Tenets of GRAC/E (Getting Real About Collapse/Extinction)

A predicament properly stated is half accepted.

“The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

The civilizational way of living has never been sustainable. The 10,000 year experiment of living differently, separate from the rest of the community of life, has always risen and then fallen. Global Industrial Civilization is collapsing, just as every civilization model before this one has done. This time, however, the harnessing of fossil fuel energy has made our species homo colossus giants with the ability to destroy the natural systems required for our survival. The result is, in addition to societal collapse, the biosphere we depend on for life is collapsing as well. This is a predicament not a problem, thus requiring wise responses, not false solutions.

1) Before the truth will set you free, it will likely make you angry. Don't shoot the messenger.

2) Let go or be dragged. Get through the grief and know that freedom and benefits exist in the acceptance.

3) Grab a buddy who won't pull you down. It’s harder to get real alone. Expect other crabs in the pot to constantly yank on you. Resist the urge to pull others down if you slip back into denial.

4) Abandon Hopium. Hope and false solutions are place holders for inaction. Both are harmful responses to our predicament and can foster even more denialism.

5) We all would benefit from becoming much more comfortable with death and dying.

6) Nature is primary. Period. No more humans first. Making amends to the rest of the community of life, while attempting to clean up the mess, needs to be a daily life way. Every day is Earth Day. 

7) There needs to be urgent conversation about setting the younger generations free and what that can look like. Continuing to pass along the disease of dominant culture is super abusive.

8) If the response feels predictable and familiar, it's not the right response. Our species is really being challenged to elevate, it's not about becoming more clever. Predicaments do not have solutions. We need radical responses equal to this radical situation. Logic says if it’s a cancerous growth and growth is the issue, the first response is to stop growth.

9) Apply GRAC/E (Getting Real About Collapse/Extinction) to daily living and let it guide all decision making. If you have privilege left in the game, what will you use it for?

10) Bottom line, we've gotta get comfortable talking about it. Continuing to bury our heads in the sand is not the path to enlightenment. People say "well if this is happening then there is nothing we can do about it so why think about it, too depressing." I say see numbers 6 and 7.

Boreal Forest, Alberta Canada, before and after tar sands (current largest industrial scale mining on earth)

Homo colossus, functionally extinct