If not climate change, then greed and stupidity

The end of the Anthropocene.

Photo by Cottonbro Studio

Ah, humanity. What a fucking joke.

Here we are, teetering on the precipice of ecological collapse, and what are we doing? Squabbling over pronoun usage, electing spray-tanned fascists or their slightly less fascist centrist moralists, and scrolling endlessly through TikTok — personally, I prefer Instagram Reels — while Rome quite literally burns. If aliens are watching us, they must be laughing their asses off. Or crying. Probably both.

Let’s face it: we’re fucked. Royally, utterly, irredeemably fucked. And the kicker? We did it to ourselves. With a smile on our faces and a song in our hearts, we merrily danced our way towards oblivion, all in pursuit of that most hollowed of gods: economic growth.

The numbers don't lie (but we sure do)

Let’s talk facts for a moment, shall we? According to the latest (ideologically flawed) IPCC report, we’re on track for a world that’s 2.8°C warmer by 2100 under current policies. That’s well beyond the 1.5°C target that scientists say we need to hit to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. But hey, who needs coral reefs or coastal cities anyway, right?

And it’s not just the temperature. We’re losing biodiversity at an alarming rate, with up to 1 million species at risk of extinction. The Amazon rainforest, once called the “lungs of the Earth,” is now emitting more carbon than it absorbs. We've got microplastics in our blood, forever chemicals in our water, and enough CO2 in our atmosphere to make Venus horny.

But please, tell me more about how the economy is doing.

Capitalism: the gift that keeps on taking

At the heart of our predicament lies that most vampiric of systems: capitalism. Oh, how we’ve been sold a bill of goods on this one. “The invisible hand of the market will solve all our problems!” they said. “Endless growth is not only possible but desirable!” they proclaimed.

Well, here’s a newsflash: you can’t have infinite growth on a finite planet. It’s basic fucking math, for God’s sake. But try telling that to the neoliberal zealots who’ve been running the show for the past few decades. They’re like addicts chasing that next sweet, sweet hit of GDP, consequences be damned.

And the consequences are damning indeed. We’re living in a world of obscene inequality, where the richest 1% own 46% of all global wealth. A world where corporations have more rights than actual human beings. A world where the pursuit of profit trumps all other considerations, including the continued habitability of our only home.

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The far right: because things weren't bad enough already

As if the climate crisis and crippling inequality weren’t enough to deal with, we’ve now got the resurgence of fascism to contend with. From Trump to Bolsonaro (is that one dead already?), from Le Pen to Meloni, the far right is on the march again. And their solution to our problems? More nationalism, more xenophobia, more of the same bullshit that got us into this mess in the first place.

It’d be laughable if it wasn’t so terrifying. These modern-day brownshirts are peddling a toxic brew of climate denial, white grievance, and economic snake oil. And people are lapping it up. Because apparently, it’s easier to blame immigrants for your problems than to confront the systemic issues that are actually fucking you over.

Somehow even worse are the centrists. Always with the moral high ground, yet constantly shifting further and further to the right themselves. And people are gobbling them up like superstars, celebrating and “literally shaking” at their hollow speeches full of lies and utter bullshit. Kamala Harris is Donald Trump with a wig. Obama dropped more bombs on innocents than any president before or after him. Who cares. Elect them if you want, why not, but don’t expect anything at all to change. Don’t be naive.

Overshoot and collapse: coming soon to a planet near you

Here’s the real kicker: even if we managed to solve climate change tomorrow (spoiler alert: we won’t), we’d still be in deep shit. Why? Because we’ve overshot the Earth’s carrying capacity by a long shot.

We’re using resources at a rate that would require 1.75 Earths to sustain. We’ve depleted topsoil, overfished the oceans, and drawn down aquifers to dangerously low levels. We’re in ecological debt, and the bill is coming due.

The concept of “overshoot and collapse” isn't just some doomer fantasy. It’s a well-documented phenomenon in ecology. A population grows beyond what its environment can support, and then... well, you can guess the rest. It ain’t pretty.

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Perhaps the Collapse of Society Would Not Be Such a Bad Thing

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The conspiracy against the human race

Now, let’s take a moment to dive even deeper into the abyss, shall we? Thomas Ligotti, in his philosophical treatise “The Conspiracy Against the Human Race,” argues that consciousness itself is a tragic misstep in evolution. We’re cursed with awareness of our own mortality, trapped in a meaningless universe, and perpetually engaged in futile attempts to distract ourselves from this horrifying reality.

Ligotti writes,

“We know we are alive and know we will die. We also know we will suffer during our lives before suffering — slowly or quickly — as we draw near to death. This is the knowledge we ‘enjoy’ as the most intelligent organisms to gush from the womb of nature. And being so, we feel shortchanged if there is nothing else for us than to survive, reproduce, and die.”

