The "Holocene Epoch" is a term which refers to "the age of man". This age is rapidly coming to a chaotic and destructive end. Man's arrogance and contempt toward the planet which has allowed him to exist is truly beyond comprehension. The epitome of this contempt and insanity can be most easily recognized by man's attempt to control Earth's very life support systems, to control the climate. Modern Civilization has completely lost sight of its ultimate and total dependence on the natural world. Much of our "highly educated" society has virtually no understanding or regard whatsoever of the complex and miraculous factors that allow life to exist on our once thriving planet. Yes, those that rule the world are unimaginably corrupt and psychotic, but those in society put them there and allowed them to stay in power in exchange for the material goods and distractions that industrialized society provided. Only if we face the whole truth do we have any chance of changing our course of certain extinction. The article below (like so many others from countless sources) does not acknownledge the critical climate engineering issue, this being said, the data it contains is still valid.
Dane Wigington
geoengineeringwatch.org
Say Goodbye To The Holocene Epoch
Source: Collapse of Industrial Civilization
Mankind’s exothermic machine of industrial civilization recently blew past the 400ppm CO2 mile post, causing a few passengers to exclaim, “Homo sapiens have never existed at these levels of heat-trapping gases!” Hundreds and even thousands of years will pass before the full aftermath from our fossil fuel orgy plays out, but we’ll see plenty of nasty surprises in feedback loops and tipping points this century, perhaps most notably sea level rise. Another area of glaciers once thought to be stable has fallen to the human CO2 spike which is occurring 14,000 faster than natural processes and 10-200 times faster than the PETM extinction event. Every so often I feel the need to try to wrap my mind around these horrific statistics and re-examine our place in time as we continue whistling past the graveyard. Keeping in mind that we have yet to take our foot off the gas pedal of economic growth, I’ll try to make sense of what we are doing to the earth by looking back at paleoclimate records when such atmospheric conditions did exist:
– The last time carbon levels reached 400 ppm, and “mean global temperatures were substantially warmer for a sustained period,” was probably 2-3 million years ago, in the Mid-Pliocene era.
– Sedimentary cores taken from a Siberian lake north of the Arctic Circle shows that mid-Pliocene atmospheric CO2 measured between 380 and 450 parts per million. Those same cores contain fossil pollens from five different kinds of pine trees as well as numerous other plants we don’t find in today’s Arctic.
– Temperatures were 2-3 ˚C higher—about 4-6 ˚F—above pre-industrial levels.
– Arctic temperatures were between 10-20 ˚C hotter.
– Sea levels were, on average, between 50 and 82 feet higher.
– A warmer Arctic saw the spread of forests and forest biology to the far reaches of the north.
– Many species of both plants and animals existed several hundred kilometers north of where their nearest relatives exist today.
– The Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Current experienced enhanced heat transport pushing warm water further to the north. Similar heating in the Pacific impacted the areas as far north as the Bering Sea.
– Arctic ice was “ephemeral”, as in, not permanent, and melted in the warm season.
– North Atlantic regions warmed considerably.
– Australopithecus afarensis, an early hominid at the time, roamed East Africa and slept in trees, eating mostly fruit, seeds, roots, and insects with occasional scavenged meat.
(sources: Motherboard, wfs.org, and yalescientific.org)
The prehistoric environment described above is not compatible with modern-day civilization and its billions of infrastructure and supply chain-dependent people. Billions will perish without the technological exoskeleton that houses, feeds, and nurtures them. Nearly all are under the spell that our money system, economy, and energy resources are somehow more vital to us than the environment upon which those manmade structures were built. What they don’t realize, or appreciate, is that nature’s ecosystems are what provide the foundation for any civilization if we want breathable air, potable water, arable land, and a planet hospitable to humans. We have gone a long way in undermining this foundation and now hold the dubious honor of being this planet’s first sentient beings to predict, document, and witness their own self-inflicted demise. This was the Holocene, as discussed here. Notice the red “temperature anomaly” spike at the very end of that era. Put in context with other geologic eras, it looks like this. See the difference? The Holocene was a very stable period compared to any other time in the deep past, but we wrecked it with our greenhouse gases. The climate system’s lag time prevents us from seeing the full effects just yet, but changes in the earth’s hydrologic cycle and weather patterns are already apparent. In response to such changes, trees are adjusting the speed at which they cycle water.
