
four tribes near Parker, Arizona. He was speaking at the annual Colorado
River Water Users Association meeting.
The denial turned to pain and guilt as it became clear just how
big the supply and demand gaps were on the river that delivers water to 40
million people in the southwest.
For the last six months Arizona's water leaders have been experiencing the
third stage of grief: anger and bargaining.
Of the seven U.S. states that rely on the Colorado River, Arizona
has had the hardest time figuring out how to rein in water use and avoid
seeing the river's largest reservoirs — Lakes Mead and Powell — drop to
extremely low levels.
Kathryn Sorenson, director of Phoenix's water utility,
characterized the process this way: "Interesting. Complicated. Some
might say difficult."
One of the loudest voices in the debate has been coming from a
small group of farmers in rural Pinal County, Arizona, south of Phoenix.
Under the current rules those farmers could see their Colorado River
supplies zeroed out within two years.
The county's biggest grower of cotton and alfalfa, Brian Rhodes,
is trying to make sure that doesn't happen. The soil in his fields
is powder-like, bursting into tiny brown clouds with each step.
"We're going to have to take large cuts," Rhodes said. "We
all understand that."
(Source)
Oh my goodness. If we’re having trouble realizing that wasting precious
water from the Colorado River to grow cotton is a bad idea, then there’s just
no hope at all that we'll successfully rally to address the loss of ocean
phytoplankton.
That’s about the easiest connection of dots that could ever be made.
As Sam Kinison, the
1980’s comedian might have yelled – IT’S A DESERT!! YOU’RE TRYING TO GROW
WATER-INTENSIVE CROPS IN THE FREAKING DESERT! CAN’T YOU SEE ALL THE
SAND AROUND YOU?!? THAT MEANS "DON’T GROW COTTON HERE!!"
A World On The Brink
The bottom line is this: We are destroying the natural world. And that
means that we are destroying ourselves.
I know that the mainstream news has relegated this conversation to the
back pages (when they covered it at all) and so it's not “front and center”
for most people. But it should be.
Everything we hold dear is a subset of the ecosphere. If that goes, so
does everything else. Nothing else matters in the slightest if we actively
destroy the Earth’s carrying capacity.
At the same time, we're in the grips of an extremely dangerous delusion
that has placed money, finance and the economy at the top spot on our temple
of daily worship.
Any idea of slowing down or stopping economic growth is “bad for business”
and dismissed out of hand as “not practical”, "undesirable" or
"unwise". It’s always a bad time to discuss the end of
economic growth, apparently.
But as today's young people are increasingly discovering, if "conducting
business" is just a lame rationale for failed stewardship of our
lands and oceans, then it’s a broken idea. One not worth preserving in its
current form.
The parade of terrible ecological breakdowns provided above is there for
all willing to see it. Are you willing? Each failing ecosystem is
screaming at us in urgent, strident tones that we’ve gone too far in our
quest for "more".
We might be able to explain away each failure individually. But taken as a
whole? The pattern is clear: We’ve got enemy action at work.
These are not random coincidences.
Nature is warning us loudly that it's past time to change our ways.
That our "endless growth" model is no longer valid. In fact, it's
now becoming an existential threat
The collapse is underway. It’s just not being televised (yet).
Davos As Destiny
And don't expect the cavalry to arrive.
Our leadership is absolutely not up to the task. If the Davos conference
currently underway in Switzerland is a sign of anything at all, it’s that
we’re doomed.
The world has been taken over by bankers and financiers too smitten by
their love of money to notice much else or be of any practical service to the
world.
By way of illustrative example, here’s the big techno-feel-good idea
unveiled on the second day of the conference. The crowds there loved
it:
Yes, folks, this is what the world desperately needs at this time.
While I’m sure it’s a very heartwarming story, it’s completely diversionary
and utterly meaningless in the face of collapsing oceanic and terrestrial
food webs.
Sadly, this is exactly the sort of inane distraction that the Davos set
loves to use to help them feel better about their ill-gotten wealth. And the
fact that they're doing nothing useful with it except to distort political
processes and rules to assure they get to keep it and even amass more.
Drones carrying books provides the same sort of dopamine rush to a Davos
attendee as Facebook 'like' gives to a 14-year-old.
Temporary, cheap, superficial and ultimately meaningless.
The same is true of their other feel-good theme of the day. “Scientists”
have discovered an enzyme that eats plastics:
That’s swell, but you know what would be even better? Not
using the bottles in the first place. By providing access to
safe drinkable water as a basic human right and using re-usable and
environmentally-gentle solutions to do so.
Instead, the Davos crowd wants to preserve industry and our consumer
culture as it is, using technology and gimmicks in attempt to remedy the ills
that result. There’s money to be made on both ends of that
story.
The only thing this approach lacks is a future. Because it’s not-so-subtly
based on continued "growth". Infinite exponential growth. The exact
same growth that is killing ancient trees, sea birds, insects, amphibians,
and phytoplankton.
Who wants more of that? Insane people.
In other words, don’t hold out any hope that the Davos set representing
the so-called “elite” from every prominent nation on earth are going to
somehow bravely offer up real insights on our massive predicaments and
solutions to our looming problems. They're too consumed with their own egos
and busy preening for prominence to notice the danger or care.
As they pointlessly fritter away, the ecological world is unraveling all
around them. The oceans are becoming barren wasteland.
In other words, if you held out any hope that “they” would somehow rally
to the cause you’d best set that completely aside. It's no wonder social
anger against tone-deaf and plundering elites is breaking out right now.
From here, there are only two likely paths:
(1) We humans simply cannot self-organize to address these plights and
carry on until the bitter end, when something catastrophic happens that
collapses our natural support systems.
(2) We see the light, gather our courage, and do what needs to be
done. Consumption is widely and steeply curtailed, fossil fuel use is
severely restrained, and living standards as measured by the amount of stuff
flowing through our daily lives are dropped to sustainable levels.
Either path means enormous changes are coming, probably for you and
definitely for your children and grandchildren.
In Part 2: Facing Reality we dive into what developments to
expect as our systems continue further along their trophic cascade. Which
markers and milestones should we monitor most closely to know when the next
breaking point is upon us?
To reiterate: Massive change is now inevitable and in progress.
Collapse has already begun.
Click here to read Part 2 of this report (free
executive summary, enrollment required for full access).
