So I read this article just now:
Arctic News: A RUNAWAY GREENHOUSE EVENT
And it got me thinking once again about the end of the world. I tend to think about it quite often, but lately it has been all-consuming... and to be honest, I'm really not sure how other people can be so okay with all of this.
I was watching Brain Games a while ago and they talked about the false sense of confidence that people have which prevents them from going completely insane over the amount of things that they don't know.
They demonstrated this by getting people to draw a bicycle. It seemed like something they would easily be able to do, but when they actually did it the vast majority of them got it wrong. These were college students, btw.
This is what I think about the end of the world. People simply think that they would know if it was going to happen. They walk around and comfort themselves by pretending that there are rules that everything must follow, and that something can't happen simply because it would be unfair. This is why they can continue living their destructive lifestyles without feeling too horrible about it.It's surprisingly easy to tell yourself that you have some special connection to things and would be able to sense if everything was in danger. But it's a lie.
I look at this site and I see endless amounts of self-absorption. The thing is, I guarantee that all of that insecurity would vanish if they didn't have the luxury of sitting around, comfortably protected from the outside world, and wallowing in it. If the people on this site actually had to take care of themselves, provide for themselves... if they were forced to live a life of total practicality and self-sufficiency, then all of their anxieties would be cured. They wouldn't be afraid of people if depending on each other was the difference between life and death. But we depend on the system, and it takes care of us, but it's also weakening us, isolating us, poisoning us, and ultimately killing us.
I told my mom today that by 2047, the coolest years will be as warm or warmer than the warmest years, and temperatures will be higher than they have ever been before. She laughed it off and said that it would be good because then our house and property would go up in value. But the problem is that the crime rate will skyrocket as the desperation spreads and society begins to break down.
At the very least, by 2040 millions of people will be dying of starvation or fighting over food. This is pretty much unavoidable at this point... temperatures are going to rise and there will be areas of the world where growing food will be impossible. Pretty much every climate study confirms this. Unless technology catches up, then there will simply be no way to meet everyone's needs. Livestock will be dying in the fields. I'm positive that it will be socially acceptable to eat insects by 2025. There won't be as much opposition to GMO foods when climate change makes it impossible to grow organic foods.
There's a chance that technology might find a way around all of this... but it all depends on whether the warming goes faster. And given that carbon-intensive fuel still hasn't been outlawed, I'm betting the warming will win that race.
This is why I'm thinking remote property might be the best way to go right now. If it's remote enough, the masses won't be able to find me. If I can plan for all of this before it's too late and while I can still afford to buy land up north, I'll end up a lot better off.
I'm thinking maybe I should just forgo the lake idea, because it seems like all affordable lakefront property, no matter how remote, is dodgy as all hell and contaminated. I could just get acres and acres in the middle of nowhere... with no road access. I think I'll be safe there, even if it will be crushingly lonely.
Maybe it's not even worth being safe in that kind of world.
