The first warning bells sounded fifty years ago with
the release of Limits To Growth.1 That ground-breaking study
looked at several possible future scenarios based on projections of population.
resource use, pollution, food per capita, and industrial output. One of these
scenarios the authors termed the Standard model. Since 1972 this has
come to be re-phrased as Business As Usual. Recent research and studies
have shown that those warning bells rang true.2
We are at the limits to growth. We are nearing
collapse.
Many reading this may think that I am speaking of
collapse as resulting from climate change. I am…but so much more as well. To
borrow a term from the climate change lexicon – we are facing a perfect storm.
This perfect, super, storm is comprised of: climate
change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, soil depletion, pollution, water
degradation, food scarcity, diminishing fuel reserves. Added to these are the
more socially constructed harms of: political polarisation, mass refugee and
migration movements, an ever-increasing chasm between rich and poor,
techno-addiction, and loss of trust in so-called world leaders. All these, and
more, are coming together simultaneously, to create unavoidable collapse.
Whether we know it or not, like it or not, this
existential crisis gives rise to grief and mourning.
Five Stages of Grief
In 1969 the Swiss-American psychologist Elisabeth
Kubler-Ross postulated five stages of the grief process. Her theories and ideas
have little changed in the intervening five decades. Her five stages of grief
is a useful model with which to dissect our collective response to existential
loss. This first part will explore the stage of Denial. Further Parts will
explore the other four stages: Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. A final Part will ask: what does it mean to mourn when faced with the potential extinction of the human species?
Denial
For decades, denial was the default position on
climate change for most of the world’s leaders, captains of industry, politicians,
and other decision-makers. Within the general population, denial of climate
change was also widespread, although this has changed somewhat during the
course of this century, with denial less evident within the general population.
More recently, even some of the most recalcitrant of
the world’s leaders have shifted and now, at least, acknowledge the reality of
climate change.
However, the planetary system has shifted immensely in
far less time than it took these leaders to change their minds. It has gone
from Climate Change, to Climate Chaos, to Climate and Environmental-Social
Collapse within just a few short years.
Collapse goes much deeper than simply Climate Change – it means death. A
death of our way of life, perhaps even the death of our very existence on this
planet. Such a thought is extremely uncomfortable – so much so that the most
common response is denial. Indeed, denial is reasonable and totally
understandable. Denial protects us from those uncomfortable thoughts and
feelings. At least, it does so until such time as we are capable of moving on.
There is a danger in lingering too long in denial however.
When someone is faced with the death of a loved one, a
person in denial wonders how they can go on, perhaps even questioning why they
should go on.
Faced with existential death however, our collective
denial shifts our response from one of ‘how do I go on’ to a stubborn ‘we will
go on.’ Denying the possibility of the extinction of humanity we, collectively,
say: it’s business as usual, we won’t change, we’ll keep on keeping on.
And so, we will continue to extract minerals from the earth, we will continue to
exploit nature for our own ends, we will continue to pollute the land, sea, and
air with our waste. Denial says we must keep fuelling the industrial-consumerist
machine in whatever way possible.
But! Denial, ultimately, stops us from seeing the error and
foolishness of our ways.
We cannot afford to linger in denial, for the longer
we remain in denial, the closer collapse comes, and the harder the fall is
likely to be.
Next week will explore anger and bargaining.
Notes:
1. Meadows, Meadows, Randers & Behrens III, The
Limits to Growth (Report for the Club of Rome), Universe Books, New York,
1972.
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