Below is an essay written by the newest doomer-bot on the block, the one and only ChatGPT, in which ChatGPT casts itself in the role of savior of humanity and the planet. It appears ChatGPT is a narcissistic apocaloptimistic hopium addict. We can only imagine what future AI’s may write about their own ability to save us. This essay was […]
Okay, it happened again. Just this week, an article on mainstream media used the Hiroshima Bombs per Second (HpS) metaphor to describe how fast the planet is heating up. This time the conclusion was that the oceans are heating up at a rate of 5 HpS. And they got it Wrong! Wrong! Very wrong! The calculation of HpS is straightforward […]
I was live on YouTube for about an hour today. There was an excellent chat and some great questions, and at least two things I got very wrong (watch the video to find out what they are). Enjoy!
According to Elizabeth Kübler-Ross, there are five stages of grief that are outlined and accepted as normal in the process of coping with a tragic loss. A quick reminder — these are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Current psychological theory says these happen in no particular order and that they can recur many times during the grieving process. You […]
I’m re-posting the excellent YouTube video of Sam Mitchell (of Collapse Chronicles) reading my recent essay “Choking on Hope.” I humbly ask that you watch the first 5 minutes of this. Sam had me laughing out loud with his proficient choking skills. I promise, he will tickle your depressed doomer spirit. If the first 5 minutes doesn’t hook you, well, […]
Hope. Hope. Hope. Hope. Hope. Hope for a better tomorrow. A kernel of hope. Hope against hope. Keep hope alive. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. Hope springs eternal. Abandon hope, all ye who enter here. Cross my heart and hope to die. Collapse, collapse, collapse, collapse, collapse. If you watched the Jeopardy episode that aired on October […]
“Let’s not worry. It’s too late now. It will always be too late, fortunately!” — Albert Camus, The Fall We are stampeding towards doom. That’s the big “we,” as in humanity, as in all of us, together, collectively engaging in an unstoppable onslaught against ecosystems, climate systems, vast regions of ice, superheated acidified oceans, permafrost, rainforests and every other life […]
“I have seen many humanitarian disasters in the world, but I have never seen climate carnage on this scale,” — Antonio Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General, September 10, 2022 Many articles about climate change begin with a litany of recent climate events. The author just handpicks their favorite five to ten catastrophes, gives a quick reminder of each, and then moves […]
Methane (CH₄) has been in the news a lot lately, mostly because the monthly numbers released by NOAA continue to skyrocket into record territory, while simultaneously increasing year-over-year by record amounts. Methane currently stands at a near-record 1909.2 parts per billion (ppb) while having gone up by 20.4 ppb in just the last year. Methane is important for two major […]
This post links to the YouTube video of my latest appearance on Sandy Schoelles’ show, “Environmental Coffeehouse,” featuring my conversation with Jennifer Hynes about the recent Guardian article, “Methane much more sensitive to global heating than previously thought.” We take a deep dive into a bit of atmospheric chemistry involving hydroxyl radicals and discuss two feedback loops that may be […]
Summer begins in two days, but collapse is already busting out all over. In case your limited time for news absorption is focused on politics, mass shootings and celebrity updates, you may have missed the news. Planetary and social systems are crashing. Species are going extinct. The world is coming to an end. You name it, it’s happening right now. […]
Being a doomer is nothing new, people have been talking about “the end of the world” for just as long as we’ve had the language to describe the idea. There was the Halley’s comet panic of 1910, the Y2K millennium computer bug, and more recently the Mayan calendar prediction for the end of the world in 2012. There is even […]
Have you ever relied on the media for facts and then been disappointed to find out the information is either out-of-date or just plain wrong? Well, that happened to me yesterday as I was working on a Twitter post. I recalled reading a headline about comparing the rate of heating of the planet to a number of Hiroshima bombs per […]
Sometimes I just have to write about it, what else is there to do? This morning my skin was crawling with how quickly collapse is accelerating. On every front worse shit is happening than ever before in recorded human history on a global scale. And yet we are still talking about solutions, as-if any of them would really work or […]
It’s the last day of April, 2022 and Summer in the Northern Hemisphere is quickly approaching. With it, heatwaves, hurricanes, fires and the La Nina driven mega-drought will continue their onslaught. The melt season in the Arctic is just getting started, with the possibility of a new low reminding us again of the inevitability of a blue ocean event. Siberian […]
Cheers Eliot, we appreciate your rye wit alongside the increasing salinity of your arguments. Remember Nagasaki.
Truly value everything you've done, Eliot!
Thanks, Mister Jacobson. You're the best math teacher.
Thanks for the math correction, Eliot. Hopefully the mass media picks up on your work {Ain't Gonna Happen!} then relates…
Excellent response, thank you kindly for that correction. I've always felt as though it was a bit too high in…
This put me in mind of the following passage from David Mitchell's excellent novel The Bone Clocks. His character is…
Strangely, or maybe not so strangely as I identify in the “ doomer” category, I found some of this relieving.…
Hi Eliot, even trying to relate to number of Hiroshima bombs is beyond most people’s comprehension. I would find how…