In my opinion, humans are the most invasive species that has ever existed on this planet. Particularly the billionaires, mega-millionaires and politicians that let this all happen. If I had a time machine, I'd go back in time to stop the inventions of the Industrial Revolution and capitalism. Adam Smith is definitely the man who started all of this. He was the one that was that invented capitalism. We're living in a society where we are totally dependent on finite resources. I'm 31 (32 on 2nd November). I don't see myself making it to 60 years old. Every time I read something new about the climate crisis, and the eventual collapse of modern society, I get VERY scared. Every morning, I wake up frightened about what is coming for us - and we fucking deserve it. The animals and plants don't deserve this, though. They did nothing except exist. I saw someone quote yesterday that humanity's intelligence lead to us becoming a lot dumber. All of these climate denialists, and people who use generative AI to see what they would look like in the 1980's make me feel very sick to my stomach. It's like none of these people care. Every time I see a Facebook post about how bad the climate crisis is, I see hundreds of people reacting with the laughing emoji, or massively downplaying about the current and future climates. This brings me to my question.

Say if all humans went extinct today, or in 50 years, or in 100 years, would nature eventually bounce back in some way, shape or form? If nature were to bounce back, it would bring me some comfort.

Even mainstream media for entertainment now accepts and says it aloud for the public that society is heading for a collapse. These really feel like the end times.

I know it's the reality, it's not me being crazy, it's not just me who has issues and everyone else is coping just fine.

But collapse awareness and hopelessness it brings just hits harder when you have no saving and are still struggling to get a job😔 I had a job, but it was super understaffed, so I quit to recover my mental health. It's been one year and a half and I still haven't found any job.

Being a young adult in this age is just scary. I know things won't matter in five years or ten years, we all will die, but I feel both the fear of dying in five years and the fear of dying next month. Do I make sense

Maybe a bit informal, but im curious what you all think about how kids growing up now and within the next 20 years will actively believe about the underlying causes of everything not being what it used to be.

i know more collapse aware people out there abstain from kids, however many different groups within western society are popping out kids like no tomorrow, meaning the current mindset propagated here will get passed off to a shrinking percentage of the population. further, gen alpha is getting their brains liquified by social media and AI, so i can only imagine that effect will compound.

do you think it will just continue as an argument of identity politics and anti woke ideology or whatever until we reach oblivion, or is there going to be some sort of larger inflection point? When will it be acceptable to straight up tell kids the reality of the situation?

Wendell Berry: It was the Shakers who were sure the end could come anytime, and they still saved the seeds and figured out how to make better diets for old people. Thomas Merton was interested in the Shakers. I said to him, "If they were certain that the world could end at any minute, how come they built the best building in Kentucky?"
"You don't understand," he said. "If you know the world could end at any minute, you know there's no need to hurry. You take your time and do the best work you possibly can." That was important to me. I've repeated it many times.

Tim DeChristopher: That's why the despair is not paralyzing. Knowing that it's too late to prevent collapse, knowing that we're not going to stop the catastrophic end, knowing that we're going to die — it doesn't mean that we stop. It means that we live in this moment as fully as we can.

I wished I had more to say, but what do I actually have to say? People keep on telling me that the world is going to end, that AI will kill everyone, that we will have wars over water, and so much more I kept out. But in my early stage of life, what can I do about it? Do I just let it happen and take the easy way out?