I peg the dawn of the Anthropocene at the mid 19th century when fossil fuel consumption began to take off, ramping up anthropogenic climate change:
If we expand our historic view of industrial civilization’s gargantuan appetite for energy, we see it as an aberrant blip in evolutionary time when Homo sapiens, fueled by hydrocarbon, disrupted all the major biochemical processes of the planet.
We have a 10% chance that the earth will warm 6°C by 2100 according to scientists, but the fossil fuel industry is betting it’s a sure thing by planning its future business around magical, nonexistent technologies that would remove CO2 emissions. Notwithstanding the armchair technotopian dreams of a future world that includes driverless cars, zero-point energy, and asteroid mining, we are living at the peak of capitalist industrial civilization which produces a continual flood of products promising to improve and enhance our lives but which, in the end, only complicate them. We are trapped between mindless consumerism and the thoughtless destruction of the environment. Tim Garrett calls our dilemma a double bind. The only thing that will save us from a deadly warming of the planet is the very thing that will destroy most of us if it happens —the complete crash of the global economy and its CO2 emitting process of “building wealth.” Homo economicus is too busy converting his rich environment into monetary tokens to think about the consequences of what he is doing or perceive the impending crash of the earth’s biosphere that will take care of the human overshoot problem and all the transient material wealth that has been covetously accumulated and guarded. Rising oceans, floods, fire, drought, and various superstorms from a damaged biosphere will take it all back and destroy it. For a species that has created a throw-away society, such an end is fitting. With every loss we inflict upon biodiversity, extinction creeps ever closer toward us. The consequences of ignoring the hard laws of physics, chemistry, and biology will be dire:
Countries once thought of as having relatively stable and developing economies like Brazil are now openly contemplating the use of their military in order to keep the megacity São Paulo from spiraling out of control in the face of severe climate change-driven droughts. And in the so-called First World country of America, president Obama’s science adviser is warning that “climate change could overwhelm California,” a state that grows a large percentage of what the country eats:
…The huge inertia built into the energy system — a $25 trillion worldwide investment in a mainly fossil-fuel infrastructure — is colliding with enormous momentum in the climate, which responds slowly to the buildup in greenhouse gases. The world is not even yet fully experiencing the results of emissions put into the atmosphere years ago, he said. It will take decades to turn both systems around.
“If we stopped emitting today, the temperature would still coast up for decades to come,” Holdren said.
He recalled sitting on a presidential science advisory panel during the Clinton administration.
“Quite a lot of folks were saying the impacts of climate change are uncertain and far away, the costs of dealing with it are large and close — therefore, we should wait and see what happens,” Holdren said.
“Well, like it or not, that’s pretty much what we did.”…
Wall Street investment fund guru Jeremy Grantham is predicting a “severe upheaval in agriculture as a result of climate.” I wonder if he still holds faith in mankind’s techno-fixes. Interestingly, the CIA is shuttering a secretive climate research program called Medea that studies how global warming could worsen conflict. Its closure to the public will end much of the access that climate scientists had to its data, leaving me to wonder if such information was becoming too sensitive for national security reasons. Perhaps it would be too hypocritical and cynical even for the CIA to be studying climate change as a conflict multiplier when the U.S. military, the planet’s single largest polluter, is exempt from auditing its own CO2 emissions and is drawing up plans to turn the Arctic into a war game zone. As with all nations’ militaries, The U.S. is not interested in protecting the Arctic, but exploiting this “new frontier.”
The mental traps and psychological defense mechanisms employed by early man makes him a basket case of contradictions and ironies, simply adding more insurmountable obstacles to the insoluble problem of capitalist industrial civilization. That’s why we love dystopian operas that reflect our own twisted culture and capitalist society.
A sobering video…
Extreme weather events are rapidly increasing. Right now we are in the 6-sigma risk zone of climate change.
