By Ajit Varki: Why Men Are Destroying the Planet (Planet: Critical Interview)

Dr. Ajit Varki is a co-originator of the Mind Over Reality Transition (MORT) theory which explains why my species exists with its uniquely power intelligence, and why, despite this intelligence, is unable to see and act on its obvious state of overshoot that threatens the survival of itself and many other species.

I started this blog in 2013 to spread awareness of Dr. Varki’s theory because I believe all possible paths to reducing the coming suffering caused by overshoot must start with an understanding of MORT.

Evidence for this is that to date all environmental initiatives, climate change agreements, energy transition plans, degrowth movements, etc. have utterly failed to change our trajectory, and I’m certain will continue to fail, unless MORT is acknowledged.

It’s simply not possible to craft a useful to response to our overshoot reality until the majority becomes aware that a powerful genetic force is blocking its ability to see the reality.

Unfortunately, there’s a Catch-22: MORT predicts that MORT will be denied and therefore if MORT is correct then MORT will never be acknowledged.

Perhaps someone smarter than me will figure out a path around this Catch-22, I don’t know. Regardless, I still find value in MORT because it keeps me sane by providing a scientific explanation for why so many are so blind to so much that is so obvious.

The Catch-22 may explain why after 10 years of work I have built very little momentum and have scant few successes at spreading awareness of MORT into the 99% of citizens and leaders that aggressively deny reality.

The last interview with Dr. Ajit Varki occurred in 2017 at my prompting by Alex Smith of Radio Ecoshock. Unfortunately, as predicted by MORT, Alex shortly thereafter forgot about MORT and has spent the last 6 years reporting on the coming climate disaster and wondering why we do nothing meaningful about it. If you listen to the interview you will see that Alex at the time understood the answer, then his brain subsequently blocked this understanding.

I was pleased to learn that Varki was interviewed yesterday by Rachel Donald of Planet: Critical. Thank you to Rachel for her initiative, I played no role in setting up this interview. I have been impressed by some of Rachel’s prior work such as this interview she did with Joseph Merz.

Let’s hope that Rachel’s denial genes are sufficiently defective, like mine, so that she helps to spread the MORT message on an ongoing basis. MORT is central to everything that Rachel reports on so we’ll know shortly if she has normal denial genes and is captured by the Catch-22.

In the interview Varki introduces a new idea by proposing that we put more females in positions of power. Apparently females tend to deny reality less than males, as demonstrated by their higher rate of depression, and are more empathetic, both qualities we desperately need today.

Given the 50/50 polarized nature of politics today it does not take much of a voting block to swing an outcome. Perhaps if we target females with overshoot awareness they will abandon useless left/right politics and vote as a block for female leaders that support the only policy that will reduce suffering and improve every problem we face: population reduction.

Who’s in denial now? 🙂

If you are unfamiliar with the MORT theory, this is a very nice introduction by Dr. Varki:

If you want more detail on MORT, this 2019 paper by Dr. Varki is the best source, as it expands and clarifies the ideas presented in his 2013 book.

Ajit Varki – Did Human Reality Denial Breach the Evolutionary Psychological Barrier of Mortality Salience – 2019Download

250 thoughts on “By Ajit Varki: Why Men Are Destroying the Planet (Planet: Critical Interview)”

  1. I remember noticing that covid began simultaneous with mysterious stresses in the repo market and that it provided political cover for printing money to keep the wheels on a little longer.

    https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/kitten-corner-special-kinds-of-stupid

    so, i don’t mean to sound critical or anything, but jeez you guys, it sure takes a special kind of stupid to spend the combined annual GDP’s of france AND italy on “covid response” and not manage to build a single new hospital or med school…

    https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-23-106647

    The federal government has provided about $4.6 trillion to help the nation respond to and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Tracking federal spending is complex—especially at this unprecedented magnitude. As part of its ongoing and comprehensive review of the federal pandemic response, GAO oversees and regularly reports on this spending.

    Six COVID-19 relief laws enacted in 2020 and 2021 provided about $4.6 trillion of funding for pandemic response and recovery. As of January 31, 2023, the most recent date for which government-wide information was available, the federal government obligated a total of $4.5 trillion and expended $4.2 trillion, or 98 and 90 percent, respectively, of these relief funds as reported by federal agencies to the Department of the Treasury in accordance with Office of Management and Budget guidance.

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    1. If he is right, the time is indeed short. Like I said above, days, weeks, months? I doubt it’s years. And when the financial system collapses, into what? Will we have electrical power, internet, money to pay for anything?
      AJ

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      1. Into what is a good question.

        My brain can’t visualize how this will play out. If they try digital currencies what about all the old and/or poor people who do not have smart phones or internet? Do they have the worldwide infrastructure ready to go for digital currencies? I’m betting not. What happens when ISPs bankrupt because their customers cannot afford their bills?

        Looks like it will be a giant chaotic shitshow to me.

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          1. Amazing. A 30 page document discussing pros and cons of digital currencies and not a single word on the core issues:

            1) A negative interest rate might extend the longevity of the debt bubble that sustains modernity however we need a digital currency to implement negative rates.
            2) Digital currencies would be a very useful tool for maintaining social order via fair rationing of scarce resources when the economy collapses due to overshoot.

