Collapse

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This is the place for discussing the potential collapse of modern civilization and the environment.

Collapse, in this context, refers to the significant loss of an established level or complexity towards a much simpler state. It can occur differently within many areas, orderly or chaotically, and be willing or unwilling. It does not necessarily imply human extinction or a singular, global event. Although, the longer the duration, the more it resembles a ‘decline’ instead of collapse.

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Sarah Wilson: ‘Worrying about your gut biome when the world’s burning is too indulgent’ (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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For the last three years, Wilson has been researching and writing a book on systems collapse, the first chapter of which is called Hope – about “how there is no hope, and we need to face this”.

Well,.yes :) as Nathan Rees opined, all we can do is endure

I thought tbis interesting

Wilson moved to Paris two years ago on an artist’s visa to work on her book. The topic of collapsology is one the French are “really on top of” – collapse experts there do morning TV, and books on the subject top bestseller charts, making it a more fitting place to get to work than Sydney. “It’s a topic that I would say Australians are just not alive to yet,” she sighs.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

As we make our way along the walking track here, Wilson takes me through what she has learned. In short: every single – “every single, without exception” – complex civilisation from the Roman and Maya empires to Easter Island, ends up collapsing, generally within 250 to 300 years.

New evidence upends contentious Easter Island theory, scientists say

Instead, the island was home to a small population that steadily increased in size until the 1860s, the analysis suggested. At this point, the study noted, slave raiders from Peru forcibly removed one-third of the island’s population.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

i couldn't get past that paragraph either-- what is she talking about? there are a LOT of countries much older than 300 years..?

also ignoring ancient egypt--didn't it go for thousands of years?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Could be her research is lacking. Diamond did a lot of damage with Collapse but I haven't read her book or substack are so I don't know what her source are.

Her takes aren't all bad:

But Wilson is keen to point out that she doesn’t think all this means we should stop having children. That’s for the same reason she thinks we should keep being climate activists, keep standing up for Gaza, and keep creating art: we must keep being human.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

"In short: every single – “every single, without exception” – complex civilisation from the Roman and Maya empires to Easter Island, ends up collapsing, generally within 250 to 300 years." This is complete bs, even using the loosest definition of collapse. Rome's institutions lasted literally 2000 years, from the founding of the republic in 500s bce to 1453 when the Ottomans conquered the Byzantines. And even then, the peoples and cultures persisted under a different king. Even if we're talking unbroken lines of succession/government, Venice managed over 1000 years as a republic with only a few failed coup attempts.