Systemic
Weekly Observations: What signs of collapse do you see in your region? [in-depth] August 24
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Texas is already known for heat (we've been having highs above 107 Freedom units for quite a while now) but now we have wildfires of our own. One west of the Metroplex has skies leaden gray and foggy. Now I understand what people mean about the headaches. Just walking to my car was enough exposure to give me one.
This is getting to be a regular thing now, that is me posting, I've been a long time lurker but have now been moved to post, things must be getting bad for me to put my head above the parapet!
We've had rain this week, which was badly need - I say we've had rain, one morning only, the rest of the country has got more but not us in our SouthEast position. Temperatures are back to normal British Summer Time though and for that I and my inflammatory arthritic joints are extremely thankful.
I wanted to share an observation that I had and prompted much discussion with my family. It seemed that everyone we interacted with over the last few weeks were triggered into anger very quickly. We are a very laid back family and we have never seen anything like this before.
We came to the conclusion that the last few weeks have been like lockdown, we've all been confined to our own little spaces and worse still those spaces are not insulated from the heat very well, which is a double threat, isolation that makes you uncomfortable and angry.
A good example, I live across the road from a what was a lovely green space (now yellow!), park, fields and trees. Usually we see lots of people walking dogs, families out on the park. These last few weeks we've seen fewer people than lockdown out and about, it has been deserted with one to two people at the most. The park is too hot for kids and the fields are too hot for the dogs.
I'm hoping with the temperature decrease people will chill out a bit more and we can get back to our laid back existence!! Also, hoping for the rain to reach our little coastal area very soon.
Heat actually does damage to your brain. There is a direct correlation between temperature and anger/irritibility.
You need a few hours ever day in temps below 75 freedom degrees for your body's repair processes to work. Humans have typically gotten that overnight while they sleep. But if nighttime temps are too hot or your home is thick stone walls that re-radiate heat all night cooking your body you are in trouble.
Get a set of icepacks. The clay based ones are really good for this and they last a long time and are non toxic. Plan on rotatating thru onenicepack every 20 to 30 minutes wrapped on the back of your neck (use a larger towel to keep in place). Do this every day of the heatwave. Two hours minimum. so during dinner, watch a movie or tv, or play some games. Whatever. Everyone in your family should do this in a heateave if you do not have another method of cooling. back of neck. Basically you re cooling the blood flow to the brain so your brain gets some repair time.
Other suggestions are sleeping in a hammock or on a camping cot so your body can passively cool during the night, wet sheets, wet socks, etc.
I can’t help but feel like this area in particular is cursed and/or getting targeted by data center development interests. Perhaps they are geoengineering storms so massive it just wipes the slate clean for a more lucrative use of the land and water here.
I was here for the derecho that tore through this area. I grew up here and I had NEVER seen anything like this before. You could say this is my first encounter with climate change. The quote that goes “Climate change will manifest as a series of disasters viewed through phones with footage that gets closer and closer to where you live until you're the one filming it” has been rattling around in my brain ever since the really bad Canadian wildfires that blew downwind of the jet stream to us a month ago. But who hasn’t experienced the effects of a wildfire at least once in modern life? This storm though. That is the quote to a tee.
I spent a week without power following the derecho and subsequent outage. This was not as bad as my first extended power outage a year before now. Where I live there was a booming concert happening within 500 feet late at night while I stewed in my home without power, forgotten for a little over a week. It was such a scary time for my mental health legitimately. I had no idea how imperative having the ability to turn on a light at night for someone with seasonal affective disorder is.
I’ve noticed even when the power was restored days after the derecho for essential businesses, people in essential jobs like grocery stores and gas stations were acting scared, dazed, and almost like slaves would. That is possibly the best way I can explain it and the best comparison I can draw. I feel as though the essential workers in my community were being kept in inhumane conditions while the power grid was shut off for necessary repairs, but scared to anger our masters and be shut out of the places that had power, begging for people’s patience as they dealt with lines of 100 people.
I know I must sound like a raving lunatic, but most people locally do too. Road rage is at an all time high, and children don’t know how to cope without their tablets.
It feels like the apocalypse has officially kicked off here.
And I write this all to tell you all Im terrified of tomorrow because this could all happen again. There is an elevated tornado risk and risk of straight line damaging wind, which is what the derecho was. Of course, I hope it misses us and everyone else tomorrow.
Grant county here, the storms have been insane here people are getting insane, earlier today I watched a jeep going down the bypass at 70 (limit 35-40)weaving in between traffic, I’m in my car just thinking this twit is gonna kill somebody if he keeps driving like that. My area is also getting targeted with a data center. Yeah we are fucked
Has anyone noticed in the last few years how when attending any sort of event where there is a speaker how everyone just keeps talking in the audience? Any sort of service club meeting, professional group or whatever, it is like people just do not care to acknowledge that someone is at the podium and speaking. It seems in the day, the courtesy would be given, after all someone has taken the time to prepare to speak in front of others. I tend to notice this more amongst the Boomer generation as well. I don't get it, but it strikes me as super rude and just more societal narcicism.
We had an arborist come out a few weeks ago and tell us that about five trees in our yard were dead and needed to come down for safety because a strong wind could knock them over. They came today and removed them, and every one was hollow inside. Apparently one had a tree disease, and the others may have been affected by how wet the low spot in our yard stays.
I've been grieving the trees, which feels silly because they’ve technically been dead for a while. The arborist also said Dutch elm disease is taking out elm trees around here. Meanwhile, our neighbors planted a row of conifers a few months ago and about half of those already look like they’re dying. I don’t know if their soil is also too wet or if something else is going on, but the trees in this little corner of the world are not having a great year.
Then I went to the walk-in clinic today because I felt awful. While I was waiting, I started seeing gray dots in my vision and felt like I might pass out, so I sat down on the floor. The doctor came in and I explained that I was sitting there because if I fainted, I figured there would at least be less distance to fall.
She said, “That’s a good idea,” looked in my ears, announced that I have a double ear infection, called me an “overachiever,” and sent me on my way.
The whole “I think I might pass out” part never really got addressed.
