Perhaps that’s what this imminent collapse is all about: we have run out of runway, the system can no longer self-propagate, and evolve, because our culture cannot evolve with it as it gradually simplifies. Our global culture lacks diversity, rendering it frail and vulnerable to shock. The increasingly complex infrastructure is simplifying culture around the world, and as we know from ecosystems, diversity is a form of resilience, and resilience is a form of strength. So even though our global system is increasingly complex thermodynamically and technologically -which is driving the climate crisis, making it increasingly difficult to navigate let alone change our system-the culture of that system is not. It's quite astonishing for our global population to number 8 billion people, and for the majority of those people to essentially share a single culture Lisi evidences this homogeneity by highlighting the eradication of diverse languages around the world. This homogenous culture has crept into every single corner of a world in which all citizens are plugged into the same financial system through the same technological infrastructure, bargaining and trading in the same market, and being acted upon by the same market forces. Lisi traced the current system back to the agricultural revolution 10,000 years ago when homo sapiens began farming a grain surplus, leading to the creation of societal and cultural hierarchies which divorced our species from our long relationship with the natural world.ĭuring the episode, we discussed the fragility of our global culture-and that global culture is capitalism. Collapse seems inevitable.Last week I interviewed economist Lisi Krall about how our economic system overpowers our culture. Collapsology puts the issue of collapse back at the center, by dealing with all aspects of this systemic phenomenon closely linked to humans. Thus, the debate on collapse is today dominated by two extremes: apocalyptic discourses and those of denial. Many predict the end of industrial societies if humans continue to disrupt these ecosystems.

*Humans have entered the era where their actions are changing the Earth system. *You will also discover : that environmental, social, geopolitical, economic, climatic and energy problems are connected to each other how energy is at the heart of all problems how the finance-energy system increases the risk of collapse how globalization has created complex but very fragile systems the mechanisms that lead to collapse how humans perceive the concept of collapse. *By reading this summary, you will discover from which angle collapsology views current crises. It allows you to have the essential ideas of a big book in less than 30 minutes. * Our summary is short, simple and pragmatic.

How everything can collapse