Charles Goldman
@charliesc00.bsky.social
Retired professor of psychiatry concerned about the fragile future of our ecosystem and civilization.
"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." James Baldwin
#polycrisis #collapse
"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." James Baldwin
#polycrisis #collapse
“focused on informing and organizing the public around societal-scale risks and harms of AI, and countering industry narratives of AI inevitability and acceleration!”
I’m thrilled to share that I’ve been helping out my brother David who is starting a new org, Evitable.com, focused on informing and organizing the public around societal-scale risks and harms of AI, and countering industry narratives of AI inevitability and acceleration! 1/n
Evitable
Evitable.com
November 6, 2025 at 3:37 AM
“focused on informing and organizing the public around societal-scale risks and harms of AI, and countering industry narratives of AI inevitability and acceleration!”
Thought provoking.
open.substack.com/pub/planetcr...
open.substack.com/pub/planetcr...
You Don’t Have To Mourn Charlie Kirk
In its quest for empathy, the Left has lost its moral clarity
open.substack.com
September 22, 2025 at 8:27 AM
Thought provoking.
open.substack.com/pub/planetcr...
open.substack.com/pub/planetcr...
AI and the polycrisis - my conversation with Claude. #collapse #polycrisis #AI
open.substack.com/pub/charlies...
open.substack.com/pub/charlies...
A conversation with Claude: is AI harmless, or should we be terrified?
Reasons to believe AI is an existential risk to human civilization, and what to "tell" your grandchildren
open.substack.com
September 14, 2025 at 9:26 PM
AI and the polycrisis - my conversation with Claude. #collapse #polycrisis #AI
open.substack.com/pub/charlies...
open.substack.com/pub/charlies...
Reposted by Charles Goldman
You don’t become a “Doomer” because you are pathologically drawn to catastrophe. You are one because you have a heightened sense of empathy: for nature, humans, and everything that lives and “is”
September 13, 2025 at 2:12 PM
You don’t become a “Doomer” because you are pathologically drawn to catastrophe. You are one because you have a heightened sense of empathy: for nature, humans, and everything that lives and “is”
“In the absence of a deal, industrial trawlers were allowed this season to essentially fish anywhere at any time, including in smaller habitats preferred by whales, penguins and seals.”
apnews.com/article/whal...
apnews.com/article/whal...
Krill fishery in Antarctica shut down after record catch triggers unprecedented early closure
Officials have shut down the krill fishery near Antarctica early after exceeding the seasonal catch limit for the first time.
apnews.com
August 12, 2025 at 8:43 PM
“In the absence of a deal, industrial trawlers were allowed this season to essentially fish anywhere at any time, including in smaller habitats preferred by whales, penguins and seals.”
apnews.com/article/whal...
apnews.com/article/whal...
“After that water is put to human use, it escapes into the ocean where, the study found, it has contributed more to sea level rise than the melting of the Greenland ice sheet.”
We’re draining Earth’s fresh water like there’s no tomorrow—emptying aquifers, poisoning what’s left, sinking the land, and raising the seas.
This is what happens when infinite growth collides with a finite planet.
grist.org/science/grou...
This is what happens when infinite growth collides with a finite planet.
grist.org/science/grou...
Groundwater is drying out, heating up, and causing sea level rise
Overuse of groundwater has created zones of “mega-drying” around the world — and caused more sea level rise than Greenland’s ice sheets.
grist.org
August 11, 2025 at 5:54 PM
“After that water is put to human use, it escapes into the ocean where, the study found, it has contributed more to sea level rise than the melting of the Greenland ice sheet.”
“There is no nice way of putting it: humanity is a global criminal network of planetary-scale ecological fraud.”
As with all Ponzi schemes, exponential growth is always followed by exponential collapse. The human garbage party will soon be over, ending in a spectacular plastic bonfire.
open.substack.com/pub/georgets...
open.substack.com/pub/georgets...
July 13, 2025 at 5:51 AM
“There is no nice way of putting it: humanity is a global criminal network of planetary-scale ecological fraud.”
AI is a bigger short term existential threat than climate change, war, etc. It is a direct result of oligarchic power and billionaire sociopaths who could also stop it.
