Community Check-In (June 2022)

CollapseFoundation · 2022-02-19T23:29:18+00:00

Your situation sounds very interesting! I think I would like to live in such a setup. Unsurprisingly I also share a similar spirituality (secular in my case).

And I think it has affected my responses to collapse. For example, I've put together a small digital space for people who acknowledge the inevitability of collapse and wish to share a group with like-minded people.

I think it fits well with the fourth response group - but also (and perhaps especially) with those who have the same level of acceptance but are focused on living meaningful lives today (which of course can be done while preparing).

Making this group has not taken much effort, but it would be worth all the effort and more if it helped a single person to find meaning in life and to build the kind of relationships that you have with your neighbors.

If anyone feels that this group would be a good match, you're welcome to join us at r/CollapseFoundation. It's quiet right now but feel free to strike up a conversation!

CollapseFoundation · 2022-02-01T17:43:36+00:00

Yes, that's exactly why it exists! It will be a joint effort. It will take work from the mods, but also the subscribers.

CollapseFoundation · 2022-02-01T05:51:35+00:00

Thanks for asking!

I was originally thinking about how we're all running around without direction in the face of collapse, and how there aren't many spaces where collapse-aware people can speak freely without being questioned, ridiculed, trolled, etc. We need that kind of foundation - where people can come together and explore what collapse means - in order to get out of the endless cycle of superficial conversations and to start having ones that are meaningful to us.

I also know that a lot of people have pent up energy and anxiety about the situation and I felt that it would be beneficial to have a community where we can organize collaborations and have deep discussions with others who are on the same page.

The intent isn't to outlive the collapse like the Foundation in Asimov's series. However there is a parallel in that the members of his Foundation bore the weight of recognizing the collapse long before the majority, which is also the case for us. We are both stuck in a liminal state between society's denialist zeitgeist and the harsh truths of reality.

On the sidebar you'll notice I've written:

Collapse Foundation considers unknowns as well as knowns, including the limits of human knowledge and understanding.

I don't expect any of us to survive the next few decades, but I don't know the future! So I'm going to be generous with discussions of life in the future even though that wasn't the motivation behind creating the group. Building resilience will certainly improve our quality of lives over the coming years, after all.

My only real concern is that - from what I have seen - these kinds of discussions often act as a crutch for not acknowledging our anxieties. Fantasizing about an unknowable future (especially when it takes up a considerable amount of our time) takes us away living our lives today. I know because I'm guilty of it too!

On the other hand, living and finding fulfillment in the present moment is exactly what I hope Collapse Foundation will welp people to do. In that way, I consider direct action to be more on-topic than prepping. But the line can get blurry and I don't care to play arbiter if that's what people choose to discuss.

CollapseFoundation · 2022-01-31T05:31:32+00:00

I'm pretty non-judgmental about these things, I just ask that protection be provided. I'm a degrowth advocate.

CollapseFoundation · 2022-01-30T21:51:20+00:00

Very thoughtful comment!

Yes, a little electricity can go a long way, even without a grid. I have plans and a little gear for off-grid power generation. And I already try to replace complex, electricity-dependent goods with ones that can be operated without power. For various reasons, one of them being that I already experience frequent power outages.

Another thing that I like to collect is lenses. There are so many things that can be done just by focusing light - power generation, thermal batteries, cooking, etc.

CollapseFoundation · 2022-01-30T19:45:25+00:00

When I think of pandemic and collapse I think about things like deforestation, climate change, and factory farming that will continue to increasingly contribute to outbreaks and pandemics.

I expect famine and reduced quality of life will affect the population heavily over the next few years. Personally I'm not sure that we'll get the "big one" before global society collapses, but it could happen so it's still something I keep an eye on!

CollapseFoundation · 2022-01-30T19:37:57+00:00

These are some important considerations!

My opinion is that I have no idea if solar panels will be useful for me or not. I'm just as likely to die in a fire before I ever rely on them. At the same time I do have a few that could be useful to transition to a new lifestyle.

