I absolutely hate, hate, HATE how software environments are often called "ecosystems".
An ecosystem is a living organic structure on a living planet (more specifically, Earth, since we haven't found any other living planets yet), made from all kinds of organisms -- bacteria, archaea, fungi, all kinds of arthropods from tiny mites to big beetles and bumblebees, and far too few vertebrates nowadays because of the fucking Industrial Age. We've been ruining ecosystems at high speed ever since Columbus kickstarted colonialism, but then the steam engine came, constantly accelerating the growth our cancer of an economy, and after WW2 we started the afterburner. We've been destroying ecosystems at supersonic speed for eight decades, we can see them fall apart before our eyes. People have been seing the living world around them getting killed since the dirty old mills of the Black Country, and since the 1960s, a growing green movement all over the planet has been trying to stop the madness. And we aren't really very good at it, are we? This entire mess of a civilisation is running out of control, collapse has probably already begun, we're in ecological overshoot like Wile E. Coyote hanging in midair. Capitalism won't last much longer because it becomes dysfunctional when there isn't any real growth left, and we have not only reached the global growth limits, we have exceeded them, which means that the economy will eventually shrink by more than half, which isn't a recession or even a Second Great Depression, it is an utter collapse of the economy. If those of us who survive that can somehow built a sustainable type of economy from the leftovers, this industrial civilisation might not collapse completely just yet, entering a time of slow decline instead, and an entire new civilisation might grow in some other parts of the world, maybe in Africa, maybe in Asia, and spread across the world as the European type of civilisation slowly vanishes. Who knows? Right now, we need to learn how to survive in times of collapse. And the best way to do so is to learn how to do things properly which will still be relevant when there are no more computers or big factories or giant office buildings.

I am part of an ecosystem, as I am one of many, many animals who live in this landscape. And like other animals, I need to eat some of the organisms who live here in order to survive. I'm a huge threat to every individual potato or chicken, yet my presence leads to the presence of more potatoes and chickens, which is one of all my interactions with the ecosystem. I can't do anything without my actions having consequences for the ecosystem of which I am but a tiny part. Some people today are as afraid of the ongoing global climate catastrophe as they should be, but only very few realise that the biodiversity crisis aka the Sixth Extinction is far worse and far more frightening.

And some IT guys who know fucking zilch about ecology have the bloody audacity to call some software environment an "ecosystem". I find it very annoying. Fucking techbros should think more and talk less.

#biodiversitycrisis #extinction #sixthextinction #globalwarming #climatecrisis #biospheredecline #capitalism #economicgrowth #limitstogrowth #overshoot #collapse #πολυκρίσης #polykrisis #polycrisis #ecosystem

It is obvious that exponential growth can not go on unlimited in a limited system. There are #LimitsToGrowth in every finite system. So what will the future bring while the superrich hide in their bunkers (even they are unsure how, as Douglas Rushkoff describes in his book)? A..

a) societal collapse and we go extinct
b) societal collapse and we go back to pre-industrial middle ages
c) societal collapse and we create a sustainable post-capitalist economy

I don't know. What do you think? Can we avoid a collapse of a society which is based on exponential growth and exploitation of fossil fuels or is a collapse inevitable?
https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=how-everything-can-collapse-a-manual-for-our-times--9781509541386

Our politicians constantly ask for new growth. #Growth means more jobs, more tax revenues and more money to spend. To enable more growth they make more debt. And to pay back the debt they need again more growth. An endless loop of demand for new debt and demand for new growth (to payback debt) emerges.

Until the loop hits one day the #LimitsToGrowth and reaches the point of #PeakOil. We tend to ignore that the resources of a finite world are limited. Authors like Peter Zeihan ("The End of the World Is Just the Beginning") or Pablo Servigne and Raphaël Stevens ("How Everything Can Collapse") have described what happens next: the whole system starts to #collapse.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_the_World_Is_Just_the_Beginning

Human #wellbeing on a #FinitePlanet towards 2100: new study shows humanity at a crossroads

A new paper by members of Earth4All’s scientific advisory team published today in Global Sustainability models two starkly different futures for humanity this century: one defined by escalating crises compounded by rising social tension, the other by a bold transformation towards wellbeing for all. The findings emphasise the importance of considering wellbeing and social cohesion when studying how planetary risks, inequality and social tensions interact.

4 July 2025

Excerpt: "Boost social cohesion and wellbeing for successful climate action

"A key innovation of the study is the introduction of two novel indices: social tension and wellbeing. This enabled the researchers to model not just the complex interactions between economic and #environmental factors in the two scenarios, but also include social feedback loops capturing trust, public investment, and political capacity. The modelling results suggests that rising #inequality and environmental degradation fuel social tensions, which in turn reduce governments’ capacity to implement the long-term policies needed to address existential risks linked to climate change and other planetary boundaries.

" 'By integrating a social tension index and a wellbeing index, we have been able to highlight the importance of social dynamics in climate scenarios,' explained co-author #NathalieSpittler of #BOKUUniversity. 'Achieving climate goals is not just a question of technological and economic developments. If wellbeing declines and social tensions rise, this creates a negative feedback loop where the very conditions needed for transformational change become harder to achieve.'

"Conversely, the study suggests that actions to reduce inequality and increase #SocialCohesion and wellbeing are key if governments want to implement policy shifts on #climate and other global issues."

Read more [includes link to the paper]:
https://earth4all.life/news/human-wellbeing-on-a-finite-planet-towards-2100-new-study-shows-humanity-at-a-crossroads/

#SolarPunkSunday #Earth4All #ClimateChange #BuildingCommunity #BuildResilience #GiantLeap #GiantLeapScenario #LtG #LimitsToGrowth #StabilizedWorld

🌿 I like this blog post by @maxwilbert. It highlights the problem with speaking of environmental issues in terms of 'limiting ourselves'. Because that carries the implication that until these limits are reached, we can do whatever we want.

Instead of external limits, he argues (in agreement with author Giorgos Kallis), we should look for internal limits: ways of limiting our own behaviour to be more in line with the world around us – not just because of the consequences, but also because of the freedom and justice such limit-setting entails.

I like this.

However, I disagree with the wording here. I think we can go one step further and not speak in terms of 'limits' at all. I am not limited by the fact that I cannot take a private jet everywhere I go; I am positively happy about it. I am not limited by my non-consumption of animal products, it makes me feel great. What Wilbert and Kallis call 'self-limitation', I call flourishing.

As long as we keep thinking in terms of limitation/expansion, we stay stuck in the capitalist-imperialist mindset. This mindset sees expansion as the only way forward, with everything else being 'stagnation' or 'regression' and therefore Bad. Whereas what we should be looking for is ways to grow our quality of life without growing our destructive footprint.

In my humble opinion, of course.

🔗 https://maxwilbert.substack.com/p/the-problem-with-limits

#degrowth #MaxWilbert #LimitsToGrowth #environment #EnvironmentalPhilosophy #GiorgosKallis #sufficiency #abundance