Some people who believe our current socioeconomic system - or civilization in general - has become too corrupt to salvage, think that a crash could be a positive thing, so that something better can be re-built in its place. Some also feel that this is an inevitable cycle, based on civilizations that have collapsed in the past, such as happened in Ancient Rome or on Easter Island.

While that many civilizations in the past, from the Maya to the USSR, have collapsed without it being catastrophic for the human race, our current situation is unprecedented. Since approximately 1987, the Earth has been in overshoot, meaning that the human population has exceeded the biological carrying capacity of the planet. This overshoot has dozens of symptoms, of which peak oil and global warming are only two among many: dead zones, extinctions, pine beetle infestations, plastic-filled ocean gyres, antibiotic-resistant bacilli, mass starvation, resource wars, etc. Anyone even vaguely aware of the daily news can make their own list.

Furthermore, previous collapses of civilizations, while often related to environmental and/or energy supply problems (see Jared Diamond’s “Collapse” and Thomas Homer-Dixon’s “The Upside of Down” for details), were isolated to specific parts of the planet. The crisis that civilization currently faces, as a result of planetary overshoot, is global in scope.

If we don’t do everything we can - if you don’t do everything you can - starting right now, to transform the way we live on the earth to something that’s sustainable for all creatures (human and otherwise), then we’re looking at a simultaneous global collapse. In fact, it’s already in progress, and working its way to the First World, which is most shielded by money, power and existing infrastructure.

Common estimates of the time left to prepare are perhaps best given in months, not years or decades. We at VPO are hopeful that a global solution is possible, but we are also realistic enough to realize that the current trends are not promising, and so we must focus on getting our own region ready, regardless of what happens elsewhere.

Read about the VPO’s initiatives on this FAQ page, then go to our TAKE ACTION page and join us. The fall of our civilization may ultimately be the unavoidable downslope of Hubbert’s Curve, but how the people of the Lower Mainland will fare on that downslope is very much in our hands.

But only if we act right now.

For more reading on this subject, see Joseph Tainter’s “Collapse of Complex Societies”, Thomas Homer-Dixon’s “The Upside of Down”, Dmitry Orlov’s “Reinventing Collapse”, and John Michael Greer’s “The Long Descent.”