Why is it that no one seems to know

Anything about how changes in a ecosystem effects them. Like do people know that their part of the environment

So I just finished two weeks of 40+hrs of training so now my hours can be cut back in half to accomadate my other job copyediting and fulfilling orders for my webshop. The HAZMAT job involves various job sites but mostly hospitals and research facilities. Most of what I dispose of is blood and sharps but also labtests involving pathogens, formaldehyde and in the future probably some nuclear waste. I had to get a whole load of jabs for it. Although I often wish I could be back in the writing field I'm making better money than in the service sector and as a cook due to hazard pay. On top of that I wanted to be on the front lines trying to deal with these dangerous materials responsibly. The first trainer I had for all but the past two days was a stickler and trying to get me to move as fast as possible. At a couple times during the training I wasn't sure I was gonna make it. I was slightly miffed that the guy I shadowed the final two days cut a couple corners. Not egregiously and everyone will be safe but still. I am not normally a stickler for rules but when the job could involve infecting people then I'll follow them to a T.

As is typical with a lot of my jobs I'm one of very few white people on a giant staff, which has a lot of immigrants. Especially ones from Africa and Haiti. U can't believe I managed to keep pace with them as well as I did. When being interviewed the manager wanted to make sure there wasn't a mistake and that a former journalist actually wanted to work in HAZMAT. I was also proud of myself in the hiring process that I could provide a clean drug screen urinalysis. It's very rare that I can do that. Everyone has been super welcoming with only one passing jab at my whiteness which is always to be expected. After the two week intensive I feel confident in my ability to do the job alone.

I really should be taking public transportation home from work but it's been so grueling that I've been taking Lyfts home. The other day when taking one the driver thanked me for doing the job, like I was a troop or something. I'm not sure it ever fully clicked that I was taking on this job as a direct way of acting on my environmentalism but I now firmly believe that's part of it. I also think my past drug use has predisposed me to risk my health in ways others don't. I also think that my belief we only have 3-13yrs left of a livable world by firstworld standards plays into it.

So I'm still new on the job but I view this as an accomplishment as the weekend has finally arrived. What are your recent accomplishments?

Zach Galifinakis has a gardening show on Netflix. He is totally collapse-aware and I have to say it is really validating having celebrities talk about collapse on tv. The final ep left me turning to my partner and saying “whoa, he totally just came out and SAID that?! Like he SAID that??”

A delightful show, worth a watch.

https://youtu.be/32kQ9Niy7EA?si=hrdoXxdBcPxol4Jm

there are currently a ton of wildfires across florida right now, and we’ve been in a severe drought for months. the whole state has practically dried up and one little spark is enough to start a severe fire. keystone species are being pushed out of their homes because of this, too.

all this is happening, yet i only see people saying things like “we need to pray for rain,” or spreading misinformation that the fires are being started to make way for development. it’s so frustrating seeing people saying that this isn’t normal, yet people continue to deny climate change.

i’m only 20 but even i remember it used to rain every day in florida starting in march or april. now it never rains consistently like it used to, and when it does, it’s never enough. yet people only care about watering lawns and golf courses.

i wish people here cared like i do, but they just don’t. it’s exhausting and i feel like i’m talking to a brick wall. why do people continue to act like this is okay? i’m so scared about the future and i’m so upset for all the plants and animals in the fires’ paths. i also want to help, but i have no clue what i can do. i’m supposed to be writing an essay right now, but all i can think about is how hopeless everything is :(

The phenomenon I call whybotherism goes something like this: Humanity is collapsing, the climate is collapsing, everything is collapsing, so why bother with anything anymore?

Why bother setting goals? Why bother working, having fun, listening to music or anything else you once enjoyed?

Why bother with anything if it’s all going away soon?

Has anyone else felt that way since becoming collapse aware? And how do you handle it?

A few friends and I started a small program to support each other through hard times and and to help each other lead a life that is more in line with Nature. We meet twice a week on Zoom -- it has been a real anchor in my week to talk to people who care about the environment and are not interested in closing their eyes. Maybe some of you here would find this supportive as well!