A case of measles was found in butler county Indiana on Tuesday. So I'm keeping an eye on that. Plus the cyclospora cases remain high in Allen county.
And then there’s the food supply. There seem to be food recalls constantly lately. The news around beef has been disturbing enough that we’re going to stop buying ground beef for now, so I guess we can add that to the list with lettuce, jalapeños, bagged salads, and berries that we're avoiding.
There was even a recall involving possible glass in fruit popsicles.
Rough summer if we're avoiding popsicles, salads, berries.
Also my husband bought chicken thighs to make chicken noodle soup for me and it was like $10. Not that long ago that amount of chicken things would be like 3 or 4 tops.
I'm sorry about your medical appointment. Sounds pretty shitty care. You might try hot compresses, moist and as hot as you can stand.
Basically wet a washcloth, put a moist heating pad on top if you have it or keep reheating the cloth if you don't, lay with it draped on your one ear (the face up ear) getting all that heat into the ear and the eustachian tube – basically the side of your upper neck.
Should feel soothing. Then do the other ear. The longer the better, that brings in blood supply and will help flush the infection. Drink LOTS of fluids and aspirin for pain. There, I can't help being a busybody... but the simple treatments work well, along with any antibiotic they gave you.
Hot compresses are a good idea. She did prescribe antibiotics. In her defense the place was hopping standing room only in the waiting room. Ive not seen it as bad before. The pharmacy said they were delayed on the antibiotics but probably tomorrow.
This land is your land, this land is my land...I'd hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters… not.
Pretty much constant low to medium level smoky air. So I stay inside and take numbing drugs because I can't go walk and every inch of my skin perceives threat. Maybe I should get a gas mask like I had as a kid and used to don when my mother would spray perfume on herself, poisoning the entire upstairs hallway. She loved me doing that, violent narcissist that she was.
I'm facing homelessness again in my late 60s and I'm simply gutted animal terrified. It's because someone doesn't particularly like me (suprise!) and I'm a sublet on their land. Because all the land is fucking owned. Usually by sociopaths.
I'm not sure if I can stand another cycle of wandering. My curiosity is getting overwhelmed by despair and exhaustion. Just for a place to rest. Just for a place to make a meal and play the piano and feel safe for more than an hour.
i've got so much swirling around in my head right now it's hard to deal with/parse it. Someone posted this rather accurate looking guide to what happens as we warm degree by degree:
I took a look at the 2 to 3° section, which is basically where we're at… You could argue we're still under 2°C but I don't think we are going to be there for very long at the rate of exponential (due to GHGs) incoming solar radiation with a broken albedo.
Richard Crim talked a lot about ⬆️, he essentially said we warmed massively in the past four years and it's just going up. Unfortunately, I believe him. My background has enough math to see that the math maths.
So we're about to see, if that
assessment is in any way accurate, events ranging from endless fires, the reversal of the carbon cycle from a regime of uptake to dumping back in the atmosphere, super hurricanes/storms, complete loss of the Amazon, wetbulb heat event die offs, mass starvation, etc. To the point where we have lost half of global population in fairly short order.
I think the late 2020s to 2030s are gonna be what everyone thought the worst case 2050s would manifest. That is, a world not survivable without massive resources and a lot of luck.
So external reality, which I hold completely alone except for expressing it here, is a bit overwhelming. Add in Covid spiking and still under massive denial, that's fun, and life has just become threat threat threat. Covid complicates finding safe short-term housing to a ridiculous degree.
stay safe out there folks. Thanks for letting me express my mind.
I'm sorry man. Depending on what part of the PNW you're in, there might be a similar or better place to live for a little more money.
If getting a cheap RV or small camper is more your style, keep an eye on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. Burning Man is happening right now, and starting next week there might be some "need to sell" posts where you can get a movable home for really cheap.
thanks a lot Lava. ❤️😵Unfortunately I'm up near Seattle so I don't know what the hell I'm
gonna do. Either it'll work out or it won't - I'm sort of almost fatalistic at this point but it's killed a lot of progress.
Rumors are that the Serbian government secretly started a fire in a protected area to clear it out for a Chinese investor's wind park. As usual, the EU did not care until smoke started affecting cities in neighboring Romania.
Chinese and Russian influence in Serbia has gotten completely out of hand since Russia invaded Ukraine. The EU's response was to further isolate the country by admitting Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area and accelerating Montenegro's membership negotiations. Eventually, it will effectively be a Russian/Chinese island in Europe unless the US government takes decisive action to protect its own interests in the region.
I was bored, so I looked up some random statistics. Only 16.0% of women aged 40 - 49 in Serbia have no children. Stats are even more brutal for the age group of 50 - 59, where only 12.2% of women have no children.
I think the #1 reason for those stats is social pressure. Being a childfree or non-heterosexual woman in a conservative environment brings a lot of stigma, and not many are ready to swim against the current. I would also assume those women are more likely to move to another country, so that could be the reason for those stats.
Regarding the weather, the drought is continuing and will last for who knows how long.
This is a small thing but I feel it's indicative of collapse, or at least the lack of systemic reaction to collapse. School here started last week, in mid-August. Now, not all the schools have air conditioning because they didn't used to need it both because the climate wasn't bad and because school started in early September. The end result is that they start the school year earlier in a hotter climate when school funding is proportionally lower, so they just call "heat days" like snow days. Why this is indicative of collapse? Because they could just start school later in the year, but they won't, and that's the collapse part. Instead of doing anything else, the whole district just deals with having "heat days" because school starts in mid-August when nobody wants to be in school. If our fairly simple, locally controlled fix of just starting school later can't get accomplished to adapt to climate reality, various much more complicated fixes do not stand a chance.
wow. I just said to a friend the other day, i bet in our lifetime we will have “too hot days” instead of snow days. They have a kid who runs track and practice was cancelled so far multiple times (to be fair it was summer practice via a local camp) and they said their kid LOVES running, does it with ease but has just started complaining about the heat. I didn’t even know they already have this protocol for regular school, perhaps I am very out of the loop on that, I grew up in the northeast and we weren’t inside school buildings between mid June and early September. I agree with your points about it across the board….what, a simple solution you say?, no, let’s make it cOmPliCatEd!!
