Walking Away From Empire

The financial news from Europe is worse every day.  Now (11/23/11) the most stable country in Euro-Land..., Germany, has no buyers for its bonds.  Maybe the Federal Reserve will save the world (again) and Bail Out Germany and the rest of the world’s banks and bond holders..., like they clandestinely did in 2008.  The Fed doesn’t have to buy American T-bonds with QE-2 anymore..., everyone is buying them up now.  Lots of money left to buy Euro-Bonds.  QE-3..., if they  don’t get caught.

I know one guy who hopes they don’t get away with it..., or hopes it fails..., if they do. He hopes the whole shebang comes falling down like the famous bridge in the children’s rhyme. He hopes..., or knows..., that the whole industrial economy of this fragile planet needs to come to a screeching halt in short order. The sooner the better for this Spaceship Earth that we call “ours”. It’s our only hope. He says that if we keep burning the fossil fuels that sustain our industrial economy at the present rate..., let alone at the rate at which it would take to “grow” the current economy enough too “rescue” us from fiscal and monetary collapse..., it would fuel world climate change and global warming to the extent of total extinction of most living species...., including our own.

Some nut-case doomer..., this guy..., you ask? No..., this guy..., is Guy R. McPherson. 

With a PH.D in Range Science, Texas Tech University..., along with all the other academic credentials the come prior to a Doctorate degree. A tenured professor at the University of Arizona..., until he “walked away” from it..., and all the trappings that go with it. Guy walked away to live in a “mud hut”..., as he describes it. In reality, it is a straw bale constructed home that relies on both active and passive solar energy for most of its heating and cooling needs. And he milks goats each morning and tends to ever expanding gardens and orchards each day on a small piece of property where he has chosen to make his stand. As Guy says in the introduction to his recently published book, “Walking Away From Empire”, “...I believe... the two most important subjects in the history of humanity [are]: the twin sides of the fossil-fuel coin. Energy decline, commonly known as “peak oil,” will derail growth of the industrial economy, ultimately bringing us closer to Earth and our neighbors. Whether there is world enough, and time, to save the remaining remnants of the living planet remains to be seen. After all, the other side of the fossil-fuel coin rises like a horrifying specter on the horizon: Global climate change poses a significant threat to every species on the planet, including Homo Sapiens.

Whether it is a an economic collapse, or an energy collapse, or a climatic  collapse that brings on the end of “growth” as we know it may be subject to debate.  But it IS coming..., Guy has no doubt..., and neither do I after reading his book.  Early in his book Guy says, “I admit I’m a doomer but I don’t think that’s a bad thing.  To be doomer is to recognize the tragedy of the human experience and the limited persistence of organisms civilizations, and species.”  He ends the book with this, “To my knowledge, only completion of the ongoing collapse of the industrial economy collapse saves the living planet upon which we depend for our lives.  To my knowledge, only completion of the ongoing collapse of the industrial economy saves our species from runaway greenhouse.  To my knowledge, only completion of he ongoing collapse of the industrial economy allows us to retain our humanity.  What’s not to like about that?  And what’s so negative about it?”

"Walking Away From Empire” is subtitled “A Personal Journey”..., and it indeed is. Guy started his Blog Nature Bats Last back in August of 2007. At that time he predicted the unraveling of the industrial economy by the end of 2012. At that time, he was predicating the prediction on Peak Oil and it’s ultimate demise. He continued to Blog regularly through the fiscal and monetary crisis that has ensued. His book is a synopsis of the Blog pieces that are edited for length..., but the message stays true and shows how right he has been through it all. Peak Oil and Climate Change are the big kahunas for us to worry about..., and this Financial Crisis is a blessing in disguise..., for the planet and all who inhabit it. Guy acknowledges that it will cause great pain and suffering for the unprepared. His book is a tool to open the door to not just surviving..., but thriving on a planet that we once inhabited and lived in concert with. A planet that we are now well on our way to utterly trashing in a misguided quest for ever more worthless pieces of paper.

”Walking Away From Empire” is not a how-to manual. I say again..., it is a tool. As is his Blog. Tools that will enthrall and enlighten you..., and maybe scare you at times..., into making some of the necessary preparations. And hopefully learning to embrace a new normal with a whole lot less of the glitz and bauble that passes for fulfillment in our current empty lives. Learning to love and embrace nature and the natural world again may not be for everyone. And it won’t be easy for anyone. If you have any doubts about that..., just read Guy’s most recent Blog entry, Falling In Love Again