A message for all the Basement Dwellers
(and to those who understood that reference),
THE CONTEXT
Exciting times folks. Today the world faces a global context of urgency the likes of which it has likely never seen. Socially, our attention is bought, sold, and manipulated more than ever through an ever-expanding force of consumer advertising; bombarding us with over six thousand media messages a day, polluting our mental environment and putting us in what Douglas Rushkoff calls a “perpetual state of emergency”. All this as our identities gets packaged and sold as meta-data to the highest bidder.
Politically, the dominant incrementalism of decades of Neoliberal policies have set the stage for the rise of proto-fascism and authoritarianism all over the world.
Politically, the dominant incrementalism of decades of Neoliberal policies have set the stage for the rise of proto-fascism and authoritarianism all over the world.
“If policymakers fail to mitigate the negative impacts of unchecked global market forces, then a turn to protectionism could trigger a vicious downward spiral for everyone." |
Economically there are indications of a developing debt crisis and possible global economic collapse even more significant than the crash of 2008; reports have recently been released by trade economists at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) that forecast “the third leg of the world’s intractable depression” warning that it may be the most devastating saying,
“If policymakers fail to mitigate the negative impacts of unchecked global market forces, then a turn to protectionism could trigger a vicious downward spiral for everyone." There are also indicators suggesting fast-approaching crises involving central banks in Europe such as Deutsche Bank, a housing bubble in Canada as home prices have risen by 30% in major cities like Toronto and Vancouver (15% across the country) in 2016 alone, and growing issues of youth unemployment all across the developed world. |
"The results show that based on plausible climate trends, and a total failure to change course, the global food supply system would face catastrophic losses, and an unprecedented epidemic of food riots. In this scenario, global society essentially collapses as food production falls permanently short of consumption." |
Most concerning of all however is the climate data that has been released this year; take for example the global average temperature that after 250 years since the start of the industrial revolution rose to 1 degree C in November of 2015, in the months since then the global average temperature has risen to around 1.3 degrees C in a matter of months (and even temporarily touching the Paris Climate Accord’s limit of 2 degrees C in February, 2016); what originally took centuries is now happening in months.
The past year is also likely to be the hottest year ever recorded since record-keeping began with August of 2016 marking the 16th consecutive month with record breaking global heat. Other reports have come out this year citing record-breaking loss of arctic sea ice with some reports predicting a Blue Ocean Event (no ice in the Arctic during summer time) happening as soon as within 4 years; which could trigger a massive burst of arctic methane leading to exponential warming globally within a couple years or even months of the kind that may spark a worldwide crisis of resources. A particularly striking study released recently through a project funded by the U.K. government called the ‘The Global Resource Observatory’ (GRO) concludes through scientific models that based on current trends global industrial civilization may collapse by the mid-2030s to 2040; they report: “We ran the model forward to the year 2040, along a business-as-usual trajectory based on ‘do-nothing’ trends — that is, without any feedback loops that would change the underlying trend. The results show that based on plausible climate trends, and a total failure to change course, the global food supply system would face catastrophic losses, and an unprecedented epidemic of food riots. In this scenario, global society essentially collapses as food production falls permanently short of consumption.” Keep in mind that as is the usual with such scientific bodies, this report and its conclusions are conservative compared to the individual findings of an increasing contingency of scientists around the world who now assert that the planet is experiencing abrupt climate change. |
As you may be able to deduce through this context, the situation for humanity is urgent. Through compiling and synthesizing this information, it becomes apparent that there is a timeline to our efforts for justice, equity, and most of all for survival; we only have 5 - 7 years at most - after accounting for the very real possibility of massive warming of the planet in an extremely short period similar to what the world has experienced in past mass extinctions - before the state-of-play may become too extreme to address meaningfully. |