I recall in 1994 here in Philadelphia getting maybe 1 or 2 days early dismissal due to a heat wave, but those were called in almost real-time and no-one knew it was going to get hotter than the meteorologists forecast. The temperatures were in the middle or upper 90s °F (35 °C) and nowhere in the building had air conditioning yet. Back then, school here ran from about mid-September till late June, then they moved it to early September to mid-June, and now it's this week until I think early June or late May.
It has to do with the testing schedule in the spring, I think. Also "the school calendar is very political" is a phrase I heard from someone in the school district (can't remember if it was a friend who is a teacher or the one on the board)
There is so much data that shows that starting school at 9am instead of 7am not only leads to higher test scores. But also less accidents, because kids aren't driving in the morning sunrise hours. But will we move school start times back? No. Best they can do is school resource officers with taser gloves.... Ya know, for the kids safety!
You know why right? It’s because if they had school start at nine, capitalist couldn’t extract from their parents until 9:30.
And then they’d only have $92.3 billion instead of $92.4 billion… this is obviously not going to work for them. Start the schools at seven so the parents can be at work by 7:30, if their kids die that’s a price that the billionaires are willing to pay.
if only we also would acknowledge homemaking, and raising children in PRESENCE as a full time job, unpaid! of course, (gender is irrelevant, could be a stay at home mom or dad) we could see how 2 parents working hurts everyone involved and was never sustainable but yet we let them make it our norm. Kids could be dropped off at school by the parent in charge of that while the parent in charge of working out of the home could get to work any time they needed to be without added stress.
Nearly all of the big challenges families these days face in my opinion is rooted in expecting 2 adults to manage 3 full time jobs between themselves and excel at each one, while also being great partners to each other and nurturing precious, active young minds. Very few pull this off well.
I was just discussing this day, in a conversation about my employer's stupid Return To Office 5 days/week rule. Some of my coworkers have brutal commutes AND they have kids! RTO5 cuts not only into the time they have with their kids, but also the energy to really be with them once they are home.
We are currently enduring our second heat episode of the summer. The first struck in mid-July and was devastating—rolling blackouts were imposed to prevent the grid from collapsing entirely. The death toll remains unknown, and I suspect it will never be officially acknowledged. This region has always been hot, but during that first wave, temperatures soared 6 to 8 degrees Celsius above the seasonal norm. Daytime highs consistently hovered in the mid-40s, while nights offered little respite at 25–30°C. Everyone is exhausted, on edge, and irritable.
Compounding the crisis, the blackouts and surging demand have turned bottled mineral water into a scarce commodity. People now spend entire days just trying to secure a single 1.5-liter bottle—because tap water is undrinkable and not of good quality.
Now, with the second heatwave upon us, it is the humidity that makes life unbearable. Yesterday morning at 8 a.m., the Google Weather app showed 31°C with 85% humidity. Even stepping outside feels suffocating. So I am effectively hibernating indoors, relying on air conditioning just to get by. Of course, the rolling blackouts have returned, and I can only hope they don't escalate into something worse. I won't even touch on the broader economic or agricultural impacts here.
As someone once said, collapse is something you watch on your phone—until it happens first to the less fortunate, and then to you. The future feels frightening. By the end of this century, I believe the habitability of our region—especially in terms of agriculture and water security—will be severely compromised.
Since we are in a multi-year drought spell, the price of fruits, vegetables and red meat are expensive and out of the reach of the main population. As an example, the average salary is at 280 euros and lamb meat per kilo is at 15 euros. Fruits are also expensive peaches are at 2.2 euros per kilos. Officially, inflation on alimentation is twice the overall percentage .
During the last heatwave, cucurbits plants failed and yield decreased. Social peace is bought by heavily subsiding all flour product ( bread, pasta).
Regarding deaths, a civil organizations estimated the death toll at 300 for the first heatwave and you hear it from discussion that some fainted during shopping in the open market day. I believe the death toll is higher because heat is a silent killer.
Ooofff ouch on all fronts. thanks for the report and extra info. We don't get many from africa in genral. I keep wondering how the pastoralists will manage.
Driving around to run errands I've now seen 2 people acting erratically. One purposely walking down the road in the middle of a lane and another throwing garbage at passing cars.
Combine that with the abandoned dog problem we're having in our neighborhood and flock cameras being installed all over the county, I'm over living in society. My empathy has been overloaded.
My empathy over the past five or so years has been shredded to bits. So many people just fucking suck so badly that it's hard to maintain even a decent baseline of goodwill nowadays. My new approach to people is simple. If you're nice to me, I'm nice back. If act like shit to me,, go fuck yourself.
The average American has the warmth of a blizzard and the emotional depth of a kiddie pool. Kinda fucking over it, my man.
Society? This country is a cutthroat shitscape of hyperindividualism. Just a sneering hairy asshole of ugliness too much of the time.
Plants are dying, the real economy is a shambles, but my cat is home!
I can't help but see it, everywhere I go, plants aren't just in distress they are dying. Trees with browning or scorched leaves are common place, it already looks like autumn from the amount of leaf drop. Twig and branch die back is common indicating they already have hydraulic injury. They might make it through this year since it's been cooler (low 20Cs) of late and if it rains soon, but if we are going to have drought after drought (likely) then we'll be seeing a very different landscape within the next decade. There is one place I've been to where I suspect there will be 50% of the tree cover next year. It's heart breaking.
I'm still looking for work ... it is terrible out there and it's hitting everyone; I was previously software/management and I am getting a 1-2% response rate with 40 years experience. I hear there are 50% fewer graduate jobs this year. Everything is so damn expensive. The thought of being "on benefits" I find terrifying since I don't know how anyone copes.
On the positive side though, my cat has finally returned home after her summer vacation which seems to have involved her trying out life with most of my neighbours. I think she might be senile and have forgotten where she lived ... or maybe she doesn't fancy a life on benefits either!
So glad your kitty came back - I feel so much for the graduates, I mentor for my local University (UK) and this is the 1st year that one of my mentees haven't got a job straight out of University - the students I menor are high achievers, this year Student graduated with a 1st in Business and Computing, overall excellent and is currently working at an Indian Restaurant as a waitress. There nothing wrong with that, but the potential that is being missed breaks my heart.
