[JJ]

someone sent me this in an email, a really good read, but may be old news to most here: Energy Bulleting

edited for spelling

[eastbay]

http://guymcpherson.com/coming-events/

This is for those of you who will be in the Pacific Northwest this week.

Presenting: Professor Guy McPherson, on a speaking tour of Cascadia.

I'll be at the Vancouver, WA library event this coming Friday, February 21st, at 7 p.m. Hope to see you there!

[Whitefang]

His solution is to leave society and live with nature, excellent idea but you need to defend your home and that is impossible when SHTF, so seek shelter in nature, learn survival and see how far you can go.
I wish I could be there though.....loved the pacific NW, especially North of big Van.
My sister lives in Albi, NM. Have not been to North America in 15 years but I am getting ready to go.

I had my eyes on Tweedsmuir BC park and around but now feel more to go cassiar hwy, Dease Lake/Telegraph Creek and Stikine plateau, even the Alaska peninsula looks great except for big town capital Juneau...30000 people.

Best place worldwide within the next decade or so.
I"ll make every effort to go there, if I fail there is plan B, Sweden/Norway Lofoten, the next best option for a Eurolander like me.....

[onlooker]

Fascinating conversation between Paul Ehrlich and Guy Mcpherson about such pleasant topics as overpopulation, extinction and other matters including the in and outs and specifics of humanities predicaments, the reaction to these and the prognosis and outlook. Great stuff from two very knowledgeable persons not holding back at all in the candidness about our unsustainable path.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22EZ5Q7nxOU

[americandream]

Mcpherson is interesting. His constant emphasis on a loving departure grates on me though. There is utterly no reason whatsoever why we should depart with any sort of dignity. Not unless there is some cosmic reward awaiting magnanimous resignation.

[ennui2]

The reason to encourage people to depart with dignity would be, presumably, so that they don't go nuts and attack you like in Children of Men.

[Tanada]

McPherson for whatever internalized reason he has, concluded humanity is about to become extinct in the very near term. That conclusion colors everything he writes or says, always emphasizing the most gloom doom extreme scenario's as being the foregone conclusion.

I have wondered on occasion if Cid_Yama and Guy McPherson are friends in real life, they use many of the same talking points and project the same hopelessness, but are not quite in sync on the nuances of how and why.

I will watch this in a little while when I have time, but having seen 7 McPherson lectures I doubt this one will have anything new in it. I agree our civilization is going to change profoundly due to peak oil, but I don't for a moment buy into the we are all extinct in a few years mantra. The average species on this planet lasts around a million and a half years before it evolves into a different species or goes extinct. I don't believe a species as highly adaptable and as wide spread as Homo Sapiens Sapiens will be any different. BTW I think there is a chance of just the opposite, we know there are species that have persisted for very very long times, some kinds of fish and reptiles are virtually identical today to what they were 100,000,000 years ago. Life has no guarantees, either on the positive or the negative. If you are conceived then eventually you will die, maybe before birth or maybe 116 years later like those old folks they love to put on the news. Species are no different, if you change enough to be considered a distinct species and you exist long enough eventually the gradual changes will be enough to make you into a different species.

[chilyb]

Hi Tanada,

No disrespect, but I don't think the comparison to other species applies in this case. We are fully capable of making an atmosphere and ocean that is inhospitable to complex life forms - be it through a major runaway climate catastrophe, poisoning the oceans with toxic waste or a nuclear holocaust. Whether you think that is going to happen is another question altogether. Let's hope not!

[americandream]

The reason to encourage people to depart with dignity would be, presumably, so that they don't go nuts and attack you like in Children of Men.

Hahahaha. Forever the system man. The communist on the other hand slowly squeezes the consciousness into a spontaneous revolution. Ur dead when you're dead.

[americandream]

McPherson for whatever internalized reason he has, concluded humanity is about to become extinct in the very near term. That conclusion colors everything he writes or says, always emphasizing the most gloom doom extreme scenario's as being the foregone conclusion.

I have wondered on occasion if Cid_Yama and Guy McPherson are friends in real life, they use many of the same talking points and project the same hopelessness, but are not quite in sync on the nuances of how and why.

I will watch this in a little while when I have time, but having seen 7 McPherson lectures I doubt this one will have anything new in it. I agree our civilization is going to change profoundly due to peak oil, but I don't for a moment buy into the we are all extinct in a few years mantra. The average species on this planet lasts around a million and a half years before it evolves into a different species or goes extinct. I don't believe a species as highly adaptable and as wide spread as Homo Sapiens Sapiens will be any different. BTW I think there is a chance of just the opposite, we know there are species that have persisted for very very long times, some kinds of fish and reptiles are virtually identical today to what they were 100,000,000 years ago. Life has no guarantees, either on the positive or the negative. If you are conceived then eventually you will die, maybe before birth or maybe 116 years later like those old folks they love to put on the news. Species are no different, if you change enough to be considered a distinct species and you exist long enough eventually the gradual changes will be enough to make you into a different species.