Good news is there are smart, caring people who are actively pro-social (like the 2 below):
#collapse
youtu.be/7Y_1_RmCJmA?...
Good news is there are smart, caring people who are actively pro-social (like the 2 below):
#collapse
youtu.be/7Y_1_RmCJmA?...
Why AI Development Is Not What You Think with Connor Leahy | TGS 184
YouTube video by Nate Hagens
youtu.be
June 26, 2025 at 1:17 AM
AI is a bigger short term existential threat than climate change, war, etc. It is a direct result of oligarchic power and billionaire sociopaths who could also stop it.
Good news is there are smart, caring people who are actively pro-social (like the 2 below):
#collapse
youtu.be/7Y_1_RmCJmA?...
Good news is there are smart, caring people who are actively pro-social (like the 2 below):
#collapse
youtu.be/7Y_1_RmCJmA?...
Yes, hard to accept.
Erik offers a good explanation of why our lack of agency is so hard to accept.
problemspredicamentsandtechnology.blogspot.com/2024/10/why-...
problemspredicamentsandtechnology.blogspot.com/2024/10/why-...
Why is Our Lack of Agency Difficult to Accept?
problemspredicamentsandtechnology.blogspot.com
June 20, 2025 at 6:11 AM
Yes, hard to accept.
Acceptance is difficult.
June 20, 2025 at 6:11 AM
Acceptance is difficult.
Reposted by Charles Goldman
BREAKING:
The White House lashed out at the creators of this ad for "fear-mongering".
It must have really struck a nerve. Maybe they don't like being outed as fascists.
You know what to do: SPREAD THIS EVERYWHERE!
#MAGAKidnappers
The White House lashed out at the creators of this ad for "fear-mongering".
It must have really struck a nerve. Maybe they don't like being outed as fascists.
You know what to do: SPREAD THIS EVERYWHERE!
#MAGAKidnappers
June 18, 2025 at 7:20 PM
BREAKING:
The White House lashed out at the creators of this ad for "fear-mongering".
It must have really struck a nerve. Maybe they don't like being outed as fascists.
You know what to do: SPREAD THIS EVERYWHERE!
#MAGAKidnappers
The White House lashed out at the creators of this ad for "fear-mongering".
It must have really struck a nerve. Maybe they don't like being outed as fascists.
You know what to do: SPREAD THIS EVERYWHERE!
#MAGAKidnappers
So much of what this administration does, if translated into actual words, is awful. Chaos, Cruelty, and Corruption.
Oh man, what a self-own. A govt lawyer brought up DEI in passing, Judge Young was Not Happy:
"If putting these words together, DEI, is somehow offensive... does that mean our policy is homogeneity, inequity, and exclusion?
Are you going to stand there and tell me that's now the policy of the NIH?"
"If putting these words together, DEI, is somehow offensive... does that mean our policy is homogeneity, inequity, and exclusion?
Are you going to stand there and tell me that's now the policy of the NIH?"
A US judge to govt lawyers defending the NIH's grant terminations:
"I understand the administration is against DEI. Respectfully, I just don't know what you mean. This isn't a teasing question. There has to be some working definition.
This is research to advance healthcare for all our citizens."
"I understand the administration is against DEI. Respectfully, I just don't know what you mean. This isn't a teasing question. There has to be some working definition.
This is research to advance healthcare for all our citizens."
June 17, 2025 at 3:33 AM
So much of what this administration does, if translated into actual words, is awful. Chaos, Cruelty, and Corruption.
“Climate breakdown is nothing more (or less) than the most planetary-scale symptom of the underlying collective trauma from five hundred unhealed, accumulated years of extractive colonial capitalism. … All we can do is our best. … We fight, but we also enjoy and support each other.”
June 15, 2025 at 3:52 AM
“Climate breakdown is nothing more (or less) than the most planetary-scale symptom of the underlying collective trauma from five hundred unhealed, accumulated years of extractive colonial capitalism. … All we can do is our best. … We fight, but we also enjoy and support each other.”
“Although the fossil-fuel problem is now a mostly political story because we basically know what we need to do, the eating-the-Earth problem is still an analytical story. We haven't yet figured out what we need to do.”
