I work in climate science - more on the data and client side, not the one actually doing the research. In short, big companies pay us for climate data so they can make projections or develop strategy or whatever.

I’ve been heavily exposed to climate data for many years, so I’ve been across the developments for a long time. Something about the last few months has broken me.

I spent December and January in an area that’s famous for snow, and saw none. Watching this El Niño develop has been terrifying. The UN admission that we’ll blow past 1.5C was the clincher for me. In my field, the UN was basically always considered the final organisation that had to show at least some optimism. Seeing that gone is now the final death blow. They know it’s over.

It has really broken something in me. To know that this organisation who was almost comically optimistic about collaboration and limiting warming has completely conceded defeat. It is a big deal.

I don’t really care about anything anymore. I’m not motivated to work, because I can’t plan for a good future. I have to almost disassociate while working, because my whole day is about climate data in one way or another.

I think the worst part has been my withdrawal from society. When you spend your whole life loving the environment and aligning your life with its protection, you end up truly hating humanity. You see us for what we are - a complete parasite who is destroying the world.

Has anyone else found that they’ve gone this way? My grief over collapse was always something I could somewhat compartmentalise. But now, it’s changed my entire life.

It's no question now that in my lifetime, and in my relative youth even, I will see the worst of climate change. It is likely that by 2050 billions will be dead due to climate, agricultural, most likely power grid and total societal collapse, and I'd be a fool not to consider me being part of those billions.

So, what does a person do when faced with the grim reality of climate change? Forfeit my future and live in the moment? Continue living as of nothing bad is happening or will happen?

Forgive me if there are any typos in this. It's hard to see because my eyes are puffy from crying. I'm a trans man in my early 20s. I just moved into my first apartment in the middle of a heat wave. It was miserable. The heat broke and now it's back in the 70s, but it's just a crushing reminder of the ongoing, willful murder of our planet. Heat waves are more and more common, and it's only going to get worse. When I was a kid growing up during Obama's presidency, I used to be really hopeful that somehow we'd change and come together to fix this, but as I get older and my country and the world fall apart around me, I am starting to realize that it was really stupid and naive of me.

I have dealt with treatment-resistant depression and severe OCD since I was a little kid and I spent my teen years (most of which were during COVID) alone in my room, extremely suicidal. It's been a long battle with a lot of ups and downs and I have a lot of issues still.

Now, I'm an adult and I am working two jobs and functioning enough to be independent. I want to be happy with where I'm at, but there's a constant sense of dread that follows me because I know the world is ending.

I had a lot of dreams and ambitions growing up, and I guess I already failed anyway when I dropped out of college in 2024, but I still really wanted to eventually go back and make something of myself. The people in my family encourage me to go back to college, and I absolutely love school and learning, but I can't stomach spending tens of thousands of dollars of money I don't have for an education just to die an early death and be miserable until then, anyway.

I got off social media a while back now and I try not to actively seek out news and it's really helpful for my mental health, but you can't escape the realities of the world forever. Today, I saw a video from the YouTube channel Goobie and Doobie, titled "Both You and I Will Likely Die a Premature Death Due To Climate Change and Collapse" (subtle title, I know LOL) and it just makes me cry and feel so sick with dread and grief. I finally don't want to die. I don't want to do all this apocalyptic survival shit with bunkers and MREs. I want to have nice weather and no more war and also a hug that fixes everything. Do I just wait to die? Is there even any point in trying to move forward in life?

I am way late to the party, but I just discovered Bo Burnham and I’m so grateful that I did. His comedy and music is so intelligent and woven with socio economic political and collapse themes. I highly recommend his special inside that he made during Covid which was also his last project. (There are rumors he is coming out with a special called Outside) I also recommend watching his interviews.

Lately I have been watching George Carlin too. Seeing someone with such a big platform and audience acknowledge how messed up this world is can be comforting to me. There’s something about being able to laugh at how completely unhinged everything has become while still actually having something intelligent to say about it.

