The late Danny Brower postulated that the tipping point for human domination was their understanding of mortality, their mortality and the mortality of others.

It evolved as a unique psychological trait¹ that caused humans to deny the most unpleasant reality of all, their death.

Its emergence coincided with humans becoming religious. Interested in life after death.

It was only a matter of time before all unpleasant reality was similarly denied².

Our reality is that population overshoot on a finite planet leads to most people either starving to death or dying in conflict or dying of disease. Most of the animals will either be eaten by starving humans or starve to death or die of disease.

It's nature's reset, and it's being driven by the unbending laws of physics.

This monstrous outcome is the most unpleasant reality, and we're pretending that it's not happening.

We're stressed and depressed, without explanations and leadership to guide us through. We keep voting for 'rainbows and lollipops'? We keep voting for dickheads.

When there's a vacuum, humans are attracted to those who tell us what they want to hear. Just as religion fills in many holes, so must there be life after the impending death of dirty fossil fuels. That life is like being in heaven, with everyone driving around in electric vehicles under unpolluted skies. Musk and other prophets are leading us to the promised land.

Now where was I? Oh yes, mired in reality.

Well, I'm not going to waste my energy on the detail. That's down to the reader.

There's plenty of good stuff in this recent Radio Ecoshock interview, Is “Green” Energy a Dangerous Myth?. This is the paper that underpins the interview, Through the Eye of a Needle: An Eco-Heterodox Perspective on the Renewable Energy Transition.

1. For more on the psychology of humans, read my puny post, The Rise of the Puny Primate. It leads you to the detail.↩

2. Listen to Ajit Varki talking about Awareness of Mortality: Mind Over Reality Transition: Evolution of Human Mortality Denial.↩