Carbon Crisis 2014 Update: Planet Jenga

[robertpaulsen]

Carbon Crisis 2014 Update: Planet Jenga

While this post continues as an update to last year's post on the same subject, that Peak Oil and Global Warming being flip sides of the same coin should be condensed and renamed the Carbon Crisis, I hope to explore the situation from a more anthropological level, as well as defining the impending danger.

snip

Have you ever played Jenga? It's a game I only recently discovered when someone brought it to work. You stack 54 wooden blocks into a tower. Each player in their turn takes one block out from the tower and places it at the top, building the tower higher and higher while being careful not to disrupt the rest of the tower. The game ends when someone knocks the tower down, the winner being the last player to successfully put a block on top.

I believe, if I understand totalitarian agriculture correctly, that civilization has effectively turned Earth into Planet Jenga. We've been approaching turbo speed ever since our infrastructure was shifted to be predicated on cheap oil production, whereas prior to that we were on cruise control when our infrastructure was predicated on cheap coal production, which we had been since roughly 1750. But we were on that course even prior to that with the advent of agriculture. Not because agriculture itself is inherently environmentally corrosive, but because of the human attitudes that made it totalitarian agriculture as described by Daniel Quinn: "it all belongs to us: everything; every bit of it and we can do with it what we want."

more at link

http://americanjudas.blogspot.com/2014/10/carbon-crisis-2014-update-planet-jenga.html

[GliderGuider]

1. Nice work! It hits all the high notes.

From my POV, the the only missing pieces are the taming of fire (a root cause that preceded totalitarian ag and made everything else we've done possible) and an exploration of the influence evolution has had on human brains and behavior (aka evolutionary psychology).

It's divinely ironic that the first major human discovery - fire - will be the thing that does us in at last, through our relentless burning of fossil carbon.

[robertpaulsen]

3. Fire! The conception of technology.

Thanks, GliderGuider, that observation is right on! And just as agriculture is not inherently environmentally corrosive, fire has become a tool of destruction due to the human mindset rooted in a culture that values dominion over the planet as opposed to harmonious stewardship.

[GliderGuider]

4. Evolutionary psychology holds the answers as to why we value dominion and growth over harmony.

As a species and a collective civilization, at any rate. Put our evolved neuropsychology together with fire, and add a copious supply of fuel. The rest, as they say, is history.

[robertpaulsen]

6. Which leads to the inevitability you imply in your signature.

It would be nice if the Sermon on the Mount was correct regarding the meek inheriting the earth. But considering how Petroleum Man's neuropsychology has "evolved", I think Stanley Kubrick would beg to differ with Jesus.

[MisterP]

2. perhaps it's like bragging about how big your McMansion is in 2007

sure it's damp and 4 miles from even a gas station, but the market can only go up as long as the sector keeps growing!

[robertpaulsen]

5. Exactly!

I'm not the only one who believes that the economic crash from shale will be bigger than subprime.

[FogerRox]

7. Did you used to hamg @ TOD?

[robertpaulsen]

8. The Oil Drum?

I used to lurk there, great site. But I don't recall posting there.

[FogerRox]

9. You have a familiar screen name

I'll guess you've written on the peak oil subject?

[robertpaulsen]

10. Oh yeah, one of my favorite subjects.

I've posted at peakoil.com and used to regularly post on Matt Savinar's LATOC board. Now I usually just write on my blog and crosspost here when I can.

[robertpaulsen]

11. Thought this link from Richard Heinberg belongs on this thread.

Great analysis of oil prices as far as where we're at and where we're going.

The Oil Price Crash of 2014
http://www.postcarbon.org/the-oil-price-crash-of-2014/