When you look at our current predicament through this lens, it all starts to make a sick kind of sense. Our relentless pursuit of growth, our addiction to consumption, our willful ignorance of the consequences of our actions — it’s all just an elaborate coping mechanism. We’re trying to fill the existential void with stuff, with experiences, with anything that might give our lives a semblance of meaning.

But here’s the rub: it’s not working.

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It All Ends in a Boring Dystopia

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Nature vs. nurture: the capitalism conundrum

Now, you might be thinking, “Hold up, isn’t this all a bit deterministic? Surely it’s not human nature that’s the problem, but our culture—specifically, our capitalist culture?”

And you know what? You might have a point there. Maybe.

It’s tempting to believe that if we could just throw off the shackles of capitalism (or monarchism, or fascism, etc.), we’d suddenly become enlightened stewards of the planet. That our inherent goodness would shine through, and we’d live in harmony with nature and each other. Aren’t we empathic creatures?

But let’s be real for a second. Capitalism didn’t invent greed, short-sightedness, or the desire for power. It just weaponized these traits and turned them into virtues. “Greed is good,” as Gordon Gekko so infamously put it.

The truth is, we don’t know for sure whether it’s nature or nurture that’s at the root of our problems. Maybe we’re just wired wrong. Maybe we’re products of a toxic culture. Or maybe — and this is the really depressing possibility — it’s both.

What we do know is that wherever humans have gone throughout history, we’ve left a trail of destruction in our wake. Long before capitalism, we were driving species to extinction, altering landscapes, and generally making a mess of things. Capitalism just gave us better tools to do it on a global scale.

Capitalism is merely the celebration of all our worst traits.

The tech-fix fallacy

“But wait!” I hear you sobbing in the corner. “What about technology? Surely our vaunted human ingenuity can save us from this mess?”

Oh, you sweet summer child.

Look, I get it. It’s comforting to believe that some genius in a lab coat will pull a magic solution out of their ass at the eleventh hour. But let’s be real: technology got us into this mess in the first place. The internal combustion engine, industrial agriculture, plastics — all incredible innovations that have royally fucked us over in the long run.

And now we’re pinning our hopes on what? Carbon capture? Geo-engineering? Fusion power? Even if these technologies pan out (a big if), they’re not going to magically undo centuries of environmental damage or fundamentally alter the systems that caused the damage in the first place.

At best, they’re band-aids on a gushing wound. At worst, they’re distractions that keep us from addressing the root causes of our problems.

The only stupid hope I have (for some reason) is that increased automation will force the system to fundamentally change. No one in power wants a gigantic unemployed, angry, furious mass to storm their halls and erect guillotines. So perhaps they will feed us a universal basic income (UBI) to save themselves.

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AI, Capitalism, and the Collapse of Industrial Society

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A glimmer of hope? (just kidding)

Now, this is usually the part where writers are supposed to offer some uplifting message. Some ray of hope to cling to in these dark times. Well, sorry to disappoint, but I’m fresh out of hopium.

The stark reality is that we’re probably past the point of no return. We’ve triggered feedback loops that we don’t fully understand and can’t control. Methane is bubbling up from the melting permafrost. The Gulf Stream is showing signs of collapse. We’re playing Russian roulette with planetary boundaries, and we’ve just about run out of empty chambers.

So what do we do? Honestly, I don’t fucking know. Keep fighting the good fight, I guess. Push for systemic change. Build resilient communities. Learn some survival skills. Maybe start a garden. Scroll reels until your brain turns to mush. Smoke weed.

But most importantly, we need to face reality. We need to look our situation square in the eye and acknowledge how dire it truly is. Because if we can’t do that, if we keep deluding ourselves with fairytales of green growth and techno-fixes, then we’re truly lost.

The end of the Anthropocene

In the grand scheme of things, our little experiment with civilization will be nothing more than a blip on the geological record. A thin layer of plastic and radioactive isotopes in the sediment, perhaps. A brief spike in atmospheric carbon levels. And then... nothing.

The Earth will go on without us, as it has for billions of years. New species will evolve, new ecosystems will emerge. In a few million years, there might not be any trace left of our existence at all.

And you know what? Maybe that’s okay. Maybe that’s how it should be. We had our shot, and we blew it spectacularly. Perhaps it’s time to gracefully exit the stage and let some other form of life have a go at running the place.

In the end, it might not be climate change that does us in. It might just be our own boundless capacity for greed and stupidity and cruelty. Either way, the result’s the same.

Welcome to the endgame, folks. Try to enjoy the ride.

Antonio Melonio

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I’m author and writer Antonio Melonio, the creator of Beneath the Pavement. If you enjoyed this piece, please consider becoming a paid subscriber here on Substack or over on Patreon. It’s the best way to support Beneath the Pavement and help independent, real, realistic writing.

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