1. Stabilized and Favourable climate facilitated:
-
-
Agriculture
-
Towns development
-
Population increases
-
Wood, wind and water are the energy sources
-
-
Division of labour
-
Learning accumulation
-
2. Fossil Fuels enabled:
Heating and mechanical energy to do work and make things never before possible
More reliable crops with irrigation, mechanization and fertilizer
Expansion of viable settlements into more extreme climate areas
Access to resources “opening up the planet for extraction”
Ability to go places, live in extreme environments and make things never before
possibleFreed up huge numbers of workers from manual labour and gave rise to research and
innovation at all levelsHelped us dig our own grave through extreme exploitation of the planet
3. Ageing Opportunity
(link: https://sustainablesociety.com/research-material/aging/ )
Termination of population growth and slow decline
End of growth-forever and war on the planet
Infrastructure stops spreading over the planet’s surface like a prairie wildfire
Reduction of per capita consumption and overall consumption
Reduction of competition/wars for resources
Stepping stone to cross threshold into sustainability
Allows effort made to expand infrastructure to be applied to upgrading existing infrastructure
Resources/capita richness
Infrastructure resilience i.e. quality improvements rather than expansion and decay of existing infrastructure
Increased investment in renewables, food and energy resilience
Rewilding
Ageing marks the end of the expansion of what Bill Rees termed “the human enterprise”. Post-ageing consumption will drop and human culture will reduce its vainglorious consumption patterns. Materialism will take a step back and infrastructure investment will transition from expansion to maintenance and upgrading, thereby lowering long term costs and increasing climate change resilience.
The permanent shift to a higher percentage of older people in the population dampens the impact of humanity’s collision with planetary boundaries. (See our interactive population projection graph which now features dependence ratios). This godsend is regarded by the parasitic growth lobby as an absolute disaster, and in fact, for them, it is. Good riddance.
https://sustainablesociety.com/interactive-canadian-population-projection-graph/
Select your own projection and see the outcomes.
“Expand or die” formed much of the thinking of leaders throughout history. A combination of shrinking resources and expanding populations created a continuous demand for “more”. And “more” usually meant what neighbouring countries had. The pursuit of endless growth makes a culture of endless war inevitable.
Invaded countries might have been in exactly the same state of perilous population/resource balance but if they could be conquered, their population could be removed or reduced yielding a worthwhile increase in resources for the victor. Colonial wars generally involve a significant level of genocide or they wouldn’t be worthwhile. See Russia/Ukraine, Israel/Palestine as current examples.
In the age of population stability, imperial wars are far less of an imperative and nations can skip combat and the nasty bits and go straight to the victory parade of progress.
One Last Great Opportunity
Humanity is in the process of leaving the era of a stable and favourable climate – our Goldilocks Zone. The planet’s resource base is being depleted and costs are increasing which reduces disposable per capita income.
Our last big break comes in the form of ageing which will end our acceleration into resource collapse and reduce the long term stress we put on the planet. Ageing, if properly handled, will allow us to preserve progress and finally achieve sustainability and be at peace with this beautiful planet we live on.