[onlooker]

I guess this is a psychological question, I would put it into psychological category but their is none. I pertains to knowing about the tremendously difficult predicaments facing us here on Earth. Knowing about peak oil, Global Warming, ecological degradation, financial turmoil all this I have sought to learn about as have many of you. So why? For me because I feel like a hiker on a trail, I am curious by nature, so I follow the trail wherever it may lead because I wish to know not just because of curiosity but because I believe one must confront reality no matter what. So how do others feel?

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('onlooker', '.')..peak oil, Global Warming, ecological degradation, financial turmoil .... I wish to know not just because of curiosity but because I believe one must confront reality no matter what. So how do others feel?

[davep]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') don't regret knowing----- I regret thinking I knew and having it turn out that I didn't actually know.

[Quinny]

RE was very entertaining and still has his Doomstead Diner - posts fairly regularly on Gail the actuarys site.

[Tanada]

I have been a History nerd as long as I can remember, I had maps of historical empires and countries on my walls before I even became a teen. Knowing history means you know about resource constraints, the vast majority of wars fought in all of human history have been for control of some resource one side had and the other side wanted to get away from them. Could be land, population, minerals, fuel, or even access to a particular location like Jerusalem. The Mongol Hoards conquered China, Kazakhstan, the Russian Principalities and Poland because they wanted slaves and the vast wealth they could loot from those they over-ran. The UK conquered India and the French Indochina and the Dutch Indonesia for the same kind of reasons. The Spanish and Portuguese conquered South and Central America for Gold, Silver, Slaves and Land. Heck even the Polynesians took over Hawaii, Easter Island and New Zealand to get the untapped (at the time) resources they found there. From the time the first stone age hunter Gatherers left Africa 400,000 years ago to become the Neanderthal and Denisovan tribes who were integrated with the Sapiens who left Africa around 75,000 years ago our three branch species has been on a path of seeking out resources just over the horizon from wherever they are today. To not know is to deny all of our history for the last 400,000 years or maybe even longer.

[Newfie]

I don't regret what I know, I regret what we have done.

[sparky]

.
@ plantagenet
" I regret thinking I knew and having it turn out that I didn't actually know."
that is totally true and is as true tomorrow as it is today ,
tomorrow truth is the grave digger of today's certainties
live ,learn then die , most of your life having been wrong

I see my life as a mental strip tease , removing certainties one by one , ultimately (maybe) leaving truth naked

[Ibon]

35 years ago I learned about the destruction humans were causing the planet. Back then the trajectory was all about growth and consumption with no short term warning signs in sight. I was deeply troubled back then over the resiliency of our consumption culture and future growth projections on human population and industrialization.

Today this has shifted somewhat. We are not radically changing our ways, we continue to exponentially rape the landscape, but we are beginning to feel the squeeze and uneasy about the trajectory going forward. We are beginning to exercise caution and beginning to be aware that sustainability is not an ideological wish but will be a physical necessity. So mixed with the deep sadness over the destruction there now emerges a new emotion, one that is almost grateful that this long stretch of exploitation without consequences is coming to an end. A sense of relief that population growth and consumption is reaching its end point. That the pendulum will slowly start to swing and a big cyclical correction will start, diminishing the human presence on the planet.

Since we have been unable without consequences to self regulate consumption and population growth, an inflection point has now arrived were we will see how we manage going forward with increasing constraints. That Kudzu Ape will have the opportunity to become human again and live in balance with nature. That is good. Or that Kudzu Ape will fail and make room again for biodiversity to flourish on the planet. That is also good.

There will be a contraction of our human population where former human landscapes will be reclaimed by nature. That those small refuge populations in stressed environments will now be able to recolonize former habitat. That is good.

Humans will eventually decide their fate and if they keep a place at the table of life on the planet. Whether they succeed or fail bodes well for our planet.

[onlooker]

Ibon , I admire and respect what you are saying. Your solidarity and caring for all of nature. If more people had been like you we probably would not be where we are now. I do also, recognize that some may not completely agree with you. Their difference will be about the role of humans and their fate. We all are humans here. It is natural to see ourselves almost to the exclusion of other life. As you stated human centric. If others quibble about your casual acceptance of human die-off then that is a reflection of this humanistic point of view. I believe this dichotomy can be reconciled if we assume directly the responsibility and privilege of being stewards of the Earth. Animals and plants simply live. We can go beyond that. We can have as our mission to redeem ourselves from our past actions and become what we can potentially be. Beings dedicated to goodness in ways that will be beneficial to ourselves and all life on Earth. So I hope that humans can cease being Kudzu Ape and evolve to be beings that have reverence for life and all existence.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'S')o the US peak in 1970 wasn't actually the peak?

[Pops]

I think most of us know relatively little, for the most part we can't tell the trunk from the tail from the pizzle.

Yet we all think we know exactly which direction the beast is bound.

With certainty.

LOL

[Sixstrings]

Is it just me or is there an article on the forum front page that says green energy is dead and peak oil was nonsense?

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'a')nd many private investors too–bought into the “peak oil” nonsense

[Ibon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('onlooker', ' ')If others quibble about your casual acceptance of human die-off then that is a reflection of this humanistic point of view. I believe this dichotomy can be reconciled if we assume directly the responsibility and privilege of being stewards of the Earth.

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '
')However, after 10 years of reading and posting here, I'm not sure what it is that I now "know."

[onlooker]

OS, some good ideas. Just occurs to me where your line of reasoning really applies is technology. We have developed so much technologically. Yet did we pause to consider whether that technology is advisable, what should be its rightful uses or even how risky it would be. Nuclear comes to mind, but their are other examples. In general I think we have come to consider ourselves much too knowing without balancing that with the humility of realizing that what you think you know might not be the case. Widespread use of fossil fuels is perhaps another example of this.

[Shaved Monkey]

I regret not knowing

[AgentR11]

I am glad that I know what I know.
I am content that there are things that I do not know or understand.
I am gravely concerned about the things I do not know that I do not know.

Rumsfeld was mocked when he said it; but the dangerous things are those things we don't know when we don't even know the initial question to ask.