16 Responses
When is someone going to make geoengineering awareness T-shirts we can wear around, complete with pictures of the trails coming out of the nozzles on the jets, against a blue sky, or high satellite images of trails over our planet, then circle the pictures with a big red circle and a slash through it, and the words "NOT HERE!!!," printed across the bottom of the scene, exactly like the signs on people's front yards, you know, the ones showing images of a dog doing it's business framed inside a red circle with a red slash through it? Or would we suddenly experience an uptick in "lone nuts" magically appearing, hanging out of book depository windows, that shoot anyone wearing such a telltale shirt? Having to breathe this AIR CRAP every day and every night and every single second of my existence now, I feel much of the time that I'VE got nothing to lose.
"We" will be the miracle. Without each of us doing a part to not only learn but teach the truth, we are doomed. Thanks Dane and all who have contributed to awareness. There is so much to learn and know. Work through your discouragement and find the aspect of the whole lie/problem that moves you to positive action. Through everyone's unique effort/part, together we can force positive change. It's not over til it's over!
Even people who don't know about geoengineering per se would, in this techno day and age, allow for the possibility that weather modification might be a real option. We've all heard the term "cloud seeding" for decades. And for those of us who are fully awake to the huge capabilities of weather modification techniques, we know that unimaginable things are being done routinely now. But my little essay is directed toward those people who still might think geoengineering/weather modification/HAARP could not possibly be behind the "ridiculously resilient ridge". That there must be some other "real" climate phenomenon or long-term cycle that is beyond the reach of science to figure out? (such people of course, rarely, if ever, visit this site, I will assume).
Isn't it interesting how the MSM is wallpapering our society with articles about California's drought? Everywhere you turn there's another feature article about some aspect of the horrendous drought out there. The public's consciousness is being systematically filled with awareness of this dreadful situation AND YET, WHY DO WE NOT HEAR MORE OUTCRY FOR USING WEATHER MODIFICATION TECHNIQUES TO CREATE RAIN IN CALIFORNIA??? Is it because the public generally just accepts the inevitability of this apparently "natural" drought? Hello? Last time I checked, California is the breadbasket of our whole damn country, and yet we still do not see general outrage that nothing is being done to make it rain? Is the duping (or the distraction) of the public so complete that it does not imagine that modern science just might have an effective way to coax some real rainfall into California's parched fields and reservoirs? Really? Am I missing something here? The country is in an uproar (maybe) about an "inexplicable" and devastating drought in California and yet nobody's calling for the government to F***ING DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT? Is our disconnect truly so complete? The insanity here, of course, is that we awakened ones know that the drought HAS BEEN CREATED BY ASSHOLES, FOR…ASSHOLES. The whole game is a very complicated corporate-financial sector heist of the most prime growing region in America. Bankrupt the farms, farmers sell out for pennies on the dollar to huge corporations who swoop in to grow aluminum resistant crops. Yeeee-haaaaaa! Not to mention a host of other glorious disasters out of which the slugs on Wall Street will make millions as the exodus out of California ramps up. When the time is right, BINGO, THE "RIDICULOUSLY RESILIENT RIDGE" DISINTEGRATES AS SUDDENLY AND MYSTERIOUSLY AS IT FORMED, BRINGING AMPLE AND REGULAR RAINS TO THE VALLEYS AND HILLS. Really? Is this how it has to go? WTF!!
You're far too kind, Marc. You don't attribute to them the more nefarious motive of deliberately starving the American populace, creating food riots (on top of the race riots), and ultimately decimating the human population of the continent. This will be the time when Americans learn, the hard way, that food doesn't really come from grocery stores. Not that i really believe you are unaware of any of that, just getting my 2 cents' in.
What sickens me most, along with 8 zillion other things, is that California produce is available here in the boonies of Norway.
Marc, your description of the "heist" is most likely correct. Yet, it is still only one of the many objectives that these 'covert in plain sight' programs are perceived to be obtainable by The Powers That Be.
I say 'perceived', because a sane view can question these programs on every level. The only way way to accept the 'why' (or 'how') is to wrap your mind around the psychopathic mindset and that is very difficult.
I think it is impossible for an empath to assume the point of view of a sociopath without becoming one, but that does not mean we cannot recognise it through its effects and symptoms.
