Category Archives: Preparing for Civilization’s End

What Would Net Zero Emissions by 2025 Look Like?

Posted on November 15, 2019 by Dave Pollard

graph by Our World in Data The latest IPCC report says that in order to prevent catastrophic climate change global net CO2 emissions will have to reach net zero by 2050, from their current levels of 33-38B tons rising by … Continue reading →

Posted in How the World Really Works, Our Culture / Ourselves, Preparing for Civilization's End | 28 Comments

Links of the Month: October 2019

Posted on October 28, 2019 by Dave Pollard

Too many links already to wait for December, so here’s a special monthly edition of Links of the Quarter. Warning for the soft-hearted: There are at least five tear-jerkers in these links. PREPARING FOR CIVILIZATION’S END award-winning photo by Turkish … Continue reading →

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No Accounting

Posted on October 9, 2019 by Dave Pollard

Freedom of the press, 2019, rated from good (deep blue) to very serious (deep red), as self-assessed by members of Reporters Without Borders. From NordNordWest, CC-by-sa-3.0 de, via wikipedia. These are not good times for journalists and independent media. Not … Continue reading →

Posted in Our Culture / Ourselves, Preparing for Civilization's End | 8 Comments

Pollard’s Laws and XR

Posted on September 28, 2019 by Dave Pollard

some of the half-million Montréalers who participated in yesterday’s climate march; from Greta’s twitter posts One of the things that intrigues me about XR is that their three demands are simple, measurable and revolutionary: Government must tell the truth by … Continue reading →

Posted in How the World Really Works, Our Culture / Ourselves, Preparing for Civilization's End | 1 Comment

Latest Interview With Michael Dowd

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Dave Pollard

Michael Dowd recently interviewed me (again), this time as part of his series on collapse, our preparedness for it, and looking beyond it. The interview is here, and the complete set of interviews he’s done on this topic is here. Thanks … Continue reading →

Posted in Preparing for Civilization's End | 1 Comment

How to Respond to Impending Collapse (Guest Post by Paul Heft)

Posted on September 21, 2019 by Dave Pollard

My friend Paul Heft has written a synopsis of the ‘advice’ that a score of writers have recently given on how to respond to accelerating climate collapse. You probably know that I no longer offer advice on what to do, since … Continue reading →

Posted in Preparing for Civilization's End | 4 Comments

Links of the Quarter: September 2019

Posted on September 11, 2019 by Dave Pollard

cartoon by Lars Kenseth in the New Yorker What have we to do But stand with empty hands and palms turned upwards In an age which advances progressively backwards?    (TS Eliot) Hiraeth (heer-eye-th) (Welsh) A word with no direct English … Continue reading →

Posted in How the World Really Works, Our Culture / Ourselves, Preparing for Civilization's End | 2 Comments

Why Economic Collapse Will Precede Climate Collapse

Posted on September 8, 2019 by Dave Pollard

It’s encouraging to see that the terms “climate crisis” and even “climate collapse”, which even five years ago were ridiculed as doomerism, are now considered perfectly reasonable descriptions of our current state. That doesn’t mean there is any consensus on how to … Continue reading →

Posted in How the World Really Works, Preparing for Civilization's End | 23 Comments

Conservatism as Trauma Response

Posted on July 30, 2019 by Dave Pollard

comic by Reza Farazmand “It’s entirely up to us. If we fail — if we blow up or degrade the biosphere so it can no longer sustain us — nature will merely shrug and conclude that letting apes run the … Continue reading →

Posted in Our Culture / Ourselves, Preparing for Civilization's End | 5 Comments

Conversations That Matter: What It Takes to Have Them

Posted on July 6, 2019 by Dave Pollard

photo by Maren Yumi on flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Ironically, despite the fact that I engage in fewer conversations than I used to (maybe because since I’m retired I don’t have to, and because I find few conversations valuable anyway), I’ve started … Continue reading →

Posted in How the World Really Works, Our Culture / Ourselves, Preparing for Civilization's End | 4 Comments