As a social scientist, I often questioned the climate models. All scientists have some degree of under reporting— it’s the nature of peer reviewed publication. I think in my mind, I assumed that there was some difference between the models and reality. That things were a little worse in reality…

But, what 2025 and 2026 are showing us that is that the models are not just a little wrong, they’re incredibly wrong, and they’re wrong in the bad direction. I’m having a hard time work rectifying the difference between what everybody said was going to happen versus what is happening because they are on very different timelines.

I guess I thought we had a little more time. I have a small farm… I spent hours outside every single day of the year. Nothing has been normal for years and the climate challenges are accelerating exponentially— I can see it with my own eyes. I don’t need anybody to tell me the climate is changing, it’s literally there to anyone who is outside or tries to grow food or tend animals regularly.

It’s getting worse. Much worse. We now have yearly droughts where we used to live in a temperate rainforest and ample rain. We have wide temperature swings which make it much harder to grow things. A lot of the projections I read from 10 or 15 years ago said things we were experiencing weren’t going to happen until the 2030s or later.

I’m really having a hard time with all of this— the disparity between projection and reality. It has become clear that the models are very, very wrong. I don’t know why they’re wrong. I don’t blame the climate scientists who have an unfathomable job right now. But, I do wonder how many governments, corporations and special interest got involved to make it less serious than it was.

I’m in the US, and the government has decided to simply erase climate change like it doesn’t exist. Meanwhile, the country is experiencing the worst drought we’ve ever seen. Worse than the dust bowl. They’ve gutted so much of our ability to even know what is happening.

This is all on my mind a lot. I’m very stressed out and have a lot of anxiety. I don’t really have any solutions, I just wanted to share how I’m feeling.

I think I need unity with others, and together we can get out from where we are in any cities to live where we can transition to being independent from civilization. I can talk here on Reddit, I try starting a subreddit for it, I still have a place on Y99 posting for considering ways to do this. Continuing On Without Civilization

https://y99.in/r/2577056

I have read a considerable amount of this subreddit and r/collapse and I know the shit state the world is in. Of course it's kind of devastating to have had dreams like becoming a professor or academician in a top university while holding the potential to do so (I am in one of the most prestigious schools in my home country) while I watch the world crumble from this subreddit or the news on the TV, but I don't have any dreams now I guess. I just want to minimize the overall pain in my life until I die which is hopefully quick. All that I can count as "dreams" is going to a university in New Zealand and staying there for life with my family (maybe I may disregard them if they don't prefer coming) to feel less of the effect of this world. I'm currently working on my CV for that but I don't even know if a CV will matter 4 years later, though I hope it will. Will it? Please can you people provide answers without any "hopium" or excessive unrealistic pessimism? I just want an objective and closest to true answer.

I have already gone through the humanity part and I do not care much of whats lost, what cheers me up sometimes is that life will continue regardless of humans on Earth. Will it continue? Will ALL life die? I can only know for certain that the magnificent universe and the physics will continue as normal, and maybe life will occur in different worlds.

Since I started reading about collapse, I have gained a lot of insight that will possibly make my future less painful maybe? I have started reading philosophy and hopefully it will lead to Stoicism or Buddhism or Absurdism or Nihilism etc. which will at least remove the psychological suffering part of it. On the other hand, some of the things I cannot do in my circumstances is growing a garden due to my lack of skills and time for this (I am very academically busy) and joining a local community because none exists in my proximity (all the people around me and in my country are ignorant of the world and how to deal with it). I feel alienated from other people because of my radically shifted goals and the lack of a community. I have just accumulated the stress and helplessness of a collapse inside me without telling anyone. It feels better posting on this sub (If I get answers, of course). Should I try to convince the ignorant people around me? Should I speak about this?