We have upset the natural balance of this world in so many ways now that I think it is irrepairably damaged. As a species, perhaps this was inevitable that we achieve this, because inherent with our evolution are the vestiges of our reptilian and primate past: the animal nature.
We all have it, but the sociopathic set have nothing higher to subscribe or aspire to, given their crippled emotional bandwidth. And because sociopathy is largely unknown to the populace at large they cannot imagine its monstrous existence and threat to the rest of us.
Unconscious lifestyles and consumerism have indeed lead to our own unraveling. Unfortunately, we are taking the ship down with us.
The first time I'd learned about global warming was in a geology class I'd taken in 1993…. that was a pivotal point in my life…. from there I went on to earn degrees in natural sciences, environmental psycology and edu. I designed and ran an environmental education program for ten years.. it was based on natural sciences, however the primary focus was conscious consumerism… we taught thousands of students, community, and business members about how our purchases impact the planet.
In the small town where I worked, though I had wonderful community support, I was continually harassed and slandered by leaders in the school district, city and chamber of commerce. I hosted the regions first fully integrated green living, business and educational events… and to this day – the areas first integrated industry event.
Have any of those "leaders" learned anything in the past several decades about how to educate it's own communities on the impacts they have on the planet – via economics and outreach – No.
Leadership is not a title…. it is an action. If you want to make a difference, take it.
Excepting its optimism (yes, optimism) and failure to mention ongoing geoengineering, this article says it all. I have to admit I lost all hope 3 months ago, when I first discovered this website – but there is no way I'll go down without a fight.
The greatest source of frustration for me is not whatever the psychopaths at the top are doing, but the denial, and the pretense that everything is someone else's fault, that one sees from so many quarters. This article expresses that better than I could hope to. Thank you for printing it, Dane.
Hi Dane. Your opening paragraph is a model of eloquence and devastating truth. The enclosed video, while to be forgiven perhaps for it's total omission of a recognition of the role geoengineering is playing in the warming equation, is nonetheless chock-full of incredibly worrisome facts and graphs regarding the out-of-control rapaciousness of "modern society". Interesting how the term "modern" used to imply an almost utopian vision of health, prosperity and a life of ease afforded us by technology. I think NATURE has other plans. As technology has succeeded in complexifying every little facet of our existence, poverty, hunger, and human suffering of every kind is on the increase. But what kind of world would we be living in if the psycho-f***ks at the helm hadn't come up with the idea of poisoning for profit and weather-disastering for profit or military advantage? Could this world, here in the 21st century, still have been a garden of sustainable innovation, international cooperation and positive human evolution? I think it's naive to imagine things would have turned out differently. The real problem lies in the human mind and heart. Perhaps we are simply in the long term midst of growing pains as biological/spiritual beings, who must suffer the collective consequences of imperfect and profoundly selfish motivations born of fear and greed.
Hello Marc, yes, like so many other articles from countless sources, the author of the article posted with my comment was not yet willing to admit to the climate engineering elephant in the room. That being said, there was much valid data contained in the piece as you saw.
Do we see society planting trees (they even exploited and destroyed Amazonas) ?This should be a priority but what we see is new constructions everywhere even when the house market is in crisis and the bubble already burst.Do we see the car races leaving all that smoke in the air being stoped by concerned governments or citizens ?Or any law stops with projections of more shopping centers or stops now with more fracking(they already know we can´t use it or we will die ,it´s not sustainablethe use of these energy fuels) ,or stop to project or build more nuclear plants etc. or unecessary plane travels or car travels to people´s daily work ?jobs near the place where people live like in some scandinavian countries would help to diminish the human impact in envyronment .Aftherall The new technologies should not be used to help people and the world? but i´m afraid even with all those technologies people live part of their lifes in a car going and coming from their jobs just like before all these technological advances or technological Era . I´m afraid that the author of this article is totally right when he says that technology has complicated instead of making our lifes easier ,it just helped our precipitation to the extinction level.
