Thread by @aashisjo

The climate is a complex system that has always changed, although it had been remarkably stable over the past 10k years. Civilizations in the past have frequently collapsed, primarily as a result of crop failures when climate change & ecological degradation were severe enough.
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In the modern industrial era, however, fossil fuels & all the extractivism, technology & industrial processes they power have shielded us from the vagaries of the earth’s climate & enabled human population to consume & grow beyond the carrying capacity of its ecosystems.
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As our population & energy & materials consumption (the economy) keeps growing by devouring wild habitats & ecosystems—for agriculture & livestock & to extract resources—they leave in their wake a wrecked & polluted biosphere, a rapidly inhospitable climate, & what will...
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... likely turn out the worst mass extinction event in 100s of millions of years. There is a limit to what our finite planet & its ecosystems can endure before breaking & in turn unleashing mayhem on ourselves.
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Now the combined & cascading effects of modern industrial humankind’s all-encompassing destruction of our climate & the biosphere is set to overwhelm our technological & political capacity to maintain the stability of the modern world (while keeping in mind how unjust...
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... & dysfunctional it already is—a feature by design of the extractivist-colonialist techno-industrial capitalist world order).

The most devastating impact of the climate & ecological damage we’ve caused is going to be on our ability to grow sufficient food for 8bn people.
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Vast numbers of people will also need to migrate to different places & across borders to escape heatwaves, droughts, floods, famine, sea level rise & wars & conflicts.
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How can we ever begin to realistically & adequately address the terrifying existential crises that loom on the horizon when we’re so stuck in our artificial social-political-economic creations such as nation-states & the neoliberal techno-industrial capitalist system?
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These modern ways of organizing societies lie at the root of our environmental destruction as well as social & geopolitical inequities & injustices, but they are incredibly resistant to reform & change as they have a cultural momentum & are backed by the wealthy & powerful...
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... classes who wield control over institutions & technologies of violence & over most peoples’ livelihoods.

How do we collectively escape the oppressive & ecocidal death trap of modern civilization? Our future & the future of all remaining life on our planet depends on it.
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Addendum:

A crucial difference between earlier civilizations & our modern one is of course that they were much smaller & less connected & interdependent. We now have a globalized economy of great size & complexity along with a geopolitical world order in which...
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... Global North & Western nations maintain their domination using advanced weapons & tools of violence, propaganda & control, including new technologies such as AI.

Our modern civilization is a lot more vulnerable to systemic shocks, disruptions & to wars & conflicts...
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... over resources, many of which are in degradation & decline. Our inability to deal with the root causes & the consequences of climate & ecological breakdown—many of which are already locked in—will therefore be much more destructive & painful.
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