On getting what we deserve

I'm looking forward to it, honestly

One really cool thing about Alaska is that since so much of the state is undeveloped land, wildfires are mostly kept away from cabins/villages but have otherwise just been allowed to burn and so they burn in their normal, ecological way and there’s not a crazy build-up of fuels from fire suppression that creates the sort of devastating, apocalyptic wildfires we see in the western US now. That could change, of course, as the permafrost melts and the bog drains and the temperatures creep up, but for now it’s one blessed thing that I don’t need to worry about living up here and I’m so grateful for that. In Anchorage I hardly saw smoke at all since it rained so much in the summer, and in Fairbanks the smoke blows in from these very ordinary fires and then a wee thunderstorm tamps it down and then the smoke pops up again, and then a bit of rain and then smoke, and by August it’s all over. Human history is rife with catastrophe, upheaval, and other endings and beginnings, but it’s nice to note the small ways in which our lives are not currently in a state of collapse, to have a checklist of things that we do not, at this moment, need to worry about. I find it very grounding. In Alaska we still have water, fish, winter, and a normal level of wildfire. Bless!

Weather and wildfire aside, in the US we’ve been mostly sheltered from collapse these last few decades, even as we continue to be an active facilitator of collapse around the world. Gaza, for example- the reason the US is fighting so hard to pretend there’s not a genocide happening there is because we’re the ones funding the genocide because we want the land, trade routes and natural resources that exist in Palestine. The US cannot for one second admit what is going on because then they wouldn’t be able to continue to do it! Also the terrible exploitative mining in the DRC, where children and others dig up toxic cobalt while experiencing unspeakable violence, living within eternal devastation- cobalt is used to make lithium batteries for smartphones electric cars etc- another example of the US encouraging collapse so that it can acquire resources. And it’s not a bug in the system, that’s just how capitalism works- running natural resources into the ground, one after the other, to facilitate its constant growth- because as soon as the growth stops, capitalism itself collapses. And if there’s any justice in this story, it’s that- collapse comes for us all eventually- all of us smart phone and fossil fuel users will get exactly what we deserve, and then we’ll die, and the earth will breathe a sigh of relief. And the corn fields will turn back into prairies and the wolves and bison will explode in population and the Colorado river, having broken free of its (no longer maintained) dams will once again reach the sea. (Here’s a free documentary about the animals living- and thriving! In Chernobyl that I find very soothing.)

Every time I use single-use plastic, drive my car, buy clothing made with slave labor, use AI, get fast online shipping, or scroll on my phone, I am comforted by the fact that I will, one day, get what I deserve- that this literally can’t go on forever. One of the themes of BETS is the steady escalation of scarier and scarier tech (most recently, I read that human brain organelles grown in labs, of the type found in fetuses- with eyes and everything! Are being used to do computing) vs. the higher and higher resource needs to maintain this tech (water and cooling for the server farms, lithium from mines, etc)- the tech is horrifying but the resources are limited, finite, already greatly strained- when will these two lines converge, what is the point past which we simply cannot grow- because there’s not enough water in the Colorado river, because there’s not enough electricity, because there’s not enough minerals to make the lithium- at what point will it all collapse? At the very last second, before the tech becomes a living nightmare? I hope so. I believe so. I will gladly die in fire and famine and unspeakable horrors if the tech that uses human brain organelles for computing dies with me. I look forward to it.

Anyway! I woke up this morning thinking I was going to write more about perimenopause, but here’s this newsletter instead, ha ha. If you want to read a fictional, escapist and ultimately comforting (dare I say cozy?) story about a young person and a small dog navigating a (very dialed back) version of this near-future collapse, the kickstarter for my novel BETS is still going on and you can pre-order the novel there. You can even get a signed version!

Also! The summer issue of Adventure Journal is here, a beautiful print-only mag in which I have an original essay. Subscribe on their website if you wanna read it!

Also also! There are still spots available in my February 2025 Arizona beginner guided backpacking trips, in case you want to talk about collapse while resting in the shade in the warm dez, sipping on electrolytes and eating crushed potato chips. There are four spots still available in sessions one and three, and just one spot left in session two. These trips did sell out last time, so register soon if you want a spot!

And happy solstice! Here in Alaska I’ve forgotten what dark is. It’s great.

That’s all for now,

Carrot