I’m grateful that Medium is available as an outlet of expression for writers (like you, B) who are not part of the corporate news infrastructure. In particular, your writing offers me an opportunity to better understand the growth (needing fossil fuel energy) problem that is such a roadblock to finding alternative energy solutions for maintaining the fantasies of an eternal consumer capitalism running full throttle on a planet of finite resources.

I am now fully inculcated to the viewpoint that our corporate overlords are deliberately obfuscating the near-term perils that resource depletion and the climate crisis are creating in real time.

And why is this obfuscation occurring? Because there is no profit to be made in panic, de-growth, and instability. It is better then to offer hope that solutions are available for whatever little speed bumps we might be aware of at the moment.

Think of the “hope news” being pumped out right now: 1) fusion power is just around the corner, 2) we are returning to the moon, 3) industries are returning to US shores and the middle class is ascendant, 4) our ingenuity will triumph over negativity.

And yet, here we are at the end of an era of (pseudo) abundance. Our period of global decline is here. Perhaps decline in itself will (ironically) offset the most severe aspects of the climate emergency because global CO2 emissions will rapidly decrease. But even so, decline will usher in a very rough and dangerous time for human survival.