[Revised and re-posted: June 26, 2023. Apparently I lost the previous comments when I updated the post date. Sorry about that!] Let’s start with the obvious. The word “doomer” is a word with horribly dark connotations. The obvious interpretation is that a doomer believes life is hopeless, they might as well give up trying; there is no value in being […]
It was a distinct pleasure having this discussion with one of Santa Barbara’s finest local journalists, Josh Molina, on June 14, 2023. We talk about the recent spike in ocean temperatures for the first part, then launch into a wide ranging discussion of what it means to be a doomer and the future of the planet. Click on the image […]
As of June 10, 2023, worldwide data showed the remarkable concurrence of three dramatic climate events. The first WTF is in the Antarctic, where sea-ice extent is setting record lows daily, now fully over 2 million kilometers below the 1991-2020 mean. This is not some one-off event. A decline like this has long been predicted. The impact is that there […]
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 […]
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 […]
Considering myself a Doomist Prof. Eliot Jacobson, after reading your article on Genevieve Guenther’s three categories of Doomers whilst I’m…
Please keep going with your brilliant commentary and analysis - we need it in these insane truth-distorting times. I find…
I've had a very "productive Saturday" thanks to this post, your Happy Hour, and the many rabbit holes they have…
Well said, Eliot. Thanks for calling this out and for clearly articulating both the flaws in her statement and the…
We live in a time where delusions are replacing reality and Mother Nature is, of course, the ultimate reality against…
Good to see Gail's name. Miss her.
Awesome as ever ☺️
Good article Eliot. I still go with Sam Mitchells brilliant two class system for defining collapse aware people. Nazi doomer…