UN warns of ‘Total Societal Collapse’ due to breaching of planetary boundaries

https://bylinetimes.com/2022/05/26/un-warns-of-total-societal-collapse-due-to-breaching-of-planetary-boundaries/

by openmaze • 4 years ago

43 10 4 years ago

bylinetimes.com

anigbrowl• 4 years ago

It'd be nice if the earlier draft was discoverable.

Mildlypolite2• 4 years ago

Yes, it would be interesting. There are huge political pressures...in the wrong direction.

hannyaharamita• 4 years ago

Reading this first helps.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_boundaries

gardenfelder• 4 years ago

https://www.undrr.org/publication/global-assessment-report-d...

ilaksh• 4 years ago

We may get total societal collapse well before the ecological disasters fully kick in just due to poor management and adaptation to "normal" problems such as pandemics, economic, political and worldview issues. The ecological problems are currently making it worse of course but they are very minimal compared to what is anticipated in the coming decades and centuries.

I feel like our management and coordination needs to improve by an order of magnitude to survive. As it is, we may nuke ourselves out of a planet before the decade is out.

qikInNdOutReply• 4 years ago

The great filter is in the neural adaptions of any "intelligent" species to area denying and expansion when ressource starved. Means, if you are smart, you also are aggressive and given the tool will try to wipe the competition of the map.

Ironically these adaptions to the great loop, a endless cycle of strife will be pretty universal. The physics of the situation, produce pretty reliable the same outcome on every planet.

Im rather convinced that only radical self-altering and supressing of these "urges" will produce a stable society. We might not recognize those who will outlive us, as humans. More like pill-peacefull borgdrones, not even phased when whole citys disappear into the abyss of time.

Also in defense of our current management. Once they grasped the situation, they shoved incredible amounts of resources into "scenario-tree-root" hardening, aka giving the survivors resilient technology, knowledge reservoirs and the ability to restructure society into something that prevents totalitarian abuses (self-surveilance, unsecure software). Within the constraints given, they (whoever they are) moved decisevly and with very good parallel execution of the various plans.

While politics might have failed, those who prepared the world for the worst, did the best they could - though without great fanfare. Lets also not forget, that they prevented further technological acceleration into fields that might proof catastrophic in a collapse scenario.

We could all have a flying fusion bomb in the garage or nano-tech-drone factories in our attics when worse comes to worst. The move to solar alone, away from warlords having nulcear toys might save billions in the worst cases.

galdosdi• 4 years ago

You speak in the past tense about events I'm unfamiliar with. What recent historical events are you referring to? Or is this some kind of rhetorical but obtuse way to speak about a hypothetical situation? I am confused but curious what you are talking about. Thanks.

Once they grasped the situation, they shoved incredible amounts of resources into "scenario-tree-root" hardening

Mildlypolite2• 4 years ago

"In all of these scenarios except for ‘stable earth’, the achievement of global targets and accompanying frameworks is negatively impacted,” the report states. “Furthermore, in the absence of change, scenarios ‘Earth under uncertainty’ and ‘Earth under threat’ tend towards that of ‘global collapse’.”

The paper explains that, by adopting a systems analysis, it is possible to see how “the crossing of one planetary boundary systematically results in the crossing of others”. They are crucial to providing a ‘safe operating space’ for human societies to develop within a stable earth system, “with the passing of these boundaries subsequently, and most likely resulting in societal destabilisation and potential GCR events”.

Global Catastrophic Risk (GCR) events are defined as those leading to more than 10 million fatalities or greater than $10 trillion in damages."

We should stop being in denial about this and think about adaptation strategies and, of course, force the industry to change.

It seems like the Fermi paradox has a reason, after all.

atwood22• 4 years ago

tl;dr

While land system change and climate change are in a zone of “uncertainty with increasing risk” of overstepping the safe operating space, the report says, biochemical flows and ‘novel entities’ (“new engineered chemicals, materials or organisms and natural elements mobilised by human activity such as heavy metals”) have “far exceeded” that space.

rexpop• 4 years ago

Nowhere in until actual UN report do the words "total societal collapse" appear.

UN warns of ‘Total Societal Collapse’ due to breaching of planetary boundaries

Related Stories