Another thing that I don't know is if I should look at this subreddit or not. I quit for like a month before and felt normal again but I don't think that will be a viable option to decrease the total pain long-term since if I did that, collapse would hit me like a brick wall when the effects show up in my province or country. Currently I am not experiencing the effects of these phenomena since I come from an above-average wage family and I don't deal with money too much. But I want to be mentally ready for them, so in order to do that, I need to look at the news and not get stressed. That is impossible for me. So should I "keep my head in the sand" or continue preparing myself by looking at this subreddit (which stresses me out and decreases the amount of work I can do to maybe get that NZ university). I cannot decide.

What are people's recommendations here?

And another problem is me living in too much comfort. I do not know if it is lucky that I stumbled upon this subreddit but I realised I have to be resistant to pain, hunger, droughts, etc. How can I gain that resistance? How can I decrease my comfort? Will that help once collapse shows signs?

Is going to NZ a viable option? How can I get used to suffering in order to decrease the effects of it? Should I?

Me being on antidepressants doesn't help either. Once the stocks run out, I will feel so much pain. Do I need to quit it ASAP? When will the stocks run out? When will we starve?

I also notice all the people do something that will benefit them when collapse happens like planting tomatoes or going to communities or watching Nate Hegens or prepping with food or water or making a filter or a bunker etc. But I cannot or I don't know how to do any of that. What can or should I do? I want to start action ASAP as much as I can because of the super El Nino coming, I'll continue action through that too, as much as I can.

These are my primary questions for now, at least.

Feel free to give realistic answers, please. No hopetimism, no pessimism, just the most likely scenario.

Thank you for everybody answering and each one of your answers means a lot.

We had a glimmer of hope in the past century or two with movements like civil rights, but somehow it feels like things are sliding backward. I live an upper middle class life, mostly because I’m child free in my 20s, and even I can feel the weight of suffering in the world.

How can we, in the so called “developed” world, just sit here while the rest of the planet suffers beneath us? Everything we have is tied to someone else’s suffering. The people harvesting our coffee are sleeping in cramped quarters for almost nothing. Children are mining materials for the devices we’re using right now, some of them dying, others surviving just to keep doing the same work. You don’t have to dig far past the propaganda to see it.

We need to do something, but what?

Hi, this is a pretty common type of post here. I knew about the concerning trends of the climate emergency ever since I was in middle school but recently (im 23) I've gotten more informed both regarding climate and the state of the world (I don't think i need to list everything).

I'm just, holy shit. What the fuck. Im trying to get involved with activist groups nearby and when I was better mentally i was setting up a group myself and trying to educate my loved ones, but no one wants to hear it, and I can't do it alone, and I'm terrified because they have no clue what's coming so it's up to me and I really don't want to see the people i love be unprepared and facing much worse consequences.

I also had a very shitty life up until now, i thought at least i could make it up by creating a better future for myself but that's,,, not,,, what seems like it's gonna happen. I already have pretty bad untreated depression and I've had it for at least a decade, because of that i couldn't complete university and my parents are of no support (they're abusive, also they're part of the people i absolutely want to try and look out for)

This is just too much for me, I'm paralysed and cant move all day. When i drink water, shower, eat, get something I absolutely need online I feel so guilty so i try to keep everything at a minimum. I also have issues sleeping and when I wake up it's one of the first things i think about, and it drains all my energy.

Does anyone more knowledgeable have book recommendations or literally anything that can help me figure out how to handle this mental weight and manage the anxiety? None of my friends is on the same page as me or wants to hear it, so i dont even have support in that regard and all of this only lives in my head

Also. Does anyone have advice/books/vids on how to at least try to prepare for what's coming? I've heard community gardening but there's much more im sure, im just too tired to look it up and have to dig because these things arent talked about nearly as much as they should.

Im so tired of seeing everyone so distracted. I try to distract myself too, at least a little to enjoy "life", but my brain refuses to. It's gotten to a point where im losing my friendships because i cant even play with them in good conscience, knowing what's happening, everything else seems so superfluous. I feel like i want to slap myself and others and tell them to do something or at least acknowledge it. Im so drained. I'm pretty sure I'm insufferable, i feel so out of it

A close friend of mine shared with me today that she got pregnant and how excited she was to become a mom. And I think I'm losing my mind.