Any other people you’d recommend who have that same kind of perspective? I’m always looking for people who can make me laugh while also making me think.

I was going to say Shell's #MaketheFuture campaign with Jennifer Hudson, Steve Aoki, and some other pop artists where they proclaimed their turn towards "green energy".

But then I remembered the pink Baker Hughes fracking drill bits in "support" of breast cancer (in 2014).

And yes, that is a real image from their campaign.

Hey all,

This is a simple post looking for one thing.
Reassurance that either I’m worrying too much, or preparing adequately. With all the changes in the US recently (is someone still keeping track?) it feels like we are headed somewhere very bad very soon. That there are agendas to ensure the greater population has nothing to fall back on, despite casually announcing things like “US could be without power for 18 mo”. That collapse looks like all this until it’s sudden, swift, catastrophic.

My problem is I’ve been in an okay spot until recently. Now I feel I have possibly days/weeks/months to bolster preparations as much as one can before massive power outages and the explosion of starving insane people that will do whatever it takes to survive.

Do I spend my remaining cash on preps today? Do you think this all is that urgent? Or do you believe this is all more of the same, that systems will fall but much more likely localized, spread out over time? Telling me “Not crazy, get going” won’t place me in fear. It will help me making my next decisions to prepare and keep moving. Breaking down how we are not on the razor thin edge would help me pace my actions.

Do I go all out today and next few weeks, or continue on slowly prepping over time slowly?

So over the years I've been able to manage my anxiety pretty well. I've stopped doomscrolling (for lack of a better term) as much. But since settling down and being able to kind of accept a lot of things out of my control, I'll get like these random spikes of anxiety for no reason. I mean things going on are very normal to feel anxious or scared about, but I'm just trying to not let it eat me alive like it used to. And recently I've been feeling that anxiety and ruminating behavior start to come back.

I'm scared of falling into that really dark place again that I worked really fucking hard to get out of. I think what happened was I just wrecked my nervous system. But what are some things you do to help manage your anxiety? Especially if your someone who tends to obsess or ruminate on things which is what I do. I've gotten better with it, but boy when it rains it pours for me.

I’m 19 in Hawaii, but I feel so hopeless after I realized just how close we are to death. Learned about collapse just a week ago and realized just how close I am to losing my family and friends. Hawaii is a few ships stopping away from total collapse. Even in just an economic crash idk how we are going to live. There’s so many people here it would be an ordeal to evacuate. I’ve tried to talk to my mom about the collapse but she just said “There’s nothing we can do about it so why worry?” There’s some truth to that sure but I feel like after the whole false missile alarm we just accepted our fate and decided to die here. I don’t have the heart to tell my siblings, I’ve struggled with severe anxiety before and now that I’ve seen this I don’t want anyone in my life to feel like everything’s just a facade. How can the person I love the most in my life not see this? And now I feel like if i hold on to friends and family i’m just going to suffer more, one of my friends has a young child, how tf am I supposed to say anything or appreciate that. I feel so alone now, no one will believe me until it’s too late and if I say anything I’m sure I’m just going to be attacked or called crazy. Doesn’t help that my dad is a toxic narcissist who is constantly threatening violence and verbally abusing my mom and my mom not recognizing she needs help, I used to be complicit but I’ve realized it’s one of the few things I can control and I can’t even do that. Now I just go to work and act like everything is ok, I’m tired of living in distractions and I’ve only known for a week. Writing this helps but idk if this feeling is just me dissociating. I wish I could let go of everything but i don’t see it being possible for me to leave my family.

because i actually want it to. i'm in a really bitter mood and i'm trying to get over my internet addiction and... i am really starting to resent people who scroll out in public. not even i'm gonna stoop that low.

i'm just really sad that people are becoming borderline anti-social because of how intense their internet addictions are. i haven't given up hope, there are still so many people who want connection and are fighting for it, but still.

i see the irony of posting this online but no one i know IRL is collapse aware🥀

Red Wanting Blue is an independent band that has been around since the late 90s. They're an amazing band, definitely check them out.

