Centuries ago, human beings declared war on the environment. They decided they would do to the enemy, Nature, what was deemed necessary to ensure that their civilization would progress. They invented weapons, artificial agriculture then industrialization leading to exponential population growth, to improve their fighting ability. They still believe they can win the war simply because of the power of their beloved weapon, fiat money.
The war has not been going well for Nature in recent times. Resource stocks that were built up over eons by hard work of numerous natural forces using energy from the Sun have been devastated by the rampant misuse by the technology devised by humans to provide energy and materials wastefully used. The emptying of the underground stocks of many minerals (including the fossil fuels), the deletion of soil fertility and groundwater, deforestation, desertification, ocean acidification go with the noticeable rapid climate change are just some of the unintended blunders of the ignorant society as it builds up a vast infrastructure that will only temporarily provide the services that humans are now so dependent on.
However, society at large has been duped by the hype of its leaders. It still has the fallacious belief that technology will enable the tackling of emerging problems with the way Nature operates. They have yet to take into account the fact that technology created these problems. Many people will be bewildered as Nature strikes back. Few, even at this stage, understand that climate change is only one of Nature's weapons. Many already have to cope with a food shortage stemming partly from devastation of the environment. They have yet to understand that Nature bats last so the Anthropocene era is drawing to a close with a major dieoff of humans and the certain demolition of the much of the infrastructure of this civilization.
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