The Collapse of Western Civilization

“While analysts differ on the exact circumstances, virtually all agree that the people of Western civilization knew what was happening to them but were unable to stop it.”

Western civilization here refers to the modern real-world’s wealthiest and most industrialized nations, Western Europe and the United States and Canada, which control much of the globe’s commerce. The presentation of Western civilization is satirical; the authors are criticizing modern humans for not taking action against climate change despite a thorough understanding that a climate crisis will have severe and lasting consequences. This introduces the theme of The Potential Consequences of Unchecked Climate Change.

“At the start of the final phase, in the mid-twentieth century, some physical scientists—named as such due to the archaic Western convention of studying the physical world in isolation from social systems—recognized that the anthropogenic increment of CO₂ could theoretically warm the planet.”

The authors criticize the common scientific practice of reductionism and discipline-specific research methods. Many believe that reductionism impedes the study of complex systems, including climate and climate change. Similarly, specialization prevents researchers from forming a big-picture understanding of climate change. By criticizing these scientific customs, the authors implicitly introduce The Promotion of Interdisciplinary and Holistic Science.

“Meanwhile, a different version of denial emerged in non-industrialized nations, which argued that the threat of climate change was being used to prevent their development.”

This remark reflects modern global inequality, which is one of the most significant real-world considerations for mitigating climate change. The industrialized nations of the Global North have emitted drastically more greenhouse gases than developing nations. Development is carbon-intensive, meaning that for developing nations to continue advancing, levels of carbon dioxide will continue to rise; however, the ethical consensus is that pre-industrial nations are entitled to socially beneficial developments.