Clathrate Gun Fired? A Perfect Storm of Failure

Phys.org has a new article on the methane clathrate issue. It’s an easy read – suggest you read this before finishing my post here.

I’m going to jump right to the point, assuming you’ve now read the article. It is this quote:

“We are now witnessing early warning signs of major methane release. If it gets out of control, there will be nothing humans can do to prevent the planet overheating quite rapidly.”

If the ‘warning signs’ of a ‘major methane release’ are already there – then it is already ‘out of control’. Moreover, 2.5 years to somehow (magically) ‘exert control’ is of course, utterly ridiculous. No nation on Earth could do that, let alone the whole of humanity.

“The main risks facing humanity: ecological collapse, resource depletion, weapons of mass destruction, climate change, global poisoning, food crises, population and urban overexpansion, pandemic disease, dangerous new technologies and self-delusion”

It is not difficult to read between the lines here. The urgency of the message will be ignored. The meaning of the message will be denied. The world governments are not that interested. The global population is not that interested. It is already quite clear that our species fully intends to extinguish itself and every other living entity on the planet.

No species has the “right” to do that. What is unfolding is not natural, it is not “geological” or even “inevitable”, it is deliberate, designed and determined by the hand of man. We did this. To ourselves and to every other living thing on the planet. We are entirely responsible for what is unfolding. And we are simply unwilling (not unable – unwilling) to do anything about it.

So, a couple of important questions:

a) At what point then – does self-preservation take over?
b) When will it be deemed more ethical to respond against the prevailing unwillingness?
c) Past blog articles and commentary deems this ‘delayed response’ that could be enacted to be too late anyway.

Therefore – what are we doing here?

If the conclusion of these events now unfolding is already determined and immutable, there is simply no point at all in covering this ground anymore. We may as well just ignore climate change and concentrate on other things with the time we all have left.

Humans do not often act responsibly. This only happens when there is opportunity and the resources to do so. Otherwise, self-preservation will take over. In other words, we will do what we have to do in order to survive. Ethics and “doing the right thing” will go out the window. This is what is happening now on a world-wide scale. We know what needs to be done, but we’re trying to survive in a declining world of less and less opportunity, and less and less resources. Survival takes over instead of responsible behavior.

I’ve watched tons of documentaries of global destruction occurring and why it happens. The message found in every one of these is people are doing what they have to do in order to survive. They’ll sacrifice whatever they must to stay alive (earn money) – even knowing that by destroying their environment, they are ultimately going to be destroying themselves.

The conditions that have caused this are all economic. We are all “stuck” with the need to participate in the global economic system so that we can obtain the things that we need for our survival. THAT is what is at the heart of the “problem” with everything on this planet, not just deadly climate change, but everything. Our economic system requires our participation in destruction and escalating consumption. It is the root cause.

So to quickly summarize – it makes no difference if the world receives or even responds to the warning of catastrophic climate change. The economic system and the economic conditions (the real world we are all suffering under) will prevent effective, lasting actions to mitigate climate change. Instead, “adaption” attempts will be tried, which will ultimately mean “consume more” of the planetary resources while continuing to prop up the economic system. Unless this system is abandoned, we will perish.

This is why the Green Economy is being proposed. It is not a replacement or even an effective answer to the current economic system, it is just another form of exploitation and resource consumption. It will not work any better then before. Nor will carbon credits / carbon trading schemes solve anything, the underlying consumption and exploitation of global resources for economic gain remains exactly the same.

Astute readers will already recognize that the root of the problem on how humans survive, and what this has now done for our future, is economic. We’ve converted critical natural resources essential for life into the construction and excesses of civilization, without realizing or really even caring that this would all be temporary – allowable only as long as we did not overtly destroy the natural energy balance of the planet. We are now long, long past that point. The slowly responding Earth systems are now reacting very negatively towards planetary life survival. And we cannot reverse this. Especially so since we cannot abandon our economic demands, which are a heat-engine and a resource destruction monster.

So to reiterate – humans will not act responsibly. They can’t. They will only act in their own short term self-interests as the evidence clearly shows. And as long as those interests remained economically tied to further exploitation for survival, nothing will change us to act responsibly. It is a matter of survival, under the conditions in which we all find ourselves.

I am very tired of attempting to gain an audience here. I admit to failing to attract and retain my own readership. I too – have done what I needed to do “in order to survive” but it has now come crashing down in abject failure because of widespread disinterest. Within America, my fellow countrymen have near-zero interest in anything related to climate, or true conservation or sustainability or even bucking the status-quo. My blog is very unique in its perspectives and style – I’m not afraid to punch hard where it counts (or should), but it has failed to change anything.

I now realize that I never could. There is no effective replacement for the economic system we all suffer under. We are all going to die under this system, which will have ultimately killed us all.