Dark Age America: Climate Change, Cultural Collapse, and the Hard Future Ahead

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New Society Publisher, Aug 15, 2016 - Social Science - 259 pages
The 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

The Wake of Industrial Civilization
1
The Ecological Aftermath
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
Bibliography
231
Index
239
About the Author
247
A Guide to Responsible Digital Reading
248
Books to Build a New Society
249
Copyright

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About the author (2016)

John Michael Greer historian of ideas and one of the most influential authors exploring the future of industrial society, writes the weekly blog "The Archdruid Report" and has published over thirty books on ecology, history, and nature spirituality. He is the author of The Long Descent, The Ecotechnic Future, and The Wealth of Nature,. He lives in Cumberland, MD, an old mill town in the Appalachians, with his wife Sara.

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