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For the last half dozen years this web site has served as my "explorer's notebook". It documents, in a very personal voice, my journey of discovery through the worlds of energy, ecology, economics and human culture. It describes my point of view on the largely unrecognized, widely misunderstood and potentially tragic predicament facing humanity as a result of our refusal to accept limits on our activities or aspirations.

I no longer see any point in singling out individual aspects of the human experience for special attention or criticism. Population growth, climate change, global corporatism, chemical pollution, resource depletion, species extinctions, ocean overfishing and acidification, global financial instability, mounting social disparities and injustices are all merely symptoms of a system that has been out of control for centuries (despite our earnest attempts to convince ourselves otherwise.) We have no choice left - or perhaps we never really had any other choice - but to ride the dragon until the human overshoot corrects itself, as overshoots always do.

The silver lining I see is that all the pressures coming from this process of correction can be useful goads toward personal self-development. "In all matters, strive to do the right thing." What does this mean to each of us? What does mindful living in the midst of the whirlwind entail, what does it require of us in terms of personal growth, in the development of wisdom and self-awareness? How might each of us resolve our alienation - from each other, from our societies, from nature, from our own place in the universe? How may we find the re-connections that are essential if we are to emerge from this tumultuous, careless human adolescence into individual and collective adulthood? These are deep questions for dark times.
Paul Chefurka

The Visionary Art of Kathleen Farago May

Most Recent Articles:
The Many Faces of Denial (November 14, 2013)
Thermodynamics Reading List (November 9, 2013)
A Thermodynamic Answer to Fermi's Paradox (October 29, 2013)
A Thermodynamic Critique (October 19, 2013)
The Evolutionary Psychology of Fukushima (September 13, 2013)
Paradise Lost (July 25, 2013)
The Dawn of Cybernetic Civilization (July 16, 2013)
Thermodynamic Footprints (Updated March 23, 2013)
No Really, How Sustainable Are We? (May 16, 2013)
The Thermodynamics of Civilization (May 17, 2013)

"Ode to Louis
Sullivan" by Kathleen Farago May

Articles that outline the core of my views:

The Situation:
A 50,000-Foot View of the Global Crisis (July 8, 2011)
Population: The Elephant in the Room (May 2007)
Is Peak Population Almost Here? (February 22, 2011)
The Neuropsychology of Climate Change (December, 2009)
The Guardian Institutions of Hierarchy (July, 2009)
Carrying Capacity and Overshoot: Another Look (May 12, 2012)

My Response:

Climbing the Ladder of Awareness (October 19, 2012)
Enough! (November, 2010)
Bearing Witness to Collapse (April 26, 2011)
Introducing the Cultural Psychopomp (February 14, 2012)
Finding The Gift (September 29, 2012)

Complete list of articles

It's worth mentioning that there is also the possibility of a serious personal difficulty at this point. If someone cannot choose an outer path for whatever reasons, and is also resistant to the idea of inner growth or spirituality as a response the the crisis of an entire planet, then they are truly in a bind. There are few other doorways out of this depth of despair. If one remains stuck here for an extended period of time, life can begin to seem awfully bleak, and violence against either the world or oneself may begin begin to seem like a reasonable option. Keep a watchful eye on your own progress, and if you encounter someone else who may be in this state, please offer them a supportive ear.

