[P2P-F] Fwd: From Rajani: The End of Evolution?

Mon Aug 20 18:29:28 CEST 2018

This from Rajani reflecting Guy McPherson's worldview feels 
understandably melodramatic. But fair enough, how we give voice to the 
accumulative threats to 'civilisation' is a very contested issue.

Some people have found the intentionally confronting approach of my 
recent video /Messages from the Blue Planet/ 
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57u_NGMQbkk> 'unnerving'. My son Elmer 
was very helpful, he told me that he thought what I was doing with the 
videos echoed the very last lines in Shakespeare's King Lear:
'The weight of this sad time we must obey;
speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath borne most: we that are young
shall never see so much, nor live so long.

Yes, it is certainly a global emergency, yes, irreversible changes 
appear to be in train. The two years of more or less 24/7 research for 
/Messages From the Blue Planet/ and its upcoming sequel support this, 
and especially how the crisis has been created from, and continues to be 
researched from a linear take on unfolding events ('progress', capital 
accumulation etc). This tends to mean that the climate modelling of how 
the earth system is evolving is unhelpful about nonlinear change, which 
seems to be overwhelmingly likely to be how forcings in the earth system 
will be expressed/are being expressed. Consequence: continuation of 
'business as usual'.

I doubt if evolution is over, a very long time ago oxygen was toxic to 
some emerging life but a very long time later, here we are. However I am 
certainly convinced that 'progress' will soon be history.

Denis
On 20/08/2018 07:11, Michel Bauwens wrote:
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> From: *r kanth* <involutegandhian at gmail.com 
> <mailto:involutegandhian at gmail.com>>
> Date: Mon, Aug 20, 2018 at 1:30 AM
> Subject: Fwd: From Rajani: The End of Evolution?
> To: Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com 
> <mailto:michelsub2004 at gmail.com>>
>
>
>
> *Doomsday?*
>
> May not be far away.
>
> Remember Barry Mcguire?
>
> His song was titled ‘Eve of Destruction’.
>
> Could be an anthem for us all, in these times.
>
> Let me explain.
>
> Turns out I am not the only gloom-sayer around.
>
> The really hard act here is Dr. Guy Mcpherson, Biologist and Concerned 
> Citizen(he’s all over /Youtube)./
>
> He is predicting an /early/ , /abrupt/, extinction for us anthropic 
> beings ( I detest the term ‘ homo sapiens’: /Homo Baceolus /might be 
> more apt?).
>
> Here’s a digest.
>
> /Firstly,/ our /Habitat./
>
> Our species has been around for a bit.
>
> But 99% of all species are now extinct.
>
> Are we next?
>
> Yes, likely.
>
> In 1750 – the baseline year of Industrialisation - - planetary temp 
> was at 13.5 Celsius.
>
> The species has survived, Guy estimates, at no more than about 2 
> Degrees above that, and that may be the highest that permits a real 
> habitat for humans.
>
> Today we are already 1.6 Degrees above the 1750 baseline.
>
> Close.
>
> /Second/, ‘/Civilisation’ /– his term, not mine – is a veritable /heat 
> engine./
>
> Only way to turn off this heating is a total collapse of this’ 
> civilisation’ /tout a fait./
>
> But , /Third,/ such a collapse of this ‘civ’ brings about, in turn, 
> yet another crisis: /global dimming./
>
> Industrial activity produces /particularates/ that blanket the earth 
> and block sun’s rays this ‘cooling’ the earth ( by some 3 degrees).
>
> If we stop that engine then the planet heats up some more , maybe , by 
> another 4.5 Degrees.
>
> There goes our Habitat.
>
> /Fourth/, iswhat he calls the /Sixth (Mass) /Extinction: the 
> /ominicide/ extant that is killing off as many as , perhaps, 200 
> species/a day./
>
> Their death presages ours.
>
> Plus, the steady melt of Arctic ice could release trapped methane in 
> abrupt fashion.
>
> All that could shoot Planetary temp up to 19 Degrees, /within a year 
> or two, at most:/
>
> /ergo,/ crop failures, droughts, starvation, /et. al (/note, he sees 
> the ‘commencement ‘ of this scenario within but a year or so).//
>
> Pop goes the weasel.
>
> Why aren’t the powers that /shouldn’t /be telling us?
>
> Fear, of mass panic.
>
> Even science journals are loth to print such radical ideas.
>
> So, what can be done?
>
> /Nothing,/ says Guy, since it’s out of control already.
>
> We are doomed.
>
> /Instead, he asks us to remain calm, pursue excellence, and pursue love./
>
> Whew.
>
> Tall order.
>
> I like the last, the second to last is but an old affectation, and the 
> first may be well beyond reach.
>
> I register only 2 informed objections – to his analysis - neither of 
> them minor.
>
> No, ‘Western Civ’ is not ‘civ’, by any stretch ( I have explained this 
> in many /Works/): it in fact a ‘culture of death’ , to use a telling 
> phrase of environmentalist Vandana Shiva, that has brought us to  this 
> catastrophic pass.
>
> Second, if we are counting, it’s not the 6^th, but, in fact, the 7^th 
> Extinction.
>
> /The Sixth was the genocide against Non-Europeans, carried out by 
> Europe, non-stop since 1492./
>
> Yes, /non-stop./
>
> Have a look around.
>
> Other than that, his logic and facts appear sound.
>
> We need to listen toBarry.
>
> And to Guy.
>
> It’s time for soothsayers to step up: all others have, more or less, 
> failed us.
>
> *[©R.Kanth 2018]*
>
>
>
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