They have a song called "the world is over". The lyrics are pasted below. Give it a listen on your streaming platform of choice, it's somewhat cathartic for me to listen to it.

Here it is on https://youtu.be/8zbV097STtw?is=lfsDgO3ORiptEvNV

---
Camping out for the big day when the lights go out
We've just figured it out
We're all screwed now
But we're delighted about what they're writing
We may just be able to go with a bang

So beat that drum
'Til we run out all of the air in our lungs
And kiss goodbye the lovers that we've loved
We can't take 'em with us
The world is over
So beat that drum

Check it out
Mother Earth gave birth to her end
Counting you down
Make good use of what breath you've got left
So what we've just learned
We've passed the point of no return
The fuse is lit and guess what
We're gonna get burned

So beat that drum
'Til we run out all of the air in our lungs
And kiss goodbye the lovers that we've loved
We can't take 'em with us
The world is over

So beat that drum
'Til we run out all of the air in our lungs
And kiss goodbye the lovers that we've loved
We can't take 'em with us
The world is over
Wait
Wait

Now we wanna know
Just how we're gonna go
Hurricanes and tidal waves
UFOs and WMDs

The greatest show on earth is well on the way

So beat that drum
'Til we run out all of the air in our lungs
And kiss goodbye the lovers that we've loved
We can't take 'em with us
The world is over

So beat that drum
'Til we run out all of the air in our lungs
And kiss goodbye the lovers that we've loved
We can't take 'em with us

The world is over
Delighted the world is over

I don't know why, but I'm so anxious about the whole eco crisis. Climate change. AI data centers. Right wing parties winning more and more.

It's 1:30 am for me and I'm so anxious I'm gonna throw up. I'm dizzy because of my anxiety. I have nightmares every night. I try to sleep to stop myself from feeling, but when I sleep it's all doom as well and it makes me get panic attacks right after waking up.

I tried scrolling through the posts here, but this doesn't even feel like "collapse support" but "welcome to collapse, we'll make you feel worse and you're gonna die anyway, so this isn't really support but just food for your anxiety" which doesn't help at all.

Don't get me wrong, I know we're gonna die at some point. Everyone will. I'm absolutely terrified of what comes after, but I know death is inevitable. 150 years from now no person that is living right now will be alive.

But I'm just a teen. I've been struggling with mental heatlh for around 6 years or more now. I got better at some point and then found out about collapse and everything went downhill.

I don't have motivation for school anymore. Why should I waste my time studying if I'm gonna die in what 3-5 years anyway? It's been like this for so long but it has gotten so much worse now.

I don't know what to do. It's all just doom. I never see positive news. Even the support and help channels like this one just say oh well, we're doomed. Is there literally any hope left?

I would like to keep it professional, however, this breaks me down quite a bit and I would really appreciate words of encouragement and alternative paths that make this forecast seem less likely.

Generated with GPT 6 Astra (High)

https://chatgpt.com/share/6a9e17b8-463c-83ea-b1fe-4780071b1608

Several decades ago, my husband and I used to have a friendly argument about Optimism vs Pessimism. My husband was the staunch optimist who believed that humanity is progressing toward a better, more enlightened future. I was the pessimist who figured we are definitely all going to hell in a handbasket global warming, environmental catastrophe, endless wars, overpopulation, facism, etc.

This morning I reminded about that old argument. Then I said:

"I told you so."

Am I alone in observing how society has gone from cooperative to confrontational in most arenas - whether waiting for a coffee, merging in traffic, or daily transactional interactions?

The unmitigated anger that most express I feel is an indication that the social fabric is in trouble. What's your take?

It's been the same every major "milestone". I don't have a plan for my life because I don't want to do anything, have no aspirations or ambitions, no goals, no passion, no hobbies unless you count daydreaming about revolution and reform as one.