Don't underestimate the risk in capitalism if not quickly transitioned out of.

[ralfy]

McPherson for whatever internalized reason he has, concluded humanity is about to become extinct in the very near term. That conclusion colors everything he writes or says, always emphasizing the most gloom doom extreme scenario's as being the foregone conclusion.

I have wondered on occasion if Cid_Yama and Guy McPherson are friends in real life, they use many of the same talking points and project the same hopelessness, but are not quite in sync on the nuances of how and why.

I will watch this in a little while when I have time, but having seen 7 McPherson lectures I doubt this one will have anything new in it. I agree our civilization is going to change profoundly due to peak oil, but I don't for a moment buy into the we are all extinct in a few years mantra. The average species on this planet lasts around a million and a half years before it evolves into a different species or goes extinct. I don't believe a species as highly adaptable and as wide spread as Homo Sapiens Sapiens will be any different. BTW I think there is a chance of just the opposite, we know there are species that have persisted for very very long times, some kinds of fish and reptiles are virtually identical today to what they were 100,000,000 years ago. Life has no guarantees, either on the positive or the negative. If you are conceived then eventually you will die, maybe before birth or maybe 116 years later like those old folks they love to put on the news. Species are no different, if you change enough to be considered a distinct species and you exist long enough eventually the gradual changes will be enough to make you into a different species.

I think profound changes will take place due not to peak oil but to peak oil and generally resource scarcity, multiple impacts of environmental damage or destruction, chronic financial crises, and more. Several of these crises are mentioned briefly in this article:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... g-collapse

The manner by which each crisis amplifies others is explained here:

http://fleeingvesuvius.org/2011/10/08/o ... d-economy/

If the real data trends continue to follow forecasts for limits to growth, then it is possible that although there might not be extinction the results will still be bad. That's based on my belief that outside technicalities a few still living is just as bad as everyone dying.

Finally, the forecasts from more than four decades ago does not consider the effects of climate change. And it appears that those effects have been underestimated.

[jedrider]

Fascinating conversation between Paul Ehrlich and Guy Mcpherson

They complain that there is no media outlook for them to reach a wider audience. Too bad we don't have Doomer Television/Cable channel. They can alternate Walking Dead episodes (or Mad Max) with educational shows on climate and ecosystem collapse. Just an idea! The masses expect ENTERTAINMENT, so that is the only medium of information transfer that can work.

[ennui2]

Alex Jones' kool-aid is the closest to a doomer channel. Unfortunately it's tinfoil, but that's what the market is interested in. Being told the enemy is us rather than the POTUS or illumnaughties doesn't sell.

[onlooker]

Great insight into the masses Jerider and Ennui. Yes, informative news or documentaries just do not seem to capture the wider audience. Also, yes most are reluctant to truly be critically introspective and honest about themselves. Having said that the llimimnaughties are naughty haha.

[Revi]

I think a lot of people are going to die before the end of the century. I don't think it will result in extinction, but I could be wrong. A world at 4 degrees C above the baseline is pretty frightening.

[onlooker]

Revi, from the book 6 degrees by Mark Lynas, makes it pretty clear from the available science that 4C would mean pretty much 6C and that WOULD spell extinction for humanity. In fact one can make the case from the book that at around 2C, feedbacks are activated that will inevitably lead to 6C or above.

[AdamB]

I think a lot of people are going to die before the end of the century.

I think alot of people are going to die before dusk tomorrow. It is a natural condition of things.

I don't think it will result in extinction, but I could be wrong. A world at 4 degrees C above the baseline is pretty frightening.

Well, we've managed to get through the +15C coming out of the Younger Dryas...and during the Minoan warming we went through like +2C and didn't even die! Of course, then the world cooled...again...and the cooling going into the LIA, and now the reverse, and so...sure...alot of people will die before dusk tomorrow. I doubt temperature change will be the major cause.

[ennui2]

It's posts like the above that expose AdamB as an AGW denialist (of the downplayer sort). Disappointing.

[Tanada]

Revi, from the book 6 degrees by Mark Lynas, makes it pretty clear from the available science that 4C would mean pretty much 6C and that WOULD spell extinction for humanity. In fact one can make the case from the book that at around 2C, feedbacks are activated that will inevitably lead to 6C or above.

I have actually read the book and Mark Lynas said things would be challenging in the 6C world, not extinction of all humanity. Some people like to spin out extinction every other breath Onlooker, but in terms of hard science there isn't a whole lot to satisfy the claim.

[ennui2]

Toba catastrophe was "challenging" too.