In the interview below clinical psychologist Peter Miller interviews Professor Guy McPherson and Kevin Hester about the psychological ramifications of reporting on and living through the unraveling of the biosphere as the sixth great extinction gains momentum in a non-linear fashion.
Below is the Joanna Macy quote I read out and the embedded link to her excellent essay “The Greatest Danger”.
“Because of social taboos, despair at the state of our world and fear for our future are rarely acknowledged. The suppression of despair, like that of any deep recurring response, contributes to the numbing of the psyche. Expressions of anguish or outrage are muted, deadened as if a nerve had been cut. This refusal to feel impoverishes our emotional and sensory life. Flowers are dimmer and less fragrant, our loves less ecstatic. We create diversions for ourselves as individuals and as nations, in the fights we pick, the aims we pursue, and the stuff we buy.” The Greatest Danger; Joanna Macy
Additionally I mentioned the seminal work recently released by both Jem Bendell and Rupert Read which I have covered previously on this blog here;
Jem Bendell on Deep Adaptation, Climate Change and Societal Collapse;
The BBC “Global Dimming” documentary we mentioned is embedded in a previous blog post on this website here;
Professor McPherson and I will be interviewing Truthout.org staff reporter Dahr Jamail on his latest book “The End of Ice” in this months episode of Nature Bats Last on the Progressive Radio Network at 3pm EST on the 5th of April, 9.00 am on the 6th Kiwi time, the episode will be up loaded to the Nature Bats Last archive a few hours after the show has been broadcast.
Good luck everybody, we sure are going to need it.
I'm an anti-imperialist, environmental activist and blue ocean sailor, who is passionate about the earth and all it's inhabitants without favour. Brace for imminent impact as we bare witness to the non-linear unraveling of the biosphere and habitability disappearing for most if not all complex life on the only habitable planet we know of. To quote President Niinistö in North Russia: ‘If We Lose the Arctic, We Lose the World’. Folks we have lost the Arctic.
Kevin Hester 
A question. As long civilization doesn’t collapse, Global Dimming isn’t a problem but something that helps us kick the can down the road. If/when the civilization collapses, Global Dimming must be a minor problem compared to whatever it is that will cause the collapse. Is this right or is this one of my stupid days?
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Global Dimming is the thread that holds the Sword of Damocles above our head. The thread is our salvation for the time being.
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It’s hard to quantify when we consider the consequences of the collapse of Ind’ Civ’ is so epic but a doubling of existing warming in a matter of weeks is nothing to be discounted, even in the perfect storm!
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Set in stone I’d say, even the BBC are forced to discuss it!
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190218-are-we-on-the-road-to-civilisation-collapse?fbclid=IwAR2qMsr9nPdsmQCJnhxP7hq-IcgOlaSlH6_2lPbllR0Y1Yk7Ua9ko57MS_k
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Guy and Peter continue the discussion and in Guy’s blog post is embedded the full series of discussions previous to this one;
https://guymcpherson.com/2019/03/round-seven-with-peter-miller/?fbclid=IwAR1nTmY_Mj5UXqoyOewzL0TF5nTAytcFkidNQkEqcgQ08ZHX5kRm18FA2bk
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The debate between Peter Miller and Professor Guy McPherson continues;
https://guymcpherson.com/2019/06/round-nine-with-peter-miller/?fbclid=IwAR3HmdabFYFu7qd7A9EzQxsqT5DvSGnG9q9ZZDwQhe8Ho1QQaMY2yFiFBEg
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“I’m not really a catastrophist,” Joughin said. “But the integrity of the ice shelf is definitely in question.”
I detect scientific reticence. Clearly the glacier is in irreversible collapse.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/06/11/pine-island-ice-shelf-collapse/?fbclid=IwAR3nUsGWXJjJ0dfzx7Y2El0PlIilATbtphm76RHLbFSTjgWroqHhhC1N2dU
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