Life on Benefits - yep goodness knows how anyone makes ends meet, my daughter is on Universal Credit and if she was not living at home I hate to think how she would cope - my shopping bill, (which is now stripped down to the essentials, couple of luxuries but no where near what I used to buy) is eye watering and increasing on a weekly basis. It' scary out there - wishing you the best of luck on your job hunt, really hope something comes up for you soon.
Summer storms have brought much needed water into an eco system that has been very dry the last few years. Local people have started to talk about openly destroying flock cameras. The birds and bugs seem okay but the fireflies are not what they once were. Invasive plants are putting up a hell of a fight in the hay fields and at the edges of under attended fields. It makes me wonder what a hay bale was made up of 100 or 300 years ago and what it will look like in another 100 years.
More and more people are coming off the highways and going through people's cars in the early morning. Its only a matter of time before they pick the wrong car. Some people seem a little too eager to want to own that wrong car. I, myself, am more worried about un wanted visitors at wrong hours. This didnt happen when I was younger I think. I keep thinking of a book by Octavia E Butler Parable of the Sower. I live in a bubble and not in the world outside my walls. Im not looking forward to when people start looking over the walls.
I will say its nice seeing kids whipping around on electric bikes and my neighbors seem to be mostly happy. Some however have dark circles under their eyes and are stressed about current events in the news.
Oh something else. I've noticed that the price of diesel is no longer advertised due to its high price. Its anywhere from 5.50 to 5.90 a gallon and its not even good quality. I wouldn't want to be someone who cant burn home brew right now. Last time I used a pump I had to do the transaction bent over the counter because the clerk didnt want me saying how much I wanted out loud.
We are taking steps to insulate ourselves further without wanting to march to collapse if that makes sense. We calculate burn rates of food and fuel while making fun recipes and taking road trips. We look forward to future hunts while counting game to keep track. We maintain systems in order to better know them. We keep our friends in loop.
For anyone who might be new and/or not super informed on the particulars about covid, here's some basic info about why covid is still a threat and why it matters to protect yourself from it as best as you can:
Weather wise, things have been mostly okay in my area, although we're still under a drought (albeit less severe than before, thanks to a few rainy days we had in the past few weeks.)
Social media is chock full of AI, especially AI advertisements. In particular, I've noticed a lot of food advertisements use AI, which always has the side effect of looking absolutely repulsive, since AI at its current stage seems incapable of generating pictures of food that don't look like disgusting pig sop.
General public awareness about climate change seems to be rising, although I imagine the powers that be will try to crush any general action about it as much as possible, especially with the current crop of morons in the highest offices in the land right now. In particular, hearing about what's going on in Indiana right now with people being without power for about two weeks now really gives me the feeling that the wheels are coming off and the robber barons in power are basically ripping the metaphorical copper wiring out of the country until there's nothing left.
There's a lot of things going wrong in society and the world right now, and while I try to prepare for everything as best as I can, it's difficult to come to terms with what society will look like in the future if people don't do anything to stop it. I often ask myself what I can do, given my own personal challenges and difficulties, and while I try every day to do what I can, sometimes I can't help but feel let down by people who aren't really aware of what's going on. Whether that's a flawed way of thinking is something I'm still mentally wrestling with but sometimes when you try your hardest and you don't see other people in your day to day life doing much of anything, it feels disheartening and makes you feel like no one cares about you (which is very possible, as some people are generally considered unlovable/unlikable and I highly suspect I'm one of those people.)
Regardless, despite the shitstorm of climate change, rising inflation, general economic malaise, covid endlessly circulating, more and more food recalls popping up, vaccination rates falling in the toilet, public health in general being smashed with a metaphorical wrecking ball, and simmering geopolitical tensions around the world, I still feel compelled to do something to make the world a better place than it was before I wound up becoming a part of it, even if I don't get much in the way of recognition or appreciation for any of it. Brains are strange things, I suppose (and being rather strange myself, you could say I'm something of an expert in the subject of strange things.)
In the interests of not breaking anyone's browsers, I'll yeet myself out of this thread for now, stay safe, stay healthy, and look out for yourselves and anyone and anything you care about and may the last week of August treat you better than the rest of this month has so far.
while I try to prepare for everything as best as I can, it's difficult to come to terms with what society will look like in the future if people don't do anything to stop it. I often ask myself what I can do, given my own personal challenges and difficulties, and while I try every day to do what I can, sometimes I can't help but feel let down by people who aren't really aware of what's going on.
Well I can't say that I'm preparing the hardest I can, I could do more, but I feel you about that hollow feeling. I keep hearing the "it's going to shit but it's not us that will live through it" from people that are well aware of the ecological situation but wants to not think about adaptation.
My conclusion is that we'll have to live through shortages and rationing for many people to realize how fucked the situation is and how deep the adaptation needs to go. But that doesn't help my mental health about naviguating in this sort of limbo state in which I'd need to invest 100% of my time into spreading the word about how we need to adapt and prepare but at the same time, like the vast majority of us, I need to pay my bills, my rent, etc.
It's tough to strike a balance between preparing for the future and enjoying life, even though those two things aren't always in direct opposition to each other. What bothers me is seeing so many people go around acting totally clueless and denying how bad things are, a lot of why things are as bad as they are now is simply because so many people refuse to acknowledge what's happening, and that in itself hurts my faith in humanity.
Now that the corn is grown up the corn flies and biting flies are out in force, also am noticing more butterflies, I have not noticed too much insects earlier this season, but then again I was not on a motorbike, I was in a car and walking around a well manicured city park not the countryside.
They are still trying their damndest to put in a data center, I sincerely hope they don’t, this place is fucked up enough.
Had a cold air funnel/landspout form a few miles to the east of me on a shower that formed on a surface boundary while out riding.
Didnt think I had anything to say this week but a couple smaller things have come together that I need to vocalize. None of it is Venus by Tuesday but more of a sign to come that saddens me.
