wild animals lining up to board a ship called extinction

articles, essays and short stories about the end of modern civilization

Image: Zdzislaw Beksinski

NOTHING BUT DOOM AND GLOOM

We can endure neither our vices nor their remedies
Titus Livius 59 BC-17AD

When we started this magazine about six years ago, we still had some hope that humanity would come to its senses and stop destroying the environment. We were wrong. In those years, as in the decades before them, no meaningful action was taken and - realistically - the situation is now hopeless.

Latest Environmental Headlines
single tree in desolate landscape with tree stumps
Image: Shutterstock; jbl

Facts about the desperate state of our environment

Our original mission was to raise awareness about the suicidal harm that humans are doing to this planet. We have abandoned that mission. The reality of climate change has become so stark that nobody can be unaware of it anymore. From now on we shall simply be a source of reliable information about the state of the environment and the climate, while we chronicle the downfall of humanity in fact and fiction.

We are descending into a hell of our own making. Climate change is speeding up. Temperatures are soaring, worsening weather extremes throughout the world. Heatwaves, droughts, wildfires and floods are occurring from China and India throughout Africa and Europe to North and South America. Oceans are heating up and sea ice is melting in the Arctic and Antarctic. Meanwhile the false idol of economic growth still reigns supreme. Overpopulation continues to grow. The sixth mass extinction is gaining momentum. Fresh water is running out. Concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere are still increasing. The list goes on and on and still humanity refuses to make fundamental changes. Governments, corporations and media have only responded with empty words, half measures and fake solutions.

This inaction means that the collapse of our civilization is rapidly approaching. In 2023 so-called "wet bulb temperatures" were nearly reached in many places, especially during heatwaves in India and the USA. They are deadly because they make it impossible for human beings to sweat, raising their body temperature to levels where organs start to fail. As it is certain that temperatures will keep on rising, these WBTs and many other environmental disasters will soon start killing people in vast numbers, which no civilization can survive.

All we can do now is prepare for the worst. Many of us will face unprecedented disasters, far beyond the capacity of conventional relief organizations. Personal preparedness will be vital. Knowledge plays a big part in that. In presenting the real facts the non-fiction on this website provides that knowledge, while short stories illustrate the possible consequences of those facts. Together they can deepen our understanding of the new reality facing us and our children, raising our chances of survival.

We have identified 8 major emergencies. They are:

Overpopulation
By far the worst, because it multiplies all our destructive activities. It is almost a taboo because the need to reduce our population brings back memories of genocides against undesirable people. Understandable, but no excuse for ignoring the problem. Our numbers far exceed the natural carrying capacity of the planet and can only be maintained by destroying the environment in many ways. That is - literally - a dead end.

One example should be enough to illustrate the size and gravity of the problem. It is estimated that without artificial fertilizers, which require fossil fuels, human food production would be halved, leaving only enough for 4 billion people. The other 4 billion would face starvation on a scale never witnessed before.

However, if we don’t stop using fossil fuels, the outlook is even worse. Global warming alone will lead to more and more floods and droughts that severely harm the soil and its ability to produce food. Human starvation will no longer be limited to 4 billion but keep on rising till the climate returns to normal, which may never happen and certainly not any time soon.

Collossal truck loaded with mature trees
Forests are among the most valuable assets of our world. They are fully sustainable, absorb greenhouse gases, release oxygen, control water cycles, regulate regional weather patterns and provide habitats for half the world's animal species. Humans have destroyed about 50% of the primary forests that existed before human activities, half of that loss occurring in the last 100 years. In acts of complete idiocy we are at present destroying forests for fuel under the guise of "renewable" energy.

Mass extinction
As a result of our inflated numbers and our destructive activities, we are crowding out other lifeforms. The figures are staggering. According to a recent report wildlife populations have declined by an average of 69% in less than 50 years. We cannot survive without them.

Especially insects are vital for the health of the global ecosystem.
No insects, no food. They are disappearing in many places and are hardly ever mentioned in the media.

Pollution
The most visible sign of how we are changing a living planet into a dead one. The amount of waste produced by 8 billion people defies belief. It is littered all over the globe, especially in the form of plastics, which break down into ever smaller (and increasingly harmful) pieces and can be found in the deepest oceans and the remotest regions of the poles. The presence of chemicals in the atmosphere has become so bad that rainwater is no longer safe to drink.

