In the name of ‘pragmatism’, green measures are being ditched, net zero derided. Be very clear: without slashing emissions we are in deep, deep trouble The hope that followed the signing of the Paris climate agreement in 2016 has long gone as the global community has failed utterly to rein in emissions, which –
We’re beyond Mel Gibson’s Mad Max era. We no longer need oil to make it through the apocalypse As I write these words, the No 1 trending story on the Guardian is titled: “The history and future of societal collapse”. It is an account of a study by a Cambridge expert who works at
Living in small homes built entirely from locally available resources and using manpower alone is not a fairy tale. However, it will take an awful long time and a lot of hardship till we get to that point… again. This is how the story of building one civilization after the other based entirely on
Last week’s blogpiece bemoaned our cultural focus on the future. During the intervening week I found myself guilty of that same error, although not a future of optimism. In a response to an online post I stated, ‘Unplanned collapse is what will happen…’ Another commentator rightly pulled me up on that comment. Unplanned collapse
Once, getting ready for the apocalypse was for the paranoid. Now, in the face of cyber-attacks, climate breakdown and nuclear threats, the UK government recommends it. Should everyone have a survival kit? This is a great time to be a shopkeeper, if that shop is for those worried about the breakdown of civilisation. “It started
In one hand, an oat latte. In the other, a phone with social feeds full of doom-scroll posts about the end of the world. Across Britain, a quiet transformation is happening. It’s not the stereotype of survivalist preppers hoarding beans in bunkers. It’s middle-class professionals - scientists, sustainability experts, teachers, doctors, policy analysts and management
Action urgently needed to save the conditions under which markets – and civilisation itself – can operate, says senior Allianz figure The climate crisis is on track to destroy capitalism, a top insurer has warned, with the vast cost of extreme weather impacts leaving the financial sector unable to operate. The world is fast approaching
The Snow Moon is certainly living up to its name this year. But then, the Wolf Moon was snowy also. In fact, there have been only a handful of days in 2025 when it was not snowing here in central Vermont — and only a couple days above freezing. So the garden is deeply buried
I’ve started a stockpile, but that isn’t the answer. If crisis strikes, the government needs a strategy to protect us all I hate to sound like a prepper, but I feel bound to confess that over the past month I’ve been stockpiling food. I think, if you can, you should do the same. I’ve put
Modern, overdeveloped societies in the West are already in a severe crisis, which will eventually turn into a long global emergency in the decades ahead. A five-century-long era of economic growth, ushered in by colonization and leading to the plundering of natural, mineral and most of all fossil fuel resources, is about to come