New Look, New Text
November 13, 2012 2 Comments
Hello everyone and welcome to my lovely, shiny website. You might have noticed a couple of changes – not least the huge black and white image behind the pages which is, in fact, part of the new front cover for the impending print version of Underminers. Another change is the home page which has, up to now, been lacking anything resembling a proper blurb; now that the text is ready it’s time to make things a little more friendly.
A big thank you to all of my readers up to now. I know it’s all looked a bit stark and bare, but for many (potential) Underminers, something without embellishment is just the ticket. But things change, albeit in this case for the better, because I can happily say that the text on the website is the same as the text that will appear in the printed book, so by clicking on each chapter you are getting what those people who buy the book will be getting, except for free.
Damn! it’s taken a long time. The book proofs are currently with those nice people at Lulu, and a draft copy is being printed so I can do the very final checks on it. It has a cover and it will have a few extra pictures drawn by my very talented daughter, Sophie, once we work out where they will best fit.
Oh, and I will need to raise a little money to get a small print-run done for those who have helped and distribution to friendly media, and also produce an eBook to get the word out even further. Watch this space.
Anyone fancy making me a video? :-)
Underminers 
Industrial civilisation supports very large populations of humans at the expense of diversity in animal and plant species. For example, Wikipedia tells me that the population of England was about 5 million in 1700 before the industrial revolution.
Without industrial civilisation it seems certain that populations of industrial countries would collapse to pre-industrial levels and perhaps much further. If it were possible to precipitate the end of industrial civilisation, mass starvation would ensue.
In due course – 20 years, 50 years, God alone knows – industrial civilisation will collapse and so agitation for its premature demise must have real advantages to command so much of your time and energy.
As I see it, and I am commenting only so that you can correct me, the advantages of sooner rather than later are:
1) less drastic climate damage may result
2) more species may survive
3) you and your children will starve now rather than your children and grandchildren later.
Keep up the good work
Bill
Hi Bill, the advantages are just about right, although like any good parent I would do my best to mitigate the latter.
In general I strongly suspect a lot more people would survive than you suggest, partly (largely) because there are a lot more people to start with, and partly because the Earth has been primed (i.e. damaged) to support humans more easily. In addition the reduction in population will be far more gradual in the Underminers scenario than the full-on collapse scenario, simply because there will be fewer catastrophic shocks.
There are obviously no accurate models to work with, but many years thinking and testing ideas make me far more comfortable with Undermining than not.
Cheers, Keith.