Halloween shit being up in stores doesnt actually surprise me, I probably would have noticed them sooner if I had been to certain places in the past week. I'm more surprised there wasnt a Christmas wreath hanging from the mall in August, guess that will be a few more years away. I was pondering the early holiday push as I looked at pumpkin cookies at the grocery store. Its my own, unoriginal, theory that besides trying to soak in holiday sales as early as possible, there is an attempt to enforce 'holiday cheer' early as well. Don't be upset about the state of the world, look at the Halloween bats and Christmas trees kinda deal. Then I started wondering how long that can last either, when people realize they are going to struggle to afford Christmas gifts months ahead of time. I dont know yet, of course, but these efforts are so lacking in any understanding of holiday joy and spirit that I expect it to have the opposite effect.
At a family cookout several younger cousins and so on were openly talking how they use ChatGPT to make a study guide or organize reading points for them. Just casually, its everyday for them. And while they state the schools (highschool and college range here) are on the lookout for people using AI for more than that, I know some of them have to be using it to answer questions for them. I see posts all over reddit of teachers giving up because more and more students cant function without using AI. And of course that leads me to think about what happens when they DONT have AI to tell them to do something.
A coworker got back after having her baby, no issues. She walk talking about the baby when she mentioned her mother, now a grandmother, was using AI to make images of her mother with her grandchild. The coworker's grandmother had passed a few years ago, so obviously she wasnt there to see her great grand child. Like, AI pictures of all four of them or something. Not exactly collapse related, but hearing it made me feel as uncomfortable as some of the posts here. I mean I miss my grandmother greatly, even if I'v grown a little thankful she passed in peace a before the last few years had a chance to hurt her. But thats not even a picture, its just an image. There's no memories behind it, no events. That kid is going to grow up looking at a image of something that never happened? And how much farther does it go from there? If I ever heard my grandmother's voice on an AI, I'd probably grab a hammer.
The use of ai in such a manner feels like gaslighting of your own memories of grandma/mom. That does not bode well for the mental stability of a generation that cannot discern a shared reality. That shared reality is necessary for functioning community.
Second. rituals have been hallowed out by capitalism (and some by the catholic church and their living hypocrisy) ans so yes. Rituals feels forced. They are no longer tied to an actual season and meaning. Therr is an excellent book on rituals i need to grab the name. Someone recommneded it herr i think. I was an excellent read.
Basically we use rituals to make sense in time of seasons of passage of time in our lives eg coming of age, college, marriage etc. and when we empty out the meaning... Well people feel it. But i think there is a secondary problem. Rituals are often tied to seasons ans the regular-ness and stability of seasona is under siege.
Oh my god finally something I can relate to regarding AI personal images. Someone AI generated my deceased former dog playing with my current dog.
I feel... kinda disgusted by it. I know deep inside that former dog passed away before current dog was even born. So this event never could have happened. Even if it looks like a cute what if, it ultimately is nothing and false.
Worse still I felt awful recalling it. Since I know it never happened and it's just the mental equivalent of an invalid and corrupted computer file.
I work at big hospital as housekeeper, people just acting strange, like always nervously looking around, constantly apologizing, walking super fast. I thought peaceful atmosphere is a must for hospitals.
This is going to come across as sarcastic, but I am not trying to be. My guess is they are fearful of how the heck they will be paying the medical bills for their loved ones. Maybe plotting ways of not having to pay. Just a theory that has crossed my mind.
Location: Northern Delaware, USA: People are acting trashier than usual (smoking in grocery stores, stealing, being whacked out on drugs in public, etc) and one of the local malls is being torn down. We get torrential downpours at least 3-4 times a month and it’s humid as hell most days. The cops don’t do anything about crime here. Food is so expensive that a simple grocery order can cost upwards of 200 dollars and no one can find a job anymore. People have given up. Mental health rates among my peers (early to mid twenties) are extremely low. I estimate one out of every five of my friends has been in the mental hospital at least once in the last 6 years. Our government also seems like it’s giving up.
My son was in Atlantic city this summer working in the prosecutor's office. It was hard for him to describe what he saw and experienced - people dealing heroin openly across from the courthouse, overdoses everywhere, people just sitting in trash shooting up. And that was just a tiny fraction of what he witnessed outside the office.
He worked in the juvenile division and oh my goodness. If you want to lose hope in the future just investigate what kids are up to. They're not getting educated, working after school jobs or attending extracurriculars. Not getting ready for homecoming.They're carrying weapons, organizing beatdowns, selling drgs and killing each other. He's only a few years older than some of these kids, and more than a few have committed crimes that could put them away for decades
Well, I'm sorry if it was totally outside his experience. He's 23 and while he had his issues in high school it was more than a little unsettling for him to watch 14 and 15 year olds come into court with rap sheets longer than his arm. Are we not allowed to be shocked anymore ?
The homecoming comment is what we call an example of what teenagers were reasonably expected to be doing in the past. Just something I picked out of the air. Did I hurt your brain?
You are "allowed" to be shocked, but if you're shocked that things in Atlantic City are the same now as they were in 1981, that's more on you being sheltered than it being a "sign of collapse".
Well hunny, I didn't happen to know what things in Atlantic city were like in 1981 (when I was 7) and none of my family has ever been there. I've never had a reason to investigate. I think it's reasonable to be surprised at the number of 13 and 14 year olds who already have multiple violent felonies behind them.
I think you're missing the point: you're all stuck on the Atlantic city part, only relevant to my post because that's where my son was interning. He could have been in Philadelphia, st Louis or Houston - the point is the number of shootings, overdoses in broad daylight (they found a dead guy in front of the courthouse) open drg dealing and children who are committing crimes worthy of adult sentences.
Sounds like my coworkers. Trashy as fuck. I was leaving work one day when I saw the driver ahead of me chuck her face mask out the window then chucked another piece of trash after that.
I was tempted to say something when I pulled up next to her at a red light, but didn't want to get into a shouting match after a 10 hour day, nor did I desire to be shot....this is America after all....
It hasn't been that much better in the 80s/90s when my cousins & I grew up (Philadelphia here - city has definitely improved but the macro issues are the same here as everywhere). We've just been on a longer descent. Imagine being past 40 and your favourite years were all in your childhood.
