Chris Clugston
The vast majority of our population, mainstream America, maintains the belief that we are on the road to the promise land—perpetual economic growth and prosperity enabled by unlimited natural resources. Moreover, they believe that our American way of life is a birthright, our destiny; “the American way of life is not negotiable”.
A small but growing minority of concerned citizens, the informed few, understands that we are actually on the highway to hell—the road to societal collapse. They implore us to slow down—to “conserve natural resources”, to “reduce our impact on the environment”, to “balance our budgets”. But we dare not do anything “too drastic”; it wouldn’t be “socially acceptable”.
The reality is that we are running flat out on the highway to hell, and that societal collapse is imminent—possibly within 5 years, probably within 15 years, and almost certainly within 25 years. Our only rational course of action is to “get off” the highway—to transition quickly and beginning immediately to a sustainable lifestyle paradigm. The consequences associated with “getting off” will be very painful—significant reductions in our population level and material living standards—but they pale in comparison to the consequences associated with “staying on”. …
Perceptions of our current situation:
Mainstream America believes that we have experienced transitory economic, social, and political problems throughout our country’s history; and that since we have always successfully resolved our problems in the past and have continuously improved our level of material wellbeing in the process, we have nothing to fear today.
Concerned citizens believe that our orgy of excess caused a litany of ecological and economic problems, which are placing ever-increasing stress on our overtaxed ecosystems and economy. As a result, we are rapidly approaching various “tipping points” that could cause serious lifestyle disruptions if we fail to “act soon” by stopping the orgy and addressing its consequent problems.
Because they perceive “cyclical-ity” to be the “natural order of things”, mainstream America trivializes or totally denies our current predicament. They hold a faith-based belief that our problems will always resolve themselves favorably, because they always have in the past.
Concerned citizens correctly perceive that our orgy of excess and its consequent ecological and economic problems pose serious threats to our American way of life, but they erroneously conclude that the orgy itself and its derivative problems are our primary concern.
The reality is that our American way of life—300+ million people enjoying historically unprecedented material living standards—is not sustainable; it is not even close to being sustainable.
Over-exploited sources of the critical ecological resources and economic resources upon which our existing lifestyle paradigm depends will prove to be woefully inadequate to support our ever-increasing population level and material living standards in the not-too-distant future.
Overly-depleted natural resource reserves, overly-degraded natural habitats, and overly-stressed sources of pseudo purchasing power will be unable to meet our rising domestic requirements, let alone ever-increasing global demand. We are grossly overextended—living far beyond our means—both ecologically and economically.
Our transition to a sustainable lifestyle paradigm is inevitable; our choice involves the process by which we effect our transition. We can transition voluntarily, thereby mitigating the associated lifestyle disruptions—population level reductions and material living standard degradation—or, we can refrain from taking meaningful action and allow Nature to orchestrate our transition, the results of which will be horrific.