We see no efforts being donne to save the planet or ourselves ,what we see it´s lots of speeches ,fight for more Power (wars)and False information (or desinformation) and lots and lots of Global official lies and political manipulation …as if they wanted people to not suspect of the imploding already (in my opinion) Biosphere and to not cause them problems now while they are preparing and training military Forces to deal with rebelions and end of resources kind of situations ?wich i´m forced to conclude that Those in Power don´t want to stop with the criminal assault against Nature but instead to prepare their bunkers to when the moment arrives. And anyone that can put 1+1 together can see that our survival is not their priority or even of their interest cause probably their own survival depends on our ignorance or death???? .Why would they bother about the spraying of toxic materials to cover the sun if all TPTB seem to want is to buy Time with this manufactured weather ?
Here in Portugal the days still hot (35ºC) today in Lisbon.The planes are here again spraying for the last 3 days but the lines disappear quickly. Now all we have is more those strange white haze and those typical "clouds" very linear that only us that became "experts" by observation can recognize.Many people are talking about new methods being used in geoengeneering programs and i´m forced to agree.But i think they spray at night cause in the morning we can see some white (reflecting the sun ) lines and that black dust ,the black dust is always there at sunrise (this never fails and must be sprayed at night)but spreads quicly .
Seems that scientists think and say that we have 10% chance that the Earth will warm 6 ºC by 2100 ?but what kind of predictions are these ? what does it matter if nobody will be here with 6 º C in 2100 according to many other scientists(that´s seems the part that i think these predictions are not revealing) .how is it possible life at this level of warming (6C) if less than this is already unbearable for human species and many other species?Why such a long term kind of predictions if they don´t even know for sure how much warmer will be by 2020 or 2040?One thing that i believe is that all these scientific predictions are not taking in consideration the geoengeneering impact so, for me remains a question: how serious or reliable we can take all these predictions ? or we are all going to start to bet how much ºC is going to warm in the next 10 or 20 years? but maybe i´m wrong…
Your introduction on this article is excellent Dane and The article is excelent too .
EGO AND UNBRIDLED MATERIALISM IS RAMPANT!! We must learn to be compassionate, detached from "things", and selfless if we are to survive and thrive. Humanity's spiritual growth (oneness, compassion, selflessness, honor, truthfulness, justice, love) MUST catch up to our technological growth—AND WAR-BASED SYSTEMS MUST END. Peace-based systems MUST be created…this must be our future—or we will be annihilated. Thank you, Dane.
Everything you say is true, and as a hands on activist of two decades, the major problem I see is, that those who are indoctrinated are left emotionally stunted, they are like children, that is why they don't respond to threat logically and why they bicker instead of exchange and debate and formulate strategy, black and white thinking is ubiquitous, they are very susceptible to conspiracy theories, every trying to discuss anything with a conspiracy theorist and feel like you are speaking to a child.
Only about 10 to 15% of the population can mentally break free of the current paradigm, the rest will follow if things get so bad they cannot tolerate it further….hitting rock bottom, and rock bottom means catastrophe
It was good to hear Dr. Roselind Peterson speaking to the United nations at a meeting recently on Geo engineering and its effects on agriculture. She made a powerful speech to a bored, uninterested audience. I think she deserves a prize for her wonderful presentation.. I always wonder what can we do as ordinary citizens? Do we march in the streets like millions do against Monsanto? Its so frustrating ,since most people don't believe you when you talk about these issues. You are doing a great job Dane. God Bless!
Well said Dane, I often think of how even if the geoengineering stopped how do you convince the masses that we need to change our ways and give the planet the chance to recuperate? From observing people, I just can't see any immediate awakening to personal responsibility and I feel utterly depressed and hopeless. Some days I just give up, but then come to your site and change my mind only because you haven't given up yet. I'll keep doing my part for the awakening, but at this point I think it will take a miracle.
I am right beside you on this, Irene. I, too, have felt many hopeless moments and often times just want to go "home." What can we do but keep spreading the word? I wish I could do more. On the brighter side, I love the billboards they have put up! These are encouraging!
Hello Irene, thanks for all you are doing to help sound the alarm. Yes, people do not want to wake, but they will be forced to very soon. We do in fact need “a miracle” as you mentioned, but who can say how all will unfold or what may yet be on our side. There is no giving up, our will belongs to us and cannot be taken. Let us all stay at our posts.