For the last half dozen years this web site has served as my "explorer's notebook". It documents, in a very personal voice, my journey of discovery through the worlds of energy, ecology, economics and human culture. It describes my point of view on the largely unrecognized, widely misunderstood and potentially tragic predicament facing humanity as a result of our refusal to accept limits on our activities or aspirations. I no longer see any point in singling out individual aspects of the human experience for special attention or criticism. Population growth, climate change, global corporatism, chemical pollution, resource depletion, species extinctions, ocean overfishing and acidification, global financial instability, mounting social disparities and injustices are all merely symptoms of a system that has been out of control for centuries (despite our earnest attempts to convince ourselves otherwise.) We have no choice left - or perhaps we never really had any other choice - but to ride the dragon until the human overshoot corrects itself, as overshoots always do. The silver lining I see is that all the pressures coming from this process of correction can be useful goads toward personal self-development. "In all matters, strive to do the right thing." What does this mean to each of us? What does mindful living in the midst of the whirlwind entail, what does it require of us in terms of personal growth, in the development of wisdom and self-awareness? How might each of us resolve our alienation - from each other, from our societies, from nature, from our own place in the universe? How may we find the re-connections that are essential if we are to emerge from this tumultuous, careless human adolescence into individual and collective adulthood? These are deep questions for dark times. Paul Chefurka The Visionary Art of Kathleen Farago May Most Recent Articles: The Many Faces of Denial (November 14, 2013) Thermodynamics Reading List (November 9, 2013) A Thermodynamic Answer to Fermi's Paradox (October 29, 2013) A Thermodynamic Critique (October 19, 2013) The Evolutionary Psychology of Fukushima (September 13, 2013) Paradise Lost (July 25, 2013) The Dawn of Cybernetic Civilization (July 16, 2013) Thermodynamic Footprints (Updated March 23, 2013) No Really, How Sustainable Are We? (May 16, 2013) The Thermodynamics of Civilization (May 17, 2013) Articles that outline the core of my views: The Situation: A 50,000-Foot View of the Global Crisis (July 8, 2011) Population: The Elephant in the Room (May 2007) Is Peak Population Almost Here? (February 22, 2011) The Neuropsychology of Climate Change (December, 2009) The Guardian Institutions of Hierarchy (July, 2009) Carrying Capacity and Overshoot: Another Look (May 12, 2012) My Response: Climbing the Ladder of Awareness (October 19, 2012) Enough! (November, 2010) Bearing Witness to Collapse (April 26, 2011) Introducing the Cultural Psychopomp (February 14, 2012) Finding The Gift (September 29, 2012) Complete list of articles Climbing the Ladder of Awareness When it comes to our understanding of the unfolding global crisis, each of us seems to fit somewhere along a continuum of awareness that can be roughly divided into five stages: Dead asleep. At this stage there seem to be no fundamental problems, just some shortcomings in human organization, behaviour and morality that can be fixed with the proper attention to rule-making. People at this stage tend to live their lives happily, with occasional outbursts of annoyance around election times or the quarterly corporate earnings seasons. Awareness of one fundamental problem. Whether it's Climate Change, overpopulation, Peak Oil, chemical pollution, oceanic over-fishing, biodiversity loss, corporatism, economic instability or sociopolitical injustice, one problem seems to engage the attention completely. People at this stage tend to become ardent activists for their chosen cause. They tend to be very vocal about their personal issue, and blind to any others. Awareness of many problems. As people let in more evidence from different domains, the awareness of complexity begins to grow. At this point a person worries about the prioritization of problems in terms of their immediacy and degree of impact. People at this stage may become reluctant to acknowledge new problems - for example, someone who is committed to fighting for social justice and against climate change may not recognize the problem of resource depletion. They may feel that the problem space is already complex enough, and the addition of any new concerns will only dilute the effort that needs to be focused on solving the "highest priority" problem. Awareness of the interconnections between the many problems. The realization that a solution in one domain may worsen a problem in another marks the beginning of large-scale system-level thinking. It also marks the transition from thinking of the situation in terms of a set of problems to thinking of it in terms of a