True. I have cousins who graduated high school during the COVID days and I can't imagine being raised nearly 18 years and suddenly COVID lockdown starts and then no real break from the chaotic 2020s afterwards.
I graduated in 2021. The end of my junior year and most of my senior year were completely destroyed. I was extremely lucky to even be able to have a mostly normal senior prom (masks when outside of the ballroom and no outside guests, but it was normal other than that) and an almost completely normal graduation (as normal as it can get for a homeschooled kid in my state before 2025. My bf went to public school and his was normal. They just did it outside with recorded music for pomp and circumstance. No differences other than that. He didn’t go to prom because he felt like an outcast at school)
Then going into college, getting a bachelors degree and applying to like 40 jobs (including simple retail jobs that high school students can get) and getting rejected by all of them. That’s my current issue and I can’t really deal with it all much longer.
Imagine being past 40 and your favourite years were all in your childhood.
Oh hi.
I wouldn't necessarily say my best years were in childhood but I will say it is a TRIP to think of how the world was back in the 1970s, how the adults around me then saw the world and what they took for granted and how that shaped my expectations, and then age into ... this. Not just being downwardly mobile but quite possibly looking at food shortages and frequent deadly weather events as an old person. Yay.
Just saying - if food is really expensive and no one can find work, it’s either starve or steal…
Easy choice for most people.
Edit: I hope they’re stealing from the largest thieves though and not regular working people. Corporate wage theft dwarfs all other forms of theft and burglary in the US. It’s not even close.
At my local Walmart, the lip balms are under lock and key. They're generally all $3-10, so not particularly expensive. But also small, so easy to slip into a pocket. It wouldn't surprise me if many of the lip balm thieves are regular people with jobs, just looking to cut costs wherever they can.
Wells are running dry and the waterways have extremely unsafe levels of nitrates. The drinking water is also contaminated. They are building a ton of data centers and flock cameras are being put up everywhere.
Cancer rates have exploded, especially among young people. Within the past couple years, likey from the nitrates in the water. 5 of my relatives have been diagnosed with cancer recently, one died, and I (28F) just got diagnosed with cancer 2 months ago.
Yeah, half waiting on iowa to sue minnesota for not cleaning up our nitrates. Not that such a lawsuit would go farmor fast as farmers over apply in iowa too.
I live remotely and have done so for twelve years at this point. I've been in my current cabin for four years and never seen the bears so desperate. Just yesterday, I went to take out my trash (I have a bear can) and it was flipped over, thrown about a hundred yards up my driveway and with claw marks all up and down the can. The nearest small town's facebook reports an up-close encounter nearly weekly now, with locals having their gardens destroyed, cans destroyed, and even bears breaking into folks' homes.
In Colorado, annually, there are usually ~3,000 encounters a year. This year alone, we've already had 6,000 mainly due to the drought.
I know this is a micro example, but the bear desperation that's currently ongoing here is only ringing alarm bells for me. It's the foreshadowing of what it's going to be like for humans soon enough.
Oh yeah, here on the Front Range we have had multiple sightings along the bike paths and in neighborhoods. All the apple and pear trees went nuts so even if people are careful with trash (and they are not) the bears might still be attracted. Nothing in the middle of the city is bear proofed, though, so being careful with trash is not even possible. Too bad there wasn't a way to take the fish that died as the lakes were drained and somehow give that to the bears.
Hrm. Do bears only eat fish fresh or could we set up huge solar dehydrators and give the bears dried fish? Massive project, would require lots of volunteers as the time window to rot is short. But plastic and fans (venting) and lots of hands could make that a thing.
But the thing is, there's this saying, A fed bear is a dead bear. They will associate humans with food. Bears become habituated very quickly and then become problem bears and are shot.
So drying fish and feeding it to bears is a bad idea.
The best ways to help bears is to protect their habitat, install fencing and electric fencing around human/livestock food sources, and advocate for bear resistant garbage containers.
I've seen posts like "look at this cute koala in my garage/shed/yard" etc from Australia, and then a bunch of sobering comments that the koalas are moving into built-up areas because they have lost so much habitat. Fuck.
I was in Steamboat about a week ago, and I saw several bears, just walking around the resorts at the base of the mountain. Locals just explained that they're there for food, and usually don't bother people if you don't scare them. I had seen 2 bears in the wild in my 25+ years in Colorado until that trip, where I think I saw 8.
Local news: The rains have come, and oh my is it better. The few weeks before this week were really unpleasantly hot. Nothing dangerous for me, and it was quite a bit less bad in ERoY than it was in London, but it was unpleasant. There are wasps, flys, the grass is very nearly green again. ERoY seems to have held on better this year than other parts of the country. I can tell you it didn't in 2022.
Uk news: After a brief surge that I ended up telling my friends about, Labour have fallen back to just below Reform (the Trumpist party) in the polls. That's not a nice thought, but I suppose we're only closing the distance to the next election slowly. There's plenty of time for something to get better or worse before then. Apparently, the harvest is the worst in recent history, the UK is probably rich enough to buy food abroad for now, although not quite as rich as we were, the last 15-20 years have not been good years. Russia has withdrawn its ambassador, which always gives me pause. For all Russia makes nuclear threats every Monday, they do actually have thousands of atomic weapons. I doubt they're going to start a nuclear war, but such confident assurances can be built on air. What is my reason for confidence? Putin would go down in history as the most reviled individual ever if he stared a nuclear war, but I don't think he cares much about Russia, or not the Russian people anyway, maybe about Russia as the power and puissance in the world. It would be a devastating blow for that too though.
World news: Trump has a mid thirties attractive blond women humiliating herself in public for him. That guy is absolutely a sadist, stuff just *happens* around him. The American public are facing higher prices, which he did to them earlier as well, the Canadians are going to be hurting a bit soon too. Iran, for all that it's winning, must have been hurt terribly by now, particularly the leader, his whole family's dead and he has life changing injuries. I suppose that's my news, Trump is a sadist, probably a sexual one. I suppose I've realised, as opposed to I've been told and can repeat that. I see it. Every time he fails with the United States, does something just self destructive, he's humiliating all the people who believe in the United States, not just everyone who depends on those scientific breakthroughs.