#collapse
www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...
#collapse
www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...
A Food Reckoning Is Coming
Our diets are awful for the planet. But we can’t simply abandon food.
www.theatlantic.com
June 12, 2025 at 9:02 PM
“Although the fossil-fuel problem is now a mostly political story because we basically know what we need to do, the eating-the-Earth problem is still an analytical story. We haven't yet figured out what we need to do.”
#collapse
www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...
#collapse
www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...
This 52 minute video is a great overview of our predicament. #collapse
I Want A Better Catastrophe. A flowchart for navigating our climate predicament. Illuminating. flowchart.bettercatastrophe.com
I Want a Better Catastrophe · Flowchart
A flowchart for navigating our climate predicament
flowchart.bettercatastrophe.com
May 29, 2025 at 4:58 AM
This 52 minute video is a great overview of our predicament. #collapse
2.7°C still means collapsing ecosystems, rising infectious disease, microplastics, chemical overload, and biodiversity loss. Emissions are one crisis. Perpetual growth ensures we trigger the rest.
theconversation.com/earth-is-hea...
theconversation.com/earth-is-hea...
Earth is heading for 2.7°C warming this century. We may avoid the worst climate scenarios – but the outlook is still dire
The world seems to have avoided truly catastrophic climate scenarios, and global emissions may be about to peak. But we’re by no means out of danger
theconversation.com
May 28, 2025 at 2:51 AM
Reposted by Charles Goldman
The old ways of thinking, the stories we were told about endless growth and progress, are shattering in real time. The fact that most people are sensing something is terribly off, even if we don’t know what to do about it, is the first step toward something new.
The Times They Are A-Changin'
This is the collapse…of the American Empire. This messy reality we’re already living through. And yes, it’s going to get a lot worse. By a few decades, or by the end of this century, it could very wel...
open.substack.com
February 26, 2025 at 5:17 AM
The old ways of thinking, the stories we were told about endless growth and progress, are shattering in real time. The fact that most people are sensing something is terribly off, even if we don’t know what to do about it, is the first step toward something new.
Reposted by Charles Goldman
You state our predicament well. I and 3 others are starting a discussion group based on McLaren’s book Life After Doom.
#collapse
#collapse
Like many of us here, I sometimes feel like I’m living two parallel lives - one in the system of modernity, and one trying to respond to its collapse.
A personal thread about living in the space between them as collapse accelerates around us. 1/8 #overshoot #collapse
A personal thread about living in the space between them as collapse accelerates around us. 1/8 #overshoot #collapse
May 24, 2025 at 7:22 PM
You state our predicament well. I and 3 others are starting a discussion group based on McLaren’s book Life After Doom.
#collapse
#collapse
You state our predicament well. I and 3 others are starting a discussion group based on McLaren’s book Life After Doom.
#collapse
#collapse
Like many of us here, I sometimes feel like I’m living two parallel lives - one in the system of modernity, and one trying to respond to its collapse.
A personal thread about living in the space between them as collapse accelerates around us. 1/8 #overshoot #collapse
A personal thread about living in the space between them as collapse accelerates around us. 1/8 #overshoot #collapse
May 24, 2025 at 7:22 PM
You state our predicament well. I and 3 others are starting a discussion group based on McLaren’s book Life After Doom.
#collapse
#collapse
“Optimism is something different now”
#collapse
#collapse
"Climate Action is Now Harm Reduction" @alexsteffen.bsky.social
Ain't that the truth. Great podcast for environmental activists!
alexsteffen.substack.com/p/climate-ac...
Ain't that the truth. Great podcast for environmental activists!
alexsteffen.substack.com/p/climate-ac...
Climate Action is Now Harm Reduction
...and other thoughts about this dangerous moment.
alexsteffen.substack.com
May 24, 2025 at 6:31 PM
“Optimism is something different now”
#collapse
#collapse
Worth remembering:
May 22, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Worth remembering:
There are 4 possible collapse scenarios in Brian McLaren’s book - Life After Doom. Here is the “best” one:
Scenario 1 ... Collapse Avoidance (This scenario is fictionalized in Kim Stanley Robinson's novels New York 2140 and The Ministry for the Future.)
