[sparky]

.
While I concur old folks see the past with rose tinted glass while the young bounce around reinventing youth
and the "doom is at hand" attitude has had a pretty good run at least since St John's apocalyptic "revelations"circa 50AD

It certainly not all in one's mind ,
the human world is going through some pretty epic phase .
the trajectory from post WW2 included magnificent growth ,
the improvement of life expectancy for Billions of people , the rise in standard of comfort for Idem
an unprecedented mobility for person , the removal of legal and traditional shackles for untold number of women
the sovereignty of dozen of nations held under submission by stronger countries
the longest period in modern human history without large warfare
food security for large masses , the health improvement both for the individual and pandemic scale

Now all those gains are looking somewhat wobbly ,
new problems , unheard off before are threatening the world , human and wild alike

So yes we grow old but much has changed , and are changing under our very eyes ,
it's just that they don't change on our ideas but on their own internal laws !

Getting old is a process of unlearning our certitudes

[SeaGypsy]

To the OP.
Yes Ibon, weird thought but for those of us from the gentrified 'west' as likely a scenario as any. I remember my dad was a doomer about energy & economics, born in 45 died 2001, entire life utterly within the oil age, made me start thinking same could happen to me.

C8 is correct with her list. Though I'm not sure why most of Asia is not included in her areas of rapid decline. That there is much less tendency to extreme indiscriminate violence in Asia, the environmental management & corruption are as bad as anywhere, ignorance on the topic is normal, as is striving for western standards of consumption.

As to our children (most of us here have kid/s) what to do/ think/ say to support their lives into the increasingly uncertain future- my position is as others here- children are much more capable of adaptation than adults. As conscious parents, we should not be assisting the lying side of the world they are growing into. Be as honest as possible. Don't push the negative, but give realistic answers when asked & encourage a healthy diversity of skills. By time my kids are ready to move on, they will know how to sail, maintain a yacht, grow a garden, get along with people & use their minds & bodies constructively. They may choose to slip along in the mainstream, both being very bright self directed learners, this will be easy for them. But they will not be lining up at the soup kitchen with most of their peers if-when it all comes unstuck.

[ralfy]

In order to understand changes in the future, one has to realize that crises (environmental damage, global warming, peak oil, financial problems) are interconnected (some lead to, are caused by, or amplify others), that it is a global phenomenon (i.e., what one sees or experience locally does not reflect what has been taking place elsewhere), that some crises move slowly while others move faster or can create massive shocks in the system, that many of these crises (such as environmental damage) have been taking place for decades, and that the global economy has not yet grown to its full potential (i.e., most people are still poor but the global middle class has been growing).

[americandream]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ralfy', 'I')n order to understand changes in the future, one has to realize that crises (environmental damage, global warming, peak oil, financial problems) are interconnected (some lead to, are caused by, or amplify others), that it is a global phenomenon (i.e., what one sees or experience locally does not reflect what has been taking place elsewhere), that some crises move slowly while others move faster or can create massive shocks in the system, that many of these crises (such as environmental damage) have been taking place for decades, and that the global economy has not yet grown to its full potential (i.e., most people are still poor but the global middle class has been growing).

[onlooker]

True urbanization continues apace as both the lure of cities and materialism as well as the cold reality of big agriculture and it's monopoly making small subsistence farming a thing of the past. It seems that the only thing that will stop this tendency in capitalism is the resource constraints and environmental limits ie. GW.

[Ibon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('C8', 'I') don't feel my outlook is too colored by my age. I have two young sons that I want to see enter a bright world (very desperately).

My view is not a projection of my personal age- the world really is declining rapidly, civilization is dying

[americandream]

To those who think our species is arrogantly abusive of the planet in our numbers.....kindly set us lesser mortals an example.

Actions as they say.

[americandream]

One could call it the Voluntary Exit Society. :lol:

[jesus_of_suburbia]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', 'T')oday we have this absurd and novel orientation that we can somehow control the future for our children if only we would affect better regulations. We project our concern as parents way beyond the immediate of providing for our children and reach into their futures with high levels of anxiety about the hardships they will face later this century. No past generation really did this. And this is a sign of how we have all become socialized with a sense of self entitlement to a stable environment. It's interesting. We fear all the consequences of human overshoot coming up but actually in the past when our predators (germs, famine, wars, environmental calamities) constantly kept us in check we surrendered quite humbly our children's fate to an insecure future world. This is an unprecedented new orientation.

[americandream]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jesus_of_suburbia', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', 'T')oday we have this absurd and novel orientation that we can somehow control the future for our children if only we would affect better regulations. We project our concern as parents way beyond the immediate of providing for our children and reach into their futures with high levels of anxiety about the hardships they will face later this century. No past generation really did this. And this is a sign of how we have all become socialized with a sense of self entitlement to a stable environment. It's interesting. We fear all the consequences of human overshoot coming up but actually in the past when our predators (germs, famine, wars, environmental calamities) constantly kept us in check we surrendered quite humbly our children's fate to an insecure future world. This is an unprecedented new orientation.

[Ibon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('americandream', ' ')It is beginning to smell suspiciously like fascism around here.