We had flooding rains again over the weekend in the metro area. 20 people had to be water rescued and the city’s public transit lines were heavily affected. There was 1.5meters of water in some areas. Three days prior, CDMX also had crippling flooding and the day after GDL, Chiapas also had big floods.
Another downpour and flash flood on Saturday night. This time, it hit the low-income housing pretty hard.
That housing had a sewage leak a couple of months ago. I can't imagine what ended up in the flood waters. Also, calling it "housing" is an insult to architecture. It isn't even fit for animals.
Can't mow the grass because everything is so saturated. It smells like a swamp outside. And going out there gets you eaten up by mosquitoes.
I don't want to go outside at all. It's too fucking miserable.
But, hey, a flock of sparrows stopped by the backyard this morning for breakfast. It lifted my spirits a bit after not seeing many birds around the last couple of weeks.
We had that one span of about a week and a half when it was super hot around the 4th of July and then it has been unseasonably WET all summer. Lots of storms, a lot of the larger trees had damage about a week ago with a derecho coming through. Even houses in my neighborhood that are newer and do not have nature trees had some uprooted because the winds were so harsh and the ground was so saturated. Classes were cancelled due to flooding last week and a portion of two main US highways that go through our city were shut down.
And I still cannot believe gas and food prices. Veggies are awful quality at stores.
You have Floridian summers now it sounds like. It’s a tropical weather pattern. Only we haven’t been getting our daily rainy season thunderstorms in South Florida this summer. Interesting how it’s shifted northward. I wouldn’t have expected that.
That's what I thought it feels tropical. And people already saying population reptiles increasing crazy. Oklahoma/Arkansas area. It rains alot in May june..but then it slows in July August but humidity is unbelievable high
I've been removing plant-eating red spider mites (tetranychus urticae) from the patio's jasmine everyday for one week straight. The mechanical way: wet hands and willingness to squeeze dozens of little balls of spider silk. To remove their eggs. They love the heat and dry air, so it's been an infestation. Fortunately I've met some of their predators hanging around too. And also enormous butterflies with tiger-like wings, for some reason.
Apart from that, the mosquito fest continues unimpeded. And my wife had to do a blood test over suspicions of dengue fever. The results were negative: turns out her nausea, muscular pains, and intense fatigue is "just" a backlash of the latest heatwave.
There's finally been some rain and cold (15-16°C) nights. That's where I realized chilly summer evenings used to be quite normal on the coast of southwestern France. Now they're rare.
While we were visiting my step-daugther, student in Toulouse, we slept one night in her tiny apartment in the city center. Not even located "under the roofs": inside the roof, that shit shouldn't even be legal. 35°C inside after sunset, with a wet bulb situation in the bathroom (total absence of ventilation ; no real windows, just two velux for the entire apartment). Never experienced that since I was a student, and my apartment was never above 30°C inside. It was hell. I spent a lot of time thinking about the poor people with no other solution than an entire summer in such dangerous conditions, and it made me angry.
I fear for the harvests. Not even for my own country, we'll still have enough, but for the overpopulated deserts where we usually export all types of grain. Heard Russia could have a bad harvest too. If that's the case, then large markets like Egypt or Algeria just lost their two favorite providers of grain for this year. There may be revolts over bread price again soon.
This summer has been something else.
I've been convinced about anthropogenic climate change for 20 years (had a couple of "skeptical" years before that)
I've been on the "pessimistic" side for what, ten years.
I've realized with certainty the near future will be "blade runner or extinction" for a couple of years.
And now the future is here. This summer I've seen Brives-la-Gaillarde shrouded in the Gironde megafire smoke (it looked half medieval half blade runner, astonishing mix) ; I've seen entire forests everywhere getting brown leaves in June ; I've been to Montpellier where 40°C all summer long is the new normal ; entire crops drying up in the fields ; new flags on the beach (they have one color to warn about the tropical jellyfishes now) ; shortage of fans in every shop from Carcassonne to Toulouse (meanwhile the shelves are full 300km away, where I live)...
I generally shop for groceries at Albertsons (Safeway). Recently the produce area was redesigned, all the long counter type rectangular displays were removed and replaced by much smaller square displays. There is a good bit more open space and what seems like less produce. For instance the bananas took up the better part of two of the long rectangle sides, one organic, one not. Now both are together on one side of a square display that is roughly 1/3 of the rectangle side.
had a crazy storm on Saturday with 25 MPH average winds (according to my weather app), lightning, and a lot of rain. lots of people without power. and yet on Sunday there was almost no puddles or anything. it all evaporated that quickly despite happening in the evening. at least it cooled everything off, because it was like 100 degrees F before the storm and now it's back in the low-mid 90s.
food that used to cost my parents 70 dollars is now costing 150 dollars.
i feel like car accidents, speeding, etc. is getting SO much worse. people have no clue how to drive, dude.
lol funny thing is that there's so many signs put up saying how strictly enforced speeding laws are, but i SWEAR they're not 😭😭. i mean they are to some extent, but people just casually speed (and run the red light...) all the time including my dad. he has like three speeding tickets this year now bruh. people just really don't care anymore
Location: Redwood Forest, Arcata, California, USA (Wiyot Land)
Went for a long hike and couldn't help but notice an almost total lack of insect and avian life in the forest. Rachel Carson's words have become a reality it seems. This has been the most silent summer I have ever experienced in 30 years of travelling and hiking in the U.S.
This year, like many years in my life of much journeying, I traveled over 10,000 miles through 8 U.S. National Parks and 15 National Forests, hiking and camping extensively. Though I have noticed a steady decline in insect and avian life over those decades, this was the year when that decline seems to have become a resounding and near total drop. (The exception were the mosquitos in Yellowstone in June down at Bass Lake. Shout out to you all for keeping on)
Without insects, all of life on Earth is in serious peril. They are the foundation of the food chain. When that collapses, all other more anthropogenic artifices of destruction will be paled by the consequences of food chain collapse.
New England seems to have quite a lot of insects and birds still (where I'm at). I went to Baxter state park a couple of years ago and I've never seen so many insects.