#collapse
Scenario 1 ... Collapse Avoidance (This scenario is fictionalized in Kim Stanley Robinson's novels New York 2140 and The Ministry for the Future.)
#collapse
May 21, 2025 at 4:54 PM
There are 4 possible collapse scenarios in Brian McLaren’s book - Life After Doom. Here is the “best” one:
Scenario 1 ... Collapse Avoidance (This scenario is fictionalized in Kim Stanley Robinson's novels New York 2140 and The Ministry for the Future.)
#collapse
Scenario 1 ... Collapse Avoidance (This scenario is fictionalized in Kim Stanley Robinson's novels New York 2140 and The Ministry for the Future.)
#collapse
Reposted by Charles Goldman
Interesting episode.
“The implicit purpose of education has been to get a good job […] We’ve asked people to behave like a machine of a kind and now we’ve created machines that can act or mimic as people of a kind. And so the whole [education] transaction has been thrown into chaos”
“The implicit purpose of education has been to get a good job […] We’ve asked people to behave like a machine of a kind and now we’ve created machines that can act or mimic as people of a kind. And so the whole [education] transaction has been thrown into chaos”
Today’s episode of The Ezra Klein Show.
Students are already using A.I. to learn and write. The education policy expert Rebecca Winthrop explores the big questions emerging for educators and parents.
open.spotify.com/episode/0Hyg...
youtu.be/HQQtaWgIQmE?...
Students are already using A.I. to learn and write. The education policy expert Rebecca Winthrop explores the big questions emerging for educators and parents.
open.spotify.com/episode/0Hyg...
youtu.be/HQQtaWgIQmE?...
‘We Have to Really Rethink the Purpose of Education’ | The Ezra Klein Show
YouTube video by The Ezra Klein Show
youtu.be
May 14, 2025 at 7:18 AM
Interesting episode.
“The implicit purpose of education has been to get a good job […] We’ve asked people to behave like a machine of a kind and now we’ve created machines that can act or mimic as people of a kind. And so the whole [education] transaction has been thrown into chaos”
“The implicit purpose of education has been to get a good job […] We’ve asked people to behave like a machine of a kind and now we’ve created machines that can act or mimic as people of a kind. And so the whole [education] transaction has been thrown into chaos”
I just finished Racing to Extinction: Why Humanity Will Soon Vanish (audible) - Lyle Lewis
race2extinct.com
If you, like me, know we can’t stop or reverse mass ecocide and the collective suicide of our species, this is a great read. If you’re undecided, I still recommend it.
#collapse
race2extinct.com
If you, like me, know we can’t stop or reverse mass ecocide and the collective suicide of our species, this is a great read. If you’re undecided, I still recommend it.
#collapse
Racing to Extinction
With BLM, USFS, and USFWS for 30+ years, Lyle Lewis analyzes humanity through the lens of an endangered species biologist.
race2extinct.com
May 14, 2025 at 8:19 PM
I just finished Racing to Extinction: Why Humanity Will Soon Vanish (audible) - Lyle Lewis
race2extinct.com
If you, like me, know we can’t stop or reverse mass ecocide and the collective suicide of our species, this is a great read. If you’re undecided, I still recommend it.
#collapse
race2extinct.com
If you, like me, know we can’t stop or reverse mass ecocide and the collective suicide of our species, this is a great read. If you’re undecided, I still recommend it.
#collapse
Don't Look Down:
"The world hasn't ended, but the world as we know it has--even if we don't quite know it yet. We're like the guy who's already walked off the cliff and hasn't looked down."_ Bill McKibben
#collapse
"The world hasn't ended, but the world as we know it has--even if we don't quite know it yet. We're like the guy who's already walked off the cliff and hasn't looked down."_ Bill McKibben
#collapse
May 12, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Don't Look Down:
"The world hasn't ended, but the world as we know it has--even if we don't quite know it yet. We're like the guy who's already walked off the cliff and hasn't looked down."_ Bill McKibben
#collapse
"The world hasn't ended, but the world as we know it has--even if we don't quite know it yet. We're like the guy who's already walked off the cliff and hasn't looked down."_ Bill McKibben
#collapse