Loss of water
Fresh, drinkable water is rapidly disappearing. Groundwater levels have dropped dramatically by overuse for human consumption and agriculture. Rising temperatures are drying out surface sources. Free flowing rivers are dammed or polluted. In many places around the world, people are already suffering extreme shortages, which will only get worse. Desalination is no solution because it is extremely harmful for the environment and will consequently only make matters worse.

Alongside fresh water, fertile soil is one of the most precious substances on earth. We depend on it for 95% of our food. It is being polluted, degraded and destroyed. Almost half the planet's fertile soil has been lost in the last 150 years. The formation of soil takes a very long time, at least 200 years for 1 cm, while the accumulation of enough substances to make it fertile takes 3,000 years.

Climate change
Although among these emergencies it is mentioned the most, it still gets very little attention and little or no action. The optimism voiced in many quarters because of the use of renewables is misplaced. The benefits of solar and wind power are exaggerated. Hydropower is extremely bad for the environment. The burning of biomass actually worsens climate change by emitting some of the worst greenhouse gases and promoting deforestation. Nuclear energy (including nuclear fusion) is an obscenity that urgently needs to be criminalized. Meanwhile greenhouse gas emissions were at record-breaking heights again in 2023 and are showing no signs of going down.

Decline of the human species
Finally we arrive at the second-worst, and most ignored, emergency. The sorry state of humanity as a species, precisely at a time when it faces the greatest challenges of its existence. This is an even greater taboo than overpopulation and for a similar reason. Any discussion of a person's worth immediately raises the spectre of persecution. This is not unreasonable in view of our genocidal record, but does not change the fact that our species has deteriorated badly, both in body and mind, for more than a hundred years. The cause is simple. We have rejected natural selection, also known as survival of the fittest, although it is a sublime evolutionary force. To double the error we have embraced the opposite, survival of the unfit, no matter what the burden for humanity and the planet. As a result the average human being has become weaker, sicker, fatter, older, needier, less intelligent, less well-educated, less responsible, and especially less moral. This is bad at the best of times but fatal when heading for the worst of times.
Various Environmental Facts


  • In 2023 human overpopulation rose by 75 millions
  • UN says mass extinction is only a decade away, will destroy food security for hundreds of millions of people
  • Damage already done by humans to biodiversity in freshwater systems may take millions of years to undo
  • Two thirds of sharks and rays living around coral reefs are threatened with extinction
  • Greenpeace says the Cop15 conference did not deliver the ambition, tools or finance to stop mass extinction
  • In 2022 eagles in North America are still being poisoned by lead from hunters' ammunition.
  • UN treaty to protect part of the oceans was concluded in March 2023 but will take many years to come into force
  • In March 2022 Australia's Great Barrier Reef suffered its sixth major bleaching since 1998, affecting 91%
  • One third of tree species face extinction, with disastrous consequences for ecosystems
  • China's distant water fishing fleet of more than 10,000 vessels keeps on overfishing all the seas of the world
  • Ignoring science Norway & Sweden allow trophy hunters to kill large proportions of their tiny wolf populations
  • Sweden also allowed trophy hunters to kill hundreds of lynxes needed elsewhere to replace losses there
  • Coto Donana, one of Europe's principal wetlands has dried up, due to farming and tourism
  • Deforestation in Brazilian Amazon is still disastrous despite large reduction in 2023
  • Despite being systematically underreported CO2 emissions once again reached a record high in 2023
  • On 4 February 2024 CO2 in the atmosphere reached a new record of 426.21 ppm
  • In the second quarter of 2023 China's CO2 levels rose by 10% vs 2022, rising about 1% above previous record
  • Bottom trawling by fishing boats releases massive quantities of CO2; China by far the greatest offender
  • In 2022 methane concentrations in the atmosphere rose by the fourth-largest amount since measurements began.
  • Global warming accelerates natural emissions of methane and also slows down its removal from the atmosphere
  • Globally June 2023 was the hottest June on record
  • Globally July 2023 was the hottest month on record
  • The 2022 heatwave in India and Pakistan was the worst in 60 years
  • In July 2023 the Mediterranean Sea reached the highest temperature on record
  • Many thousands of heat records were broken around the world in 2022 and in 2023
  • In March 2022 extreme polar heatwaves raised temperatures to 40ºC and 30ºC above normal
  • In July 2023 the WMO declared that El Nino has officially started and is likely to bring more heat
  • In April 2023 the temperature of the oceans rose to record levels
  • Antarctic sea ice reached a record low in August 2023
  • A recent scientific paper reveals that the melting of the world's glaciers has nearly doubled in speed over the past 20 years
  • New UN report reveals that globally droughts have increased by 29% since 2000
  • In the first half of 2023 hydropower fell by 22% in China as a result of droughts
  • Data of the World Health Organization show that 99% of the global population breathe unhealthy air
  • Plastic consumption and pollution are on track to double by 2050
  • Phthalates, chemicals used in plastics, damage kids' brain development and reduce male fertility.
  • Globally rainwater has become unsafe to drink because of harmful chemicals
  • Since the Paris climate deal the 60 biggest banks have financed fossil fuel with $5.5 trillion through 2022
  • Congo is going to auction oil and gas permits in a critically endangered gorilla habitat
  • In June 2023 US Administration blocks oil drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge after approving massive oil project in Alaska earlier this year
  • According to the IMF fossil fuel subsidies rose to a record of 7 trillion dollars in 2022
  • Ahead of COP28 both China and Russia have rejected any plan to phase out fossil fuels
  • September 2023 was the warmest September since records began 174 years ago