predicament. At this point the possibility that there may not be a solution begins to raise its head. People who arrive at this stage tend to withdraw into tight circles of like-minded individuals in order to trade insights and deepen their understanding of what's going on. These circles are necessarily small, both because personal dialogue is essential for this depth of exploration, and because there just aren't very many people who have arrived at this level of understanding. Awareness that the predicament encompasses all aspects of life. This includes everything we do, how we do it, our relationships with each other, as well as our treatment of the rest of the biosphere and the physical planet. With this realization, the floodgates open, and no problem is exempt from consideration or acceptance. The very concept of a "Solution" is seen through, and cast aside as a waste of effort. For those who arrive at Stage 5 there is a real risk that depression will set in. After all, we've learned throughout our lives that our hope for tomorrow lies in our ability to solve problems today. When no amount of human cleverness appears able to solve our predicament the possibility of hope can vanish like a the light of a candle flame, to be replaced by the suffocating darkness of despair. How people cope with despair is of course deeply personal, but it seems to me there are two general routes people take to reconcile themselves with the situation. These are not mutually exclusive, and most of us will operate out of some mix of the two. I identify them here as general tendencies, because people seem to be drawn more to one or the other. I call them the outer path and the inner path. If one is inclined to choose the outer path, concerns about adaptation and local resilience move into the foreground, as exemplified by the Transition Network and Permaculture Movement. To those on the outer path, community-building and local sustainability initiatives will have great appeal. Organized party politics seems to be less attractive to people at this stage, however. Perhaps politics is seen as part of the problem, or perhaps it's just seen as a waste of effort when the real action will take place at the local level. If one is disinclined to choose the outer path either because of temperament or circumstance, the inner path offers its own set of attractions. Choosing the inner path involves re-framing the whole thing in terms of consciousness, self-awareness and/or some form of transcendent perception. For someone on this path it is seen as an attempt to manifest Gandhi's message, "Become the change you wish to see in the world," on the most profoundly personal level. This message is similarly expressed in the ancient Hermetic saying, "As above, so below." Or in plain language, "In order to heal the world, first begin by healing yourself." However, the inner path does not imply a "retreat into religion". Most of the people I've met who have chosen an inner path have as little use for traditional religion as their counterparts on the outer path have for traditional politics. Organized religion is usually seen as part of the predicament rather than a valid response to it. Those who have arrived at this point have no interest in hiding from or easing the painful truth, rather they wish to create a coherent personal context for it. Personal spirituality of one sort or another often works for this, but organized religion rarely does. It's worth mentioning that there is also the possibility of a serious personal difficulty at this point. If someone cannot choose an outer path for whatever reasons, and is also resistant to the idea of inner growth or spirituality as a response the the crisis of an entire planet, then they are truly in a bind. There are few other doorways out of this depth of despair. If one remains stuck here for an extended period of time, life can begin to seem awfully bleak, and violence against either the world or oneself may begin begin to seem like a reasonable option. Keep a watchful eye on your own progress, and if you encounter someone else who may be in this state, please offer them a supportive ear. From my observations, each successive stage contains roughly a tenth of the number people as the one before it. So while perhaps 90% of humanity is in Stage 1, less than one person in ten thousand will be at Stage 5 (and none of them are likely to be politicians). The number of those who have chosen the inner path in Stage 5 also seems to be an order of magnitude smaller than the number who are on the outer path. I happen to have chosen an inner path as my response to a Stage 5 awareness. It works well for me, but navigating this imminent (transition, shift, metamorphosis - call it what you will), will require all of us - no matter what our chosen paths - to cooperate on making wise decisions in difficult times. Best wishes for a long, exciting and fulfilling journey. Bodhi Paul Chefurka October 19, 2012
Articles
