Box Seat at the End of the World
The posts in this section highlight the various mechanisms that will likely result in the end of the current global civilisation.
Climate dominoes
Tipping point risks for critical climate systems. Major elements of Earth’s climate system are now increasingly influenced by self-reinforcing warming processes
Wednesday, 30th August 2023
30th Aug 2023
We Are Witnessing the First Stages of Civilization’s Collapse
Will our own elites perform any better than the rulers of Chaco Canyon, the Mayan heartland, and Viking Greenland?
Tuesday, 29th August 2023
29th Aug 2023
New Research Sparks Concerns That Ocean Circulation Will Collapse
New research finds the real risk to circulation lies in Antarctica’s waters, where melting could disrupt currents in the next few decades, with profound impacts on global climate.
Thursday, 17th August 2023
17th Aug 2023
Termination Zero: Our Predicament May Be Totally Unprecedented
Molecule for molecule, methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO₂ but it lasts slightly less than a decade in the atmosphere compared with centuries for CO₂.
Thursday, 17th August 2023
17th Aug 2023
Climate change: Why action on the crisis is all hot air
Neoliberalism's relentless cheerleaders are largely unchallenged in their dangerous belief that capitalism's growth paradigm can be squared with sustainability. It may cost us the Earth.
Thursday, 17th August 2023
17th Aug 2023
Supervolcano study finds CO2 emissions key to avoiding climate disasters
Earth's biological cycle has been punctuated by catastrophic mass extinctions, some of which wiped out 90% of all species,
Wednesday, 16th August 2023
16th Aug 2023
Cereal crops and other commodities including olives and tomatoes hit by Europe’s heatwave
Southern Europe grain yields likely to be 60% lower than last year and 9.5% lower than the 5-year average due to heatwaves
Tuesday, 15th August 2023
15th Aug 2023
Oil-rich countries hinder the global plastics treaty
Big Oil is naturally frantically lobbying to stop us from phasing out plastic - and want to triple production by 2060
Monday, 14th August 2023
14th Aug 2023
Why sucking CO2 out of the atmosphere can’t undo all the effects of climate change
Climate change turns more places into deserts. Sucking CO2 out of the air can’t undo all the damage.
Sunday, 13rd August 2023
13rd Aug 2023
Experts: Expect worsening flooding and drought as rapid warming continues
Big Oil is naturally frantically lobbying to stop us from phasing out plastic - and want to triple production by 2060
Saturday, 12nd August 2023
12nd Aug 2023
First stage of abrupt climate catastrophe has begun by crossing Arctic tipping point
The disappearance of Arctic summer sea ice is now inevitable. We've crossed a dangerous tipping point at risk of triggering others. Yet pathways to transformation over the next 15 years could still pull us back from collapse.
Tuesday, 8th August 2023
8th Aug 2023
Climate change can cause a collapse of life on earth
Two climate scientists have issued a dire warning about the consequences the planet might face if humans did not limit the global temperature rise.
Saturday, 17th June 2023
17th Jun 2023
New research suggests wheat crops may be threatened by unprecedented heat and drought
The likelihood of extreme temperatures that could affect crop yields has increased significantly in wheat-producing regions
Friday, 16th June 2023
16th Jun 2023
Physicists predict Earth will become a chaotic world, with dire consequences
If the Earth System gets into the region of chaotic behavior, we will lose all hope of somehow fixing the problem.
Thursday, 15th June 2023
15th Jun 2023
First stage of abrupt climate catastrophe has begun by crossing Arctic tipping point
The fallacy of linear thinking
Tuesday, 13rd June 2023
13rd Jun 2023
We Are Going To Run Out Of Food
7 Reasons There’s Going To Be A Global Famine
Wednesday, 24th May 2023
24th May 2023
Glaciers May Melt Even Faster Than Expected
Evidence that ancient glaciers retreated more than a quarter-mile a day is a worrisome sign that glaciers today could melt—and contribute to sea-level rise—faster than was thought
Sunday, 9th April 2023
9th Apr 2023
Lose the permafrost, lose the planet: A very chilling Doomsday scenario
Why is melting permafrost such a huge problem?
Saturday, 8th April 2023
8th Apr 2023
Faster, Higher, Hotter
What we learned about the climate system in 2022
Monday, 3rd April 2023
3rd Apr 2023
Ice sheet melt water slowing Southern Ocean overturning circulation
Consequences catastrophic for world ocean
Sunday, 2nd April 2023
2nd Apr 2023
Declining Biodiversity – Now and in the Future
Human well-being at risk. Landmark reports highlight options to protect and restore nature and its vital contributions to people
Thursday, 23rd March 2023
23rd Mar 2023
Military carbon
It’s high time to defuse the military carbon bomb
Saturday, 26th November 2022
26th Nov 2022
Even temporarily overshooting 2°C would cause permanent damage to Earth’s species
Harm arrives fast and leaves slowly
Tuesday, 1st November 2022
1st Nov 2022
Current guidance underestimates risk of global environmental change to food security
Projected effects of climate change on food security are often based on crop models that incorporate only a few dimensions of climate related biophysical change
Wednesday, 5th October 2022
5th Oct 2022
The Amazon will reach tipping point if current trend of deforestation continues
We are destroying water, biodiversity, food. Humans, extractive industry companies and governments continue to pursue a fossil fuel economy, destroying both our present and our future.
Wednesday, 5th October 2022
5th Oct 2022
This Is What a Civilization Committing Climate Suicide Looks Like
The Mega Scale Impacts of Climate Change Are Here — And They’re Devastating
Wednesday, 5th October 2022
5th Oct 2022
Do we think global society can avoid a collapse in this century?
The industrial revolution set civilization on the road to collapse
Wednesday, 21st September 2022
21st Sep 2022
El Nino 2024
Temperature is rising. Frog is warming.
Wednesday, 21st September 2022
21st Sep 2022
Sapient Paradox
Modern humans genetically (mostly) and physically (definitely) were around 100,000 years ago: why does it take 90,000 years to get Göbekli Tepe?
Wednesday, 21st September 2022
21st Sep 2022
Capitalism and extreme poverty
One leads to the other
Tuesday, 20th September 2022
20th Sep 2022
This is how civilisations collapse
The globalised world has seen two antecedents in the past: in the interconnected, hyper-specialised trading systems of the Bronze Age, and those of the Roman Empire at its height
Tuesday, 20th September 2022
20th Sep 2022
Drying world
Spain’s Doñana National Park dries up completely
Tuesday, 20th September 2022
20th Sep 2022
Water shortage
Water scarcity will worsen in more than 80 percent of croplands by 2050
Tuesday, 20th September 2022
20th Sep 2022
Pollen and Heat
High springtime temperatures can kill pollen
Tuesday, 20th September 2022
20th Sep 2022
Reduced levels of essential nutrients
Rising levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) from human activity are making staple crops such as rice and wheat less nutritious.
Sunday, 18th September 2022
18th Sep 2022