When I try to imagine the future just 3 or 5 years from now I draw a blank, mostly because I hope I'm dead by then. Climate change, capitalism, the rise in misogyny etc. all make it so much more hopeless. Even if I try to avoid thinking about it, it just feels like burying your head in the sand to escape a tsunami.

I’ve lived in a major city in the US East coast basically my entire life. I currently live 8 miles from my family and have a lot of friends in the area.

I just turned 30 and am single and considering moving to San Diego. I currently work hybrid but don’t want to work East Coast hours on the West Coast so will have to find another job.

Should I let my fear of being alone in face of (natural disaster, rising costs, political instability) stop me from following my goal/dream of living in a different area?

I can’t tell if I’m just making excuses but people are always saying that community support/building is one of the most powerful tools against collapse so I don’t know if moving that far away would be too risky.

I was thinking about how, when society collapses (in my opinion it's inevitable, but we will rise from the ashes as we have so many times before) how do we preserve digital data for future generations? All the Academic Papers, YouTube videos, digital libraries, reddit, etc. There's so much data in the world but it doesn't seem there's a plan on how to preserve this data in the event of a societal collapse.

Are there people working on a physical digital archive (Like the internet archive or way back but the data is stored in loads and loads of hard drives)

If not, should I do this myself? Would hard drives even matter in a world without the Internet for example, or a severely reduced internet (perhaps it only works in certain regions bc the infrastructure is destroyed or fallen into disrepair).

I have seen hundreds of posts regarding the u.n.’s announcement that climate change has passed a point of no return, and that “we let this happen” “we should’ve listened” but I’m trying so fucking hard and it doesn’t matter because what I do will always be overshadowed by the 1%.

I don’t drive. I avoid AI. I only buy my clothes and homewares secondhand or from small businesses. I don’t regularly eat meat. I don’t consume dairy. I buy my eggs directly from farmers. I buy my produce from a farmers market. I walk everywhere and catch public transport if I need to go a further distance. I am only 18 years old but I cannot see the point in continuing living on this planet. You want a smaller population? Because lately it feels like everyone just wants society gone and hey, I’m in that society. I’ve wanted to be a mother since I was a child myself. But now? I can’t do that. I can’t inflict that. What’s the point in having hopes? Dreams?

Things are pretty bad as far as I can tell. I don't like the trend. I have a feeling we're about to go into overheat.

I could use some input or advice about my own life. For whatever reason, maybe on some karmic level it's my own fault, I don't have anybody to rely on. No one. Not one person in this world I can call on for help, or crash on a couch, or have a place to go.

I'm the generation between boomer and Gen X. Generation idiot. All my friends have turned their backs. Hell, they don't even know collapse exists. They got houses or husbands and or both. I had friends of 30 and 40 years and they all went away and won't acknowledge reality.

I had a narc mother and a bully of a father. her enforcer. They always pulled the rug out so I spent most of my life working minimum wage jobs.

Now I'm in my latter 60s. And I'm an addict. Pain pills, prescribed by my doc, taken for fear. I could probably get off of them in a really horrible month, I've done it before, but I can't get any stable situation in which to do it. it's hard to become unaddicted when you're always afraid.

I think I'm about to be homeless for the unpteenth time in the past 15 years. I never realized not having enough money to control my shelter would put me in conjunction with so many icky controlling greedy people, and I use the term people lightly.

I had two sisters, still alive. Both older than me, one who married a doctor and retired in about 1980. The other who out narced my mom, who pretended to be my friend and then stole all the inheritance I'd been counting on to maybe buy some stable housing as I could never get ahead.

In a little over a week, I'm in line to lose my current place which is under somebody pretty icky who plays games with my life and shelter, even though I'm paying them rent.

I'm a hidden sublet, and the property owner likely doesn't want me here. So instead of telling the owner I've been a reliable rent paying person for over a year, they have propagated a lie because the owner didn't want me as a subletter, which will confirm some pretty whack paranoia that the owner has about me. Makes me look like a freeloader.