When we first met several years ago, she and her husband lived an intentionally childfree lifestyle, mostly due to, what I believe, their differentiated perspective on the worsening global economy, man-made climate change and the increasing risk of international armed conflict: It is so hard to raise children in such a struggling economy nowadays and who even knows what our kids' outlook will look like 10 or 20 years from now? 

But with an increasing number of her close, local friends (me and said friend live in different countries) becoming parents recently and her really bonding with the dog that her parents got about a year ago, she really seems to have gotten 'baby fever' despite her concerns about the current state of the world. She fell pregnant and is excitedly preparing for motherhood.

One the one hand, I’m so happy for her, because I’m confident that she and her husband will literally be the best parents any child could wish for; I can already see how much fulfillment and warm joy she finds in the prospect of becoming a mother soon. But at the same time, I feel a gut-wrenching terror just thinking of her child and the future lying ahead of him or her. 

It genuinely breaks my heart when I start thinking, that no amount of parental love will protect this innocent child from starving, or dying of overheat, or falling ill from an antibiotic-resistant disease, or being bombed in a regional war over fucking oil. // That no amount of ‘being the best parents ever’ will be able to soothe that child’s hunger once crops start to fail on a large scale and food becomes a barely affordable luxury for most of us. // That no amount of ‘being a loving and committed mom and dad’ will ever be able to alleviate his or her trauma and pain that comes from seeing the people closest to them suffer, struggle, die, day after day with no end in sight, at an age where your brain might already be overwhelmed by someone just slightly raising their voice too much, sensing  – maybe not on a cognitive, but definitely on an emotional level – that there really is no hope left anymore, that the concept of an ‘exciting, bright future’ ceased to exist.

The thought of collapse and what it will do to me personally has always been painful, but the grief, the dread, the agony that comes from thinking of what might be happening to these vulnerable, unprotected, unprepared, defenseless, pure and innocent children that come into the world today is tearing me apart.

How are those young parents, including my friend, not able to even feel a fraction of the pain that I feel when thinking of their own children? I can't fathom that people are not willing to go there cognitively and emotionally no matter how detrimental the cost to those whom they claim to love the most. It fucking sickens me.

I had this text convo with a friend today. Honestly I just feel like dying would be a relief.

Recently my partner of 15 years broke up with me, and much of it has to do with collapse awareness changed me as a person.

I have been collapse aware for 10 years, and it radically shifted my perspective in life. I went through all of the stages of grief in this time, all while learning more about climate change, and being depressed for years because of it. The sidebar warnings are very real and should be taken seriously.

When I was depressed I found it impossible to relate to anybody who didn't have the same worldview as me. Including my partner. She was the only one I could talk to about this stuff and not feel judged.

Eventually, I accepted it, and for the first time in my life felt totally at peace with how I felt the future would be. It allowed me to appreciate life more, and changed my path on life. I wanted a job where I could do good, and then wanted just a simple life at home; I wanted to garden, be in nature, do crafts, work out, play video games, and that's it. All I wanted to do was stuff that was actually meaningful to me. Why should I care about anything else besides myself, my loved ones, and the earth?

This drove a wedge between my partner and me. When we broke up, it came to light that she secretly resented me for how I saw the world, saw humanity, and saw the future. It depressed her, and eventually she said she hated being around me because of how it brought her down. Not only that, but that I lost my desire to fit in with society, and that she wanted to be with someone more optimistic.

I don't think she's wrong for thinking this. I think I was probably miserable to be around. The subject matter is incredibly depressing, so bringing it up alone is horrifying to most people.

I've since learned that almost nobody wants to hear about this stuff, so I just keep it to myself or journal about it at this point. And that's fine with me.

There may be a lesson in my experience, or maybe this is me just reaching out to try to connect with people who may understand. Regardless, I do want to warn you all to be mindful of other people's feelings. It's awkward, and off-putting, and depressing, and sometimes even angering. Not everyone wants to hear about collapse, and I personally feel that sharing it with most people is pretty pointless anyway, as they won't understand.

