The World’s End

You know, I actually think this piece is about the author's pending death and their relationship with it.

The first sentence of the piece starts:

``` I'm going to lay out a series of fascinating facts and let you decide whether the world is likely to end within, say, 100 years. ``` And then goes on to talk about nuclear weapons and Poseidons and climate change and all the terrible things that have a decent chance of happening. As an aside if you're looking at doomsday weapons I'd go for the dual vector foil from the Three Body Problem series.

Anyway, one thing is pretty much assured in the next hundred years: You will die. I will die.

And thinking about it that way helps reason about the rest of the piece. Why are we living, how can we get involved and make a difference? The author argues we should become better at politics, less tribal, and find the poetry in nature. I agree. I agree with it all.

I've been reading the biography on Steve Jobs lately and the certainty of death, he said, was his greatest tool for help in getting on living. And that's what we need to do everyday, get on with the busy task of living.

While those concerns are valid, my biggest concerns are the coming great simplification as we hit the backside of the carbon pulse that's been fueling civilization for the past 200 years.

Europe is already scrambling for firewood. Supplies of energy, and fertilizer, both important inputs to our food supply, have been disrupted.

Making it even worse for many will be the additional complication of deglobalization, as the US withdraws from it's policy of being the world's policeman and guarantor of free trade between nations.

The longer term climate change might be partially solved by the end of the carbon pulse, but it'll still disrupt most people's lives.

We're in for a rough decade or two.