“Nature has begun to deceive us, and some say that nature has ceased to trust us. Most of our old people say that we have always adapted, but the changes have always been gradual. Now the changes are happening too quickly, and we do not have time to adapt to them. What used to happen over decades can now happen within one or two years. Nature always loves balance. Therefore, [the old people] say we have lost the trust of nature. The way we dealt with her led to this.”
These are the words of Viacheslav Ivanovich Shadrin, chairman of the Yukaghir Elders, an ancient Indigenous population of Arctic Siberia who live in some of the most severe climates in the inhabited world.
More articles
Mar
16
2023
Why Peru’s crisis is worth studying closely by democracies everywhere by José Carlos Agüero
Ever since Peruvian President Pedro Castillo’s failed power grab exactly three months ago, protests have been roiling the country almost every single day.
Feb
27
2023
The permaweird
The Last Men at the End of History cannot sustain any sense of collective urgency for any length of time at the important scales. And mere individual or even tribal...
Feb
27
2023
Why the world feels so unstable right now
For many of us, life seems to progress smoothly and predictably for much of the time. Indeed, it seems one of our biggest concerns appears to be getting stuck in a rut....
Feb
21
2023
From Bing to Sydney
I’m not going to lie: having Bing say I am not a good person was an incredible experience (and for the record, I think this is another example of chatbot...
Feb
21
2023
Pakistan on the brink: what the collapse of the nuclear-armed regional power could mean for the world
It is hard to overstate the difficulty of Pakistan’s current situation. An unfortunate string of recent events combined with chronic mismanagement has created a...
Feb
21
2023
Societal collapse: a literature review
The debate about societal collapse as a plausible trajectory for the world’s future has lately arisen as being especially relevant…This article offers a...
Feb
15
2023
The Great Progression 2025-2050
The world isn’t ending! But we are likely at the beginning of a profound transformation.
Jan
16
2023
COP27, the loss & the damage at injury time
The recently concluded 27th Conference of Parties (COP27) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, went in the...
Jan
16
2023
Conflict and climate collide to create an acute hunger crisis for an unprecedented 345 million people
This March, a young mother arrived with 3 children at Dollo Ado in southeastern Ethiopia, where 5 refugee camps currently serve more than 200 000 displaced...
Jan
16
2023
Our civilization just hit three great — and ominous — inflection points: (Why the 2020s are) The Age of Inflection
What will history think of this decade? How will it remember it? I think that it’ll come to be thought of as the Age of Inflection.