Dark Age America: Climate Change, Cultural Collapse, and the Hard Future AheadThe climate futurist presents a sobering analysis of America’s future in the face of climate change—and how we can prepare to make the most of it. After decades of missed opportunities, the door to a sustainable future has closed, and the future we face now is one in which today's industrial civilization unravels in the face of uncontrolled climate change and resource depletion. What is the world going to look like when all these changes have run their course? John Michael Greer seeks to answer this question, using a clear-eyed analysis of ecology, economics, and history to discern what the next 500 years or so might look like. As globalization ends, the United States—and Western civilization—will enter the stages of decline and fall. Though Dark Age America offers an uncompromising assessment of our collective future, it is by no means without hope. Knowing where we're headed is a crucial step in responding to the challenges of the future and doing what we can now to help our descendants make the most of the world we're leaving them. |
Contents
1 | |
15 | |
The Demographic Consequences | 39 |
The Political Unraveling
| 59 |
The Economic Collapse | 91 |
The Suicide of Science | 123 |
The Twilight of Technology | 149 |
The Dissolution of Culture | 177 |
The Road to a Renaissance | 199 |
Endnotes | 227 |
231 | |
239 | |
About the Author | 247 |
A Guide to Responsible Digital Reading | 248 |
Books to Build a New Society
| 249 |
Other editions - View all
Dark Age America: Climate Change, Cultural Collapse, and the Hard Future Ahead John Michael Greer No preview available - 2016 |
Dark Age America: Climate Change, Cultural Collapse, and the Hard Future Ahead John Michael Greer No preview available - 2016 |
Common terms and phrases
abstract actually ahead already become benefits blivets bread machine centuries claim climate change collapse common complex course crisis culture dark age ahead Dark Age America decades decline and fall deindustrial deindustrial dark age doesn’t dominant minority ecological ecosystem energy ethnic example externalities factors fossil fuels fracking future global going happen Ice Age impact increasingly industrial civilization industrial society industrial world inevitably insist institutions intermediation isn’t keep kind labor less lifestyles live maintenance costs matter mimesis modern industrial needed Nibelungenlied nomic North America nuclear Odoacer once option peak oil planet political class population possible privileged production proletariat readers realities reasons rising role Roman ruling elite scientific scientists sea level sense social hierarchy sort survival technological suite there’s they’re things today’s today’s America today’s industrial turn unobtainium vast warlords wealth what’s