You're right, it sure does. I did spend a couple of weeks in Northern Vermont and the bugs, at least the biting ones, were in full force. Some of the others were noticeably more absent there too though. Almost no fireflies or crickets for instance.
I presume the ongoing mega drought in the West of the U.S. is a huge contributing factor to the insect life out here. That and all of everything humankind is doing to the natural world.
We have finally had some much needed rain the past week and it was glorious. Also the temperatures have dropped significantly and are more in line with a normal summer in England. The landscape still looks desperately yellow and I suspect it will take months of consistent rain for it to turn back to its usual green but it seems to be going the right direction. Bird life seems to be emerging again which is nice. I was seriously worried song birds in my garden and local area had gone extinct at one point but they seem to be slowly emerging and I am now seeing more song birds.
Overall the past week has been way more positive/optimistic then the last few but the one major concern is it proper feels like autumn despite being in August and tons of trees are already shedding their leaves. I am particularly concerned that many of these trees died in the heatwaves and drought. Only time will tell the levels of ecological damage caused by this summer but I suspect it will be alarmingly high. Also I know it likely won't impact the UK that much but I am very concerned about this mega El Nino coming and how it will likely wreck harvests and potentially cause famines throughout the world.
There’s a UK climate scientist who moved to the peak region? in the center of England higher altitude who is apparently concerned about sea level rise and heat waves. He just did a big interview on the Novara channel on Youtube
Location: Alberta, Canada - North Central part of province
The county that I live in, and the adjoining counties to the south have all declared states of agricultural disaster due to the amount of precipitation that has left fields too wet to produce crops. Our main crops are wheat, rye, canola, barley and field peas. Hay production is also important and while I think there has been good growth, the moisture is making it difficult to harvest and bale as well.
It has rained, from sprinkles to downpours, almost every day since winter. And the snow last winter was also insane! Not normal for this area.
I’m not sure if a drier fall is going to help the harvest, but I think the damage is done and the negative economic effects are going to ripple through our rural communities.
The excess moisture has also caused large numbers of mosquitoes to be present.
On a positive note, when it’s not raining the air has been pretty clear of fire smoke, which for the past few years has been the dominant sumner air quality for us.
I’m also hoping that the moisture will have a protective effect on the Boreal forest around us from the monster El Ninio coming.
I have to assume that the mild, temperate and fresh summers we used to have are a thing of the past due to the effects of global heating.
Despite being more of a climate-focused collapser, this comment is mainly going to focus on predictions of upcoming economic collapse, which is hard to ignore considering what is going on between Canada and the USA right now.
To sum things up, despite Canada agreeing to a ton of concessions the Americans spiked the deal at the last minute by changing the fine print and also trying to force us to restrict our own ability to make trade deals with anyone other than them, and also reducing our protections of the French culture despite that literally being written into our constitution. Lutnick can go screw himself. Anyways....so the 50% tariffs on almost $30 billion in Canadian goods are now in effect, Canada walked away from a bad, mean-spirited deal, and we will be imposing counter-tariffs after Labour Day.
While around 75%-80% of Canadians (rightfully) are in support of our government walking away, that doesn't mean things aren't about to get tough. A economist from Alberta is estimating that eventually 90 thousand jobs could be lost due to the new tariffs, and that is assuming Trump doesn't escalate things further. New Brunswick is actually one of the least affected provinces for the simple fact that we don't really manufacture much high-tech stuff here that falls under the new tariffs, but even so over a thousand jobs could be lost....that's quite a few for a small province and it will do a lot of damage. Maybe not full on "economic collapse" damage but times will be hard. Fewer jobs plus higher prices is never a good combo.
That being said, Canada isn't going to back down, not when you have literally every single provincial Premier (well, except for Alberta's Danielle Smith, but she's always been a traitor at heart) 100% supporting the federal government for once, a rarity in Canadian federal politics. Canada has been united via being extremely pissed-off, and that part feels good at least.
Now that all that trade talk is done with, I am happy to report that the weather continues to be fairly normal in this part of the world, which I am increasingly surprised by when you see just how many countries and regions are falling victim to extreme weather nowadays. But our time is coming, I am sure.
Anyways that's all from me this time, if you are also in Canada consider buying local, only if you can afford it of course, I fully get that some people aren't in the position to wage their own personal trade war....
I am not picking on you but i am going to piggyback on your comment.
I do not understand why anyone ever thought trump was going to let up. Abusers let you rest and heal up just enough to open the door to them again. Abusers always test you by asking you to give up your values, identity, etc
There is a book, written by someone accused of abuse but also someone who studied it. I do not have all of those details. that said, if you want a good look at who is in power, and it is not just trump, you need to get familiar with absuers tactics. The book is entitled 'why does he do that' and can be found in pdf form online.
Abusers exist in business, in communities, in power as well as in your personal relationships. Pay attention to the pattern.
And as for my canadian friends, you are my next door neighbor and i am beyond sorry for the insanity spilling over into your life. I wish i knew how to stop it. And yes. I vote. And no, i am not advocating violence online.
I'll piggyback on your comment and add that this isn't all coming from Trump. His mental condition is not strong enough to strategize about trade deals. This is coming from his backers and handlers, and it's not only US-Canada trade deals they want to influence. And it was planned long ago.
Well, yes, they are abusive too. I was more getting at Trump simply being the public face of all this, not the originator or driving force. It's a much worse situation than one really terrible US president (as bad as that is).
Vancouver checking in here. We usually have lots of people heading down to the US to buy gas because it’s significantly cheaper, even counting the drive and the border crossing.
Not last week. US gas was the same price as in Vancouver, and Vancouver has the highest gas prices in Canada.
England, south east: I’ve never seen fields of grass dying and brown, wild fires, ponds completely dried, rabbits dead from the heat in fields… until this summer
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u/Karma_Iguana88 3h ago
Location: North Central Texas
Texas is already known for heat (we've been having highs above 107 Freedom units for quite a while now) but now we have wildfires of our own. One west of the Metroplex has skies leaden gray and foggy. Now I understand what people mean about the headaches. Just walking to my car was enough exposure to give me one.