Isn’t that the essence of what we’ve been doing? The unconscious search for euphemism, even to the point of co-opting Franklin’s “a rising, not a setting sun,” in the service of infinite expansion and growth predicated on the psychological conundrum that we just can’t stomach anything else. Come on.
This is what the hard ceiling at the top of the bubble feels like – it looks so beautiful out there, but we keep hitting something… thump, thump… and we don’t understand it, how can this be? How can actual limits have the gall to encroach upon our reality? By what right should we have our grandest illusions crushed with such brutal impunity?
The limits have always been there, it was us who decided to weave their disguise into our destiny. Instead of using them, they will now attempt to manipulate us into a more sustainable existence. Again.
Humanity’s footprint on the earth – 21.9 hectares per person
Earth’s biological capacity – 15.7 ha./person
Sooner or later, the Earth will come back into equilibrium, where resources generated will equal resources used; the question is, how will humans be a part of this equilibrium?
Must we reacquaint ourselves with this?