Factual Articles The Many Faces of Denial (November 14, 2013) Thermodynamics Reading List (November 9, 2013) A Thermodynamic Answer to Fermi's Paradox (October 29, 2013) A Thermodynamic Critique (October 19, 2013) The Evolutionary Psychology of Fukushima (September 13, 2013) Paradise Lost (July 25, 2013) The Dawn of Cybernetic Civilization (July 16, 2013) Looking at the Limit (May 27, 2013) No Really, How Sustainable Are We? (May 16, 2013) Thermodynamic Footprints (Updated March 23, 2013) Climbing the Ladder of Awareness (October 19, 2012) Carrying Capacity and Overshoot: Another Look (May 12, 2012) A Taxonomy and Epistemology of the Human Predicament (May 24, 2011) Responding to Peak Food, Oil and Population (February 24, 2011) Is Peak Population Almost Here? (February 22, 2011) The Oil-Fired, Grain-Fed Global Food Crisis (February 17, 2011) How tight is the link between oil, food and population? (February 15, 2011) Connecting the Dots: Food, Fossil Fuel and Population (January 31, 2011) Our Interactive Ecological Predicament (January, 2011) Population Redux (January, 2011) Food Prices and Oil Prices (November, 2010) Decarbonizing Civilization (November, 2010) The Footprints of Consumption (December, 2009) Population, Consumption and our Ecological Footprint (December, 2009) The 2012 Meme (November, 2009) From the Head to the Heart (PDF of presentation, Oct. 2009) The Guardian Institutions of Hierarchy (July, 2009) The Limits to (Population) Growth (July, 2009) How the heck did it come to this? (March, 2009) Homo Economicus, Homo Ecologicus (December, 2008) Approaching the Limits To Growth (PDF of presentation slides, Oct. 2008) The Ecology of Overpopulation (September, 2008) None of the Above (September, 2008) Political Will, Political Won't (September, 2008) Who Am I? (Jan. 2008) Energy Use and Population Growth (August 2008) The View From the Peak (Mar. 2007) A Peak Oil Story on CBC TV (Mar. 2007) The Converging Crisis (radio interview - Jan. 2008) The Converging Crisis (PDF of presentation slides - Feb. 2008) A List of Countries with Energy Supply Problems (Feb. 2008) Why I am Against Biofuels (May 2007) Mexico: Peak Oil in Action (Sep. 2007) The Saudi Peak - a Hypothesis about the Iraq War (May 2007) Oil Prices in 2012 (May 2008)	Hopeful Articles Finding The Gift (September 29, 2012) A Postcard From the Path (June 6, 2012) Introducing the Cultural Psychopomp (February 14, 2012) The Destiny of Species by Means of Natural Progression (October 15, 2011) Creating a new "Natural Order" (May 18, 2011) Reality and Illusion, Awareness and Love (April 23, 2011) Slaying the Hydra (March 14, 2011) Enough! (November, 2010) Finding Peace of Mind (February, 2010) Reflections on a Non-Theistic Spirituality (January, 2010) Transfiguration (Oct. 2009) Attachments, Connections and Love (Oct. 2009) The Story of my Vision Quest (Aug. 2009) Reflections on the Vision Quest (Aug. 2009) What is Enlightenment? (July, 2009) The Importance of Enlightenment (June, 2009) The Message of Overconsumption (June, 2009) A Way of Seeing (June, 2009) Hide or Seek? (May, 2009) The Awakening (May, 2009) The Global Movement that Barack Obama Isn't Leading (May, 2009) Meat Computers with Cultural Programs (April, 2009) Sacred Demise (March, 2009) The Parable of the Marriage (November, 2008) Gathering Momentum (November, 2008) From Despair to Hope (November, 2008) Separation, Awakening and Revolution (November, 2008) Changing the Dream (October, 2008) The Twelve Suggestions (October, 2008) The Spiritual Effects of Comprehending the Crisis (Aug, 2008) (July, 2008) Solutions or Responses? (July, 2008) The Potential for Conflict (July, 2008) Cultural Change at the Limits to Growth (May 2008) Fighting Despair (Feb. 2008) Population Decline - Red Herrings and Hope (July 2007) What Can I Do? A Personal Action Plan (June 2007) An Acronym for the Times: I HELP (Apr. 2007) Recommended: The Awakening the Dreamer Initiative Recommended: The Ascent of Humanity (online book)
Less Hopeful Articles A 50,000-Foot View of the Global Crisis (July 8, 2011) Bearing Witness to Collapse (April 26, 2011) Urbanitemares (January, 2010) The Neuropsychology of Climate Change (December, 2009) The New Normal (December, 2008) Is Fusion the Answer? (August, 2008) Time Horizons, Overshoot, Genetics and Resilience (Jan. 2007) Why We Don't See Risks: The Hyperbolic Discount Function (Mar. 2007) Demographic Transition Through Increased Energy? (Aug. 2007) Why Tinkering Won't Fix It (Jan. 2008)	Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here Population: The Elephant in the Room (May 2007) World Energy and Population: Trends to 2100 (Oct. 2007) A multi-part analysis of the near future: Part 1: World Energy to 2050: Forty Years of Decline (Oct. 2007) Part 2: Energy Intensity and GDP: To Have or Have Not (Dec. 2007) Part 3: Can Wind Power Plug the Energy Gap? (Feb. 2008) Part 4: Africa in 2040 (HTML) (PDF) (Feb. 2008)
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