The Way Out of This Mess

Prologue: What Mess?

People..... we're fucked. I mean like reeeaaaally fucked. I'm writing this at the tail end of 2020, we are in the midst of a global pandemic. Due to which many people have restricted their lives, leading to a 7% drop in carbon emissions ⁽¹⁾. In spite of all this, 2020 is shaping up to be, if not the top, at least in the top 3 warmest years on record⁽²⁾. Climate change isn't coming, it's here.

It's not just the climate though. Income inequality is the highest it's been in 50 years⁽³⁾. Political Polarization is at levels not seen since the last civil war. Which is keeping us from foreseeing the upcoming Thucydides Trap, and employment crisis due to automation. Human civilization is rushing headlong into a cyberpunk dystopia.

If we don't do something and fast then we can kiss this "Long Peace" goodbye. Now I'm not the only one to think this, even mainstream news outlets have caught on that the jig is coming to an end. Plenty of people are looking to solve our current problems through ideological means. The revitalized American left seems mainly to think that through electoralism they can shift American policy enough to avoid the impending climate catastrophe. To put that in perspective the IPCC says that to mitigate the worst effect of climate change on human society, we should limit warming to 1.5℃ above preindustrial levels⁽⁴⁾. That is not to avoid climate change that's just to mitigate the worst effects. 2016 was 1.1℃ above preindustrial levels⁽⁵⁾. The WMO says that we will hit 1.5℃ above preindustrial levels by 2024⁽⁶⁾. To be honest given the current geopolitical situation we can kiss our nice stable climate goodbye. That doesn't mean that there's no hope, it just means we have to switch the current paradigm of thinking around climate change.

The current idea is that we will get all the nations on earth, to drastically reduce their CO₂ emissions and keep them down. Not only does this require levels of global cooperation never before seen, but it also disproportionately benefits rich countries who have the money to transition to cleaner fuels; that's just for the climate issue. Instead of relying on a moonshot that the world is consistently making more and more infeasible, I propose a different approach. Instead of waiting for governments to change, I propose we change. Instead of hoping that the climate doesn't change, I propose we change so that it doesn't matter. If we're are not only going to survive but thrive in the next 50 years, then we need to, with intention, plan out a route from our current catastrophe through sustainability the lands us in a promising future.

We can create a better society, we have to create a better society. One that can stand up to the problems of climate change, and wealth inequality, and finally secure a basic livelihood for all. To do this we need to realize that there are two major fronts that demand attention and intention. That being the technical issues of how to build a climate change-resistant, sustainable society; and the epistemological how to organize that society sustainable, equitably, and such that it doesn't collapse. Now this book is strictly meant to deal with the technological side of this issue. Though if you subscribe to certain sociological theories then the technological mode of production implies a certain sociological structure.

This book is more of an introduction to the types of solutions we could apply to the problem of work and non-sustainable production. I have limited my scope to make the task manageable however, this means that not everyone can partake in the society that I am laying out. I don't take this to mean that there is not a sustainable solution for all, it just means that I cannot as an individual find it. I propose that the approach I take in this book can be applied by others to their own circumstances to produce similar results.

Resources: full bibliography in final book