Or I'm crazy. Either way the upcoming homelessness is true.

And I don't have anywhere to go. Fixed income that ain't too high given all those years of minimum wage. And I really can't describe the pure physical terror involved in not having anybody to count on as this whole fucking mess devolves. I can't quite separate out overall collapse with my own personal collapse. And I am not in physically good shape to meet this crisis. Chronic fatigue from a decade of cortisol.

so there, and it's Thursday. That's what's going on. I get so envious of people with friends and family. I had a pretty great cat so it hasn't been all bad, but he's dead. And I can't even get stable enough to afford another cat which is really painful, it doesn't make me feel like much of a man in this society.

so no matter how I figure it, I can't figure out how to survive anymore. Rent is not affordable, I can't get a job, food is just going up, etc. I've tried to think of any way I can, get a boat to live on, try to buy a cheap place in a small town maybe, but none of it works so if anybody has any ideas please let me know. Thank you.

Im so fucking sick about hearing about “climate solutions”.

Just because It *can* get better doesn't mean it *will*. Climate activist and scientists have been saying that “ we have solutions To avoid the 1.5 threshhold!!! This isn’t inevitable, we just need to implement them!!! ", but they weren't implemented. Because half the fucking planet doesnt even believe in this shit. And now they‘re saying "ok fine it's inevitable that the globe will overheat but we can still stop it if we implement these new solutions!1!1!1" As if every government in the world will come together and suddenly stop what they're doing and care. Of course not, especially not with the current leadership creating data centers that are fucking destroying our ecosystem further. It is blatantly unrealistic to expect that just going vegan, buying less, recycling when people cant even tell the bins apart and emailing people who dont give a shit will offset the amount of sludge produced by a single data center, let alone the worlds fossil fuels. Sure, the world *CAN* change, the same way I *CAN* just win the lottery, the same way any billionaire *CAN* just change their mind and decide that maybe they do care about the people the share the planet with. But the chances of that? Bullshit. And dont tell me to have hope, I HAD HOPE!!!! I HAD HOPE THAT IT WOULD NEVER REACH THIS POINT AND IT STILL DID. Hope with no real, substantial action is worthless. The only real solution is if somehow the people in power letting this happen *get what they deserve*, otherwise, these microscopic "changes" you make by walking in 110 degree weather instead of driving a car is just a useless attempt at placating yourself and feeling like you're doing good when really you're just as complicit and every other citizen in letting this happen. This is bullshit. I want change so bad but after a certain point theres really nothing left to do unless you wanna martyr yourself.

My view; the world is fucked but there are things we can do to change it...but the people who can or could change things won't...so we're fucked.

I'm a 21M who was abused from 2017 to 2023, in that time I autopiloted my life almost to when I started getting out in 2021.

From 2023 to 2026 that auto pilot ness came back as uni did fuck all to help as they didn't critique you and told you "it's there, ✌️" and that was it for post uni stuff.

So safe to say I've not been existing for most of my life and to be in 2026, with dreams and finally having a function with wanting to grow and change...the world is passed or close to getting passed an unavoidable point and life just is not going to exist whatsoever in the years to come.

Fucking brilliant.

It sucks to look in a mirror and see myself which I am barely grasping who that is to then realise anything I ever went through was pointless and I should've ended it all back when I first got the idea than lean into hope and optimism and perseverance and all that shit.

Like...deadass this makes me believe in past lives cause what the fuck did I do to deserve this "existence".

I have dreams but at this point holy shit they're going to stay being a pit in my heart and all that shite.

Like...what's the point or whatever?

I don't know what I'm trying to get out of this other than maybe direction as that's something I clearly have on a rocky surface at this point over believing my dreams are possible or just concepts and ideas that are not really fun to avoid watching it all go down and suffering ever much more than I already have.

So yeah, fun shit :D