Quit! It is too threatening.

Society loves the goods and services that the technological systems of civilization provide. Heating and cooling, the ease of transportation in cars and airliners together with electronic facilitating of communication are just some of the measures that many people now take for granted. They welcome what the inventors have done and believe the media hype that this benefaction will continue to grow. They look forward to an improving material standard of living.

Society is like a clutch of smokers. It welcomes the short term benefits and discounts the long term consequences of the cancerous activities. Do car drivers fuming in traffic congestion ever think of the fact that the engines are destroying a product that it took natural forces millions of years to create. Some, no doubt, are concerned that the coal power stations that supply their electricity are also contributing to the climate change that is causing some worry - but little action. The increasing frequency of cold spells is only bothersome so long as heating in the home, office and car is still available. How will the Canadian power cable maintenance personnel do their job in the snow when they can no longer get fuel for their snowmobiles or helicopters? Heat waves are hitting aged people hard in countries such as Australia, America and the EU. The situation will become a lot worse when air-conditioning is no longer available.

Quit smoking is sound advice that has been around for a while so some smart people have taken in board. Quit freeloading on what nature provides is even sounder advice but few have sufficient understanding of what civilization is doing wrong to take that advice on board. Consequently, the infrastructure that provides people with the goods and services they currently thrive on is doomed. The people will be bewildered as their life style goes down the plug hole. They cannot envision the disintegration of New York, London, Paris, Beijing, Tokyo and the other cities but their children and grandchildren will experience the horrifying loss of facilities they provide.

Climate change gains some consideration on the media now but its impact will grow exponentially despite the rhetoric of the deniers, even when they are the Australian Prime Minister! Society will eventually encourage industry to quit greenhouse gas emissions but all that will do is slightly reduce the deleterious consequences of the irreversible rapid climate change. This quit campaign is far too late! Most people will have to cope with the impact of rising sea level, loss of sea food due to ocean acidification, more storms, floods, heat waves and cold spells. Coping with manifestations of nature's response to this aspect of what civilization has done wrong will be made harder by the declining availability of natural resources for the operation and maintenance of the technological systems.

So all smart people can do is quit worrying about what will happen to civilization in the future and get on with living life to the full while they can by making frugal use of what nature provides. They will quit being consumers.

The Waste Manifesto

The elite in global society continue to pursue their traditional dominance of the ecosystem  as well as the population at large in order to bolster their self esteem. Their manifesto has not changed in principle but the details have as civilization has developed through industrialization. The masses strive to share in this development of materialism with limited success as only some of the fruits of economic "progress" have trickled down.

This manifesto is based on the false premise that civilization can continue to ravish its life support system, the environment, without paying the ecological cost, the depreciation of natural material wealth and the transformation of natural resources into waste by using them. Natural forces takes no notice of this manifesto of parasitic Homo sapiens. They have been in control of what happens physically, geologically and biologically for eons. They continue to do so now.They will continue to do so into the far future. They will also continue to control how the temporary infrastructure of civilization operates and ages during its life time. Friction plays a major role in this irrevocable aging process.

Society enjoys the goods and services provided by the infrastructure irreversibly using some of the limited natural capital. They would feel lost without cars for transport, electricity for cooking, heating, cooling and for running all their electronic gimmicks. Most would be bewildered without shelter and sanitation. They are prepared to go along with the incredible manifesto of the elite so long as they can enjoy the benefits of industrialization without paying the ecological costs. They enjoy the free lunch that using up limited natural resources makes possible only at this stage. But what a legacy they will be leaving. Future generations will curse them for abiding the consumption manifesto.

It is ironical that society is happy for the operations they are so dependent on to produce vasts amounts of waste so long as most of it can be deposited in land fills. They have yet to accept that some of these wastes have contributed to the climate change that is becoming very worrisome. The influence of this pollution on human health is causing concern amongst medical profession although the majority of well off people continue to feast on the food that fossil fuels do so much to provide. They are content to work hard so that they can afford to consume the products made from natural wealth. Making intangible money is the driving force of these parasites.

The power of money

Society is enraptured with the power of money. The rich know that this power is no delusion as they use money to get what they want with few exceptions, such as immortality. The poor recognize this power because they are powerless to get even sufficient food, drink, shelter and sanitation. People have good reason to put faith in this power as it has been the dominant driver of the progress of civilization - in their opinion. The creation of vast amounts of fiat money in recent times by authorities in a number of countries has done nothing to dampen the belief in the power of money. It still buys what citizens want, if they have access to enough of this intangible quantity.

The use of the term 'power' in this context is misleading as it is the consequence of  decision making by people in a position to believe actions will result from their decisions. This power is an intangible. It is not the result of a tangible, physical operation.

Consider a simple example. I have the "power" to switch on a light which then uses electrical "power". The first power is an intangible decision by me. It initiates what subsequently actually happens in a physical sense.The second power is indicative of the tangible flow of electrical energy to the light that can be measured by a meter. It is indicative of what happens.

Money is powerless on a remote island with no inhabitants. So a rich person caste ashore on the island will have to struggle to get food, drink and shelter. A poor person who is also stranded  will probably find it easier to cope because of less dependence on using money to buy the essentials. They have more personal power than the rich person.

Of course, the elite in society will continue to exercise their power without any consideration of the nuances in the meaning of the term. However, the power of natural forces have, if anything, been exacerbated by what the systems of civilization have done in recent times. Droughts, floods, storms, tsunamis, wild fires, hot spells and cold spells are examples of the power of natural forces that the powerful in society can do little about. All money can do is pay for skilled people and the required equipment to ameliorate as much as possible this impact of natural power.

Money power is bound to become impotent in coming decades as natural forces take over control from the aging infrastructure of civilization.