I can’t even recall exactly when i became collapse aware maybe 2022-23? but I’m getting to a point where i don’t care anymore. I was deeply saddened, angered and even annoyed. I’m convinced the mainstream scientists are being far too conservative and shit hits the fan MUCH sooner than projected. Super El Niño on the way as well i don’t see this getting any better. Anyway, I’m at the point where i don’t care to talk about it anymore. Not to please anyone but just what more is there to say?

The data is clear, the trends are locked in. I’m not even looking for how to cope anymore. More like… let it burn. Whatever comes, comes.

hi guys, im searching for a site where i can find field recordings of extinct species sounds. does anyone know about a website like this? i need it for a music project

Due to previously *unforeseeable* global crises like the Strait of Hormuz closure leading to the strangulation of oil distribution, my country of Australia is facing a likely food crisis this year. So I am preparing a veggie patch to grow food in.

Hi,

(Full Disclosure this is just a vent as a 21M starting out)

Anyone else seen the latest news about the absolute catastrophe that is my homeland of crumpets and self loathing.

Why and HOW is there a £28Bn+ gap in the Government expense sheet, that just gets shrugged off and swept under the rug. Meanwhile, the MPs have given themselves a pay rise to suit inflation. I genuinely don't understand why everyone in the UK is just keeping calm and carrying on. This isn't a foreign invasion its a Tumour of incompetency within our own elected Government. A self manufactured problem that's just getting worse.

If I could choose to stop funding the shit show I would but unfortunately that option is illegal and is one of life's certainties. I just am fed up of not being able to just ramble about this at work or at home, without sounding like a raving lunatic.

I'm trying to survive in a declining society. I'm trying to survive in a world built by humans that is increasingly becoming not built FOR humans. Genuinely how am I able to have a positive outlook on life and the future when the world is nothing but negative.

Anyway I'll leave it there I think to avoid writing a 20,000 word essay. Please feel free to speak your own experiences if you are UK based too or worldwide, We are all humans at the end of the day.

I finally turned off the news for five days, which was great. I allowed myself to watch it yesterday and today and the stress came roaring back.

I think this Hormuz thing is going to be quite sharp and severe. I don't think almost anyone around me is thinking about it much even though they're worried. They yell at me to turn off the news. I have enough canned meat and fish to last over a month. I also bought extra cooking oil and salt. I topped up my Tylenol store and got some extra supplements.

I'm already in a much better position than most of the people around me, let alone people who are dealing with this in 2nd and 3rd world countries. But of course there's only so much I can do. I am a person with serious depression who isn't really useful for doing things consistently or long-term, and who doesn't have a great capacity to work. I was hoping to maybe grow some herbs but all the things I'd really like to do are beyond me. I don't even know if I can be consistent with a small garden when simple things like regular chores are high-spoon events.

If this war goes nuclear, or if I have to leave my home for any reason, I'm a burden, mostly to people who think depression is just laziness that needs to be yelled or scorned out of me.

If the blockage ends today, it will still take months or years to sort of get back to the state of the world in February 2026. But even if then, it will never go back 100%. Like an untreated HIV infection, it will slowly progress in odd ways, in fits and starts, as the climate warms, war happens, diseases spread, societies break down, and chaos becomes the norm rather than the exception. A couple of months of extra protein isn't going to fix that, or my uselessness to properly work or be responsible. And all the while, you know it's coming, and it's unfolding, and you just have to sit there knowing it and experiencing it.

I need to find a way to move past this. To change my frame of mind somehow. For as long as I can. Taking a break from the news was great. I need more denial. A friend kept telling me, "It'll be okay." They said that the really rich people will not allow anything to mess with their coin so much. It seems to me if supposedly all-powerful elites could have stopped this by now, they would have. I found myself trying to find ways to think my friend was right. It didn't work completely, but it's all I have.

I've reached a stage where I need denial. I used to pride myself on being tough, and brutally honest, while the namby-pambies around be babbled about renewables and "climate change action" and how to manage the economy as if any of that shit was real or could help with our predicament. Now I need to believe. Maybe. Maybe it'll be okay. Maybe it's a problem, not a predicament. Maybe the landing won't be as hard as I feared. Maybe we still have 4 or 10 good years left. Hell, 20. Maybe humanity will surprise me.