  • Details of these emergencies and many other environmental issues are presented on separate pages. They can be found by clicking on the image below.
    popart man head in hands exclaiming oh no
    img: studiostoks; shutterstock

    Fiction to bring the facts to life

    We not only want to present the truth about the abysmal state of our world, but also publish short fiction to illustrate what is happening and what is likely to happen.

    Our contests produced some fine stories, but since then the pickings have been slim. Not because we don’t not receive many submissions, we do, because but most of our aspiring contributors show the same lack of awareness as the general public. We receive lots of nonsense about zombies, vampires, time machines and intergalactic space travel, but very few stories about the important issues of our time.

    We may have to organize another contest to get things going again, but for the time being we still have the prize winners and runners-up from our "The End of Our World" contests. They can be found on our "winners" page by clicking on the image below.
    despondent hooded woman in bay window in submerged city
    img: Elena Naylor;shutterstock;jbl
    Many other entries were also more than eligible for publication. So, we have collected the best of the rest on our "stories" page.

    And finally we also have a page for those entries that did not meet our formal and rather strict criteria for short stories but are far too good to reject, ranging from science-based essays to fanciful personal reflections. This is our "writings" page.
    short stories
    img: Skumer; shutterstock
    assorted writings
    img: shutterstock
    Our views on the basic qualities that we want to see in stories can be found in our Editorial section. We also offer links to other websites that we believe to be of interest to our readers and contributors.
    painting by gerome of diogenes lighting his lantern
    img: Jean-Léon Gérôme 1824-1904
    img: shutterstock; jbl
    We still welcome submissions but please read our instructions carefully. Sending us unsuitable work, no matter how good, is just a waste of everybody's time.
    one red brolly among sea of bla
    img: shutterstock


    Although we are basically a prose magazine, we also appreciate poetry, if good enough. One truly superb poem came out of our 2018 contest. We awarded it a special poetry prize and are happy to publish it here.

    Ode to Mother Earth

    a poem by

    Dominique Heathcote

    *



    She’s gathered up the sea-shells,
    The pebbles and the stones,
    And with her battered suitcase
    She’s on her way back home.
    The rivers, seas and oceans
    She’s poured them into jars
    She’s lifted down the sun and moon
    and taken down the stars.
    She’s folded up the blankets, of lavender and moss,
    And packed away the summer showers, the early morning frost.
    She’s gently picked the flowers, the bushes and the trees,
    She’s wrapped the hills and valleys in bundles tied with leaves.
    And deep within her suitcase the Seasons safely lie,
    The Summer, Spring and Autumn, with Winter by her side.
    And each and every twilight is delicately placed,
    Among the rays of sunset and moonlight’s gentle face.
    The insects, birds and animals, wait patiently in line,
    They all are leaving with her, they won’t come back this time.
    She turns around and glances, at those she leaves behind,
    That glittering, superior race,
    Bewildered human-kind.



    “It isn’t absurd, for instance, to believe that the age of science and technology is the beginning of the end for humanity; that the idea of great progress is delusion ... ; that there is nothing good or desirable about scientific knowledge and that mankind, in seeking it, is falling into a trap. It is by no means obvious that this is not how things are.”

    Ludwig Wittgenstein
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    Contact:

    Mail:
    aftermath
    the Editors
    Veenhof 9
    9461TG Gieten
    The Netherlands
    Email: editor@aftermathmag.org
    Editorial staff:

    Jan Bee Landman
    Editor-in-Chief
    Gieten, The Netherlands
    jbl@aftermathmag.org
    Heleen van der Vegt
    Senior Editor
    Meteren, The Netherlands
    heleen@aftermathmag.org
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