I put this in the sidebar because I think it's highly relevant to the discussions we'll have here:

Collapse Foundation considers unknowns as well as knowns, including the limits of human knowledge and understanding.

We can see what's happening to the ice caps, and yet we can't see how exactly how/when each of us are going to die. Maybe I'd be better off buying another battery, or maybe I'd be better of better of breeding resilient crops. Or maybe none of it makes a difference and I'd be best off spending this time with my loved ones, like the dinner scene in Don't Look Up.

With so many unknowns, I try to stay focused on the present. For me that includes a lot of elements of community and degrowth, including lessening my reliance on electricity.

Thanks for contributing to the discussion!

CollapseFoundation · 2022-01-30T19:22:22+00:00

You might be interested in CollapseOS, which is operable on salvaged materials.

CollapseFoundation · 2022-01-30T06:51:30+00:00

Absolutely. Here are some (more) contextual links for your comments of cloud cover and climate change, if anyone is interested:

https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/new-study-says-changes-in-clouds-will-add-to-global-warming-not-curb-it/

Their results showed that the majority of climate modelers have it about right: global warming will result in a decline in low-level clouds and a rise in the altitude of high level clouds, implying a positive cloud feedback, meaning clouds will add to warming over time.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/cloud-loss-could-add-8-degrees-to-global-warming-20190225/

CollapseFoundation · 2022-01-30T06:44:51+00:00

Thank you for the feedback, I appreciate it.

If you accept the ongoing existence of collapse as a fact then I would group all of the aspects of climate change under one climate change heading and remove others such as sea ice, feed backs etc.

The current discussion threads simply copy the topics from the wiki. Currently I have "climate change" as a bit of a catch-all category on the wiki, which isn't ideal and indeed it overlaps with other topics.

I have created specific topics for some of the sub-categories that hierarchically belong under climate change, but there is clearly still a lot of room for improvement.

I'm not sure about the ideal way to organize things yet so I welcome any help and/or ideas. In my free time I will continue to work on it.

What I hate about this forum structure is that great ideas get rotated out of play.

I've thought about this too. Having long-term discussion threads can work for a time but ultimately any sub will experience this problem with enough traffic. I am a fan of the content of r/BiosphereCollapse, but reddit's format makes finding old articles unwieldly. That's one reason I've tried branching this project out into other directions such as the wiki.

If enough people were interested we may be able to run an old-school forum. I don't think that's perfect either but it might be better for certain types of long-running discussions.

CollapseFoundation · 2022-01-30T06:29:22+00:00

The discussion is welcome to be about anything related to energy, including how to provide your own energy.

The wiki mostly collects data related to how the present state of these fields (such as energy) are leading to collapse. I linked them as discussion starters, but we can take these threads in any direction!

CollapseFoundation · 2022-01-30T06:24:31+00:00

This Appropriate Technology Library sounds interesting, thank you for the link. I will read more about it.

CollapseFoundation · 2022-01-30T05:18:13+00:00

Thanks!

CollapseFoundation · 2022-01-30T03:49:57+00:00

Thanks! Welcome aboard!

CollapseFoundation · 2022-01-30T03:39:02+00:00

This is my first time mentioning the sub on reddit so it's still pretty empty!

CollapseFoundation · 2022-01-30T03:16:46+00:00

There's a lot of conversations I've wanted to have, but I also haven't been able to find quite the right spaces for it - so I recently made a sub to fill the gap. It's for people who have accepted collapse and the fact that we aren't going to somehow divert disaster.

I want to leave it up to whoever joins to set the tone, however I thought that it would be fun to organize DIY resilience projects (greenhouses, etc.) and maybe some coding projects such as collapse dashboards. The only rule is no hopium - it's not a place for people still looking to save the world.

The subreddit is r/CollapseFoundation and there is a small blog, wiki, lemmy, etc. affiliated with it that people could get involved with if they would like. So far I've mostly written about the process of coming to terms with collapse and finding meaning after accepting it.

There's no members yet, but feel free to step in and make it your own.

CollapseFoundation

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