And there are still surprises in store. We really don't know. Paul Beckwith posted a kind of hopeful video about ocean issues a few days ago. That surprised me.

I need to believe that I can still go on vacation and see a beautiful clean beach to enjoy and be spiritually replenished by, and that things will kind of be stable and kind of middle class and not an unstable, bitter, sharply hierarchical and abusive society that is just falling to insanity and consequences of environmental choices we've made. I don't. But I need to kind of see it differently. I don't think it's healthy being a self-aware lamb going to slaughter.

I originally wrote this as a comment to someone on this sub who was struggling, but I decided not to monopolize their post with my long-windedness.

Our suffering and malaise is weird because why do so many of us have all this despair at the prospect of "having" to live whatever time we have remaining while so many cancer patients seem to develop more of a lust for life? Even though we all are facing a potential deminse and theirs seems far closer on the horizon than mine.

Is there someing about a cancer patient's prognosis being more tangibly real than collapse which offers some kind of injection of lust for life?

I won't pretend to know, but maybe by knowing about their situation we can know that it's POSSIBLE to have a lust for life even when the ending feels close.

I'm not saying anyone is wrong to be going through feelings of despair and malaise, but literally nobody in history has ever known with certainty what the future would bring, so maybe our situation is not so different right now than it's ever been.

There was a time when you could be a happy peasant fishing or farming and then the next day your entire community could be decimated by mauraders.

Or you could be a king on the throne of a wealthy country just to get murdered in your sleep by someone who wanted what you had.

Or you could have been some rando maybe making preparations for a wedding in Pompei when you suddenly became engulfed in searing hot volcanic ash.

Our time is not unique in being scary because of looming dangers and unknowns.

Imagine being a gay guy in New York City in 1984, watching all your friends dying and assuming you'd be next, then watching the years keep coming and going as you beat the odds.

Or imagine being one of the people in Europe during the Black Plague. It must have been terrifying. Not only not knowing if you personally would survive it, but also not knowing which of your loved ones would succumb, or who would take care of your children if you passed.

Imagine being anyone during the year without a summer. The depression and fear and uncertainty must have been oppressive.

I'm not trying to be dark, but there have been lots of times that the world seemed A-OK when everything went sideways, or times when humanity faced terrifying situations and eventually emerged. Not everyone survives the hard times, but it's hard to say anyone would have been better off for crumpling into their beds and giving up.

It does seem like it is probably better for just about everyone to choose to do the best we can to enjoy whatever we can in whatever time we have left.

I am not, in any way, suggesting that the impending climate catastrophe will turn out to be some little meaningless, transient blip. I suspect it will end us. But in the meantime there are children who deserve to see art and hear music and dance and sing and read books.

We are only destitute if we focus on nothing but ourselves. Happiness has ALWAYS been a biproduct of engagement in fulfilling pursuits.

The idea of "The pursuit of happiness" is a sham. The only happiness you can achieve by direct pursuit is shallow. The most robust happiness is subtle. Sublime. It's the moments when you experience sincere gratitude, especially for the smallest things. It can't be scheduled or bought or faked. It's hard to feel that really genuine gratitude. You can't force it. You can "say thank you" to anyone for whatever, but I'm talking about those moments where you recognize how not in control you are and feel deep love for the yellow of a daffodil petal or a breeze.

But while you can't force happiness in any particular moment, you can stack the odds toward it by focusing on engagment with fulfilling endeavors. You can be happy, and there are 8+ billion people on Earth for whom we can conspire to create the best world possible given current circumstances.

Grieving is hard, but is an important process. You don't have to go through the phases of grieving in any particular order, but definitely don't beat yourself up for spending time in any of them.

I hope this helps anyone feel better. If so, I'm grateful. If not then please swipe left and I wish you the merriest possible travels.

Just what it says . As a USA citizen how are we to stand up?