            Not one word about anything that matters. That pretty much sums up our leaders today.

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        2. Gosh it just occurred to me, CBDC could make banks obsolete – or at least big chunks of their business model. Interestingly, there is a lot of propaganda against banks in NZ at the moment. Lots of talk of their excessive profits (40%) and questioning what value they bring to our society. Rob I think you could be onto something with allowing the small banks to fail

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  4. Yeah, same here in imaging a shit show. As Tim Watkins likes to point out many businesses like power companies, phone companies, ISP’s, etc. are going to enter death spirals as they lose customers the higher costs are passed onto a smaller customer base causing more lost customers until they fail. Not a nice scenario.
    AJ

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  6. Interesting article from the Honest Sorcerer, although not much new for experienced doomer. In the comments Louis Arnoux (friend and collaborator with the late Hills of the Hills Group) makes a reappearance with some dire warnings and with a little bit of hopium (sigh). To be fair to him he doesn’t say what size population the hopium is for.

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    3. Thanks. Did not know the mysterious Hills had died.

      Good essay filled with aware reality, and then as you say, he bolts on a final paragraph to provide hope. Notice that unlike the rest of the essay he provides no graphs or data to support his optimism. Smells like MORT to me.

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    4. I always wondered what happened to the Hills Group. Their engineering model of the oil system, and the prediction of a “dead state” always intrigued me. I thought they were on to something, but I lack the skills to analyze the mathematics/physics of their model. A few qualified folks did, some said it was wrong, a few folks said they got it right enough.

      The key understanding for me was that roughly two-thirds of the energy from oil burned in internal combustion engines (as liquid fuels refined from oil) is lost to 1. friction, and 2. heat. So, roughly, only one-third of the energy in a barrel of oil burned in ICE is available to perform “work.” As the cost of extraction and processing to refined fuels increases, the surplus energy available to perform economic work is even less than you first assume when looking at the energy content of a barrel of oil.

      Louis Arnoux’s improved on the Hills Group model, visually at least, providing a better understanding to the layman not equipped with the skills to understand thermodynamic equations. But I never understood the Green box or other ideas he was offering as future solutions.

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  7. As Jack Alpert explained, we later learned that mothers who protected their child with an arm just prior to a crash actually increased the harm because the distance between child’s head and dashboard was increased thus maximizing the velocity of impact.

    Fed Hikes by 25 Basis Points, to 5.0% at Top of Range, Pencils in One More Rate Hike, No Rate Cut in 2023, QT Continues: New Regime of Tightening while Providing Liquidity for Banks

    Stepping on the brake with one foot while putting an arm around the baby to keep her from hitting the dashboard.

    Fed Hikes by 25 Basis Points, to 5.0% at Top of Range, Pencils in One More Rate Hike, No Rate Cut in 2023, QT Continues: New Regime of Tightening while Providing Liquidity for Banks

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  8. Nate Hagen’s interview today with Paul Martin provides an excellent explanation for why a modern civilization powered by hydrogen is 100% hopium. I learned a lot. Hydrogen is not as clean as most people assume.

    Other discussion topics were not impressive. It’s amazing how a person can be aware in one dimension and totally in denial in another. In this case the guest thinks electrification of the economy is the solution to peak oil and climate change, but is blind to the material and economic constraints.

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    1. That is similar to my thoughts, Rob. He seems to want a “solution” that allows a high tech civilisation to continue and doesn’t appear to contemplate other futures, calling them unrealistic.

      I was a bit disappointed that Nate didn’t persist with getting good explanations of the different hues of hydrogen, particularly green. However, generally a good reality check on the hydrogen future.

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    3. I have had so many arguments with Paul Martin and he refuses to apply his hydrogen lens to anything else. He thinks renewable energy means there is nothing to worry about with peak oil. He thinks Jevons Paradox is a load of hogwash.

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      1. He also blatantly disregards the laws of physics when it suits his denial (e.g. think we can get close to perfect efficiency from a system). FFS I shouldn’t have to argue for physics with engineers and scientists. It winds me up no end

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    1. That was excellent thank you.

      My take away is that after the collapse when we’re all struggling to find enough calories we can eat pretty much anything. In times of plenty, like today, we have to be careful to stay healthy. Therefore rice, due to its long shelf life, low cost, and low energy for cooking, is an excellent emergency food to stock. Brown is healthier than white but the oils in its bran reduce shelf life. So if the choice is sufficient calories vs. insufficient calories, I’ll stock mostly white, and not eat it too frequently today unless I’m working hard.

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  10. I always pay attention when HHH @ POB comments:

    Central banks don’t inject liquidity like they say they do. Rate cuts don’t inject liquidity. QE doesn’t inject liquidity. Currency swaps don’t inject liquidity. That’s all bullshit.

    Dealer banks distribute liquidity. And those in need of liquidity have to have collateral to borrow that liquidity. If you don’t have collateral then you don’t have liquidity. If the collateral you do have is impaired then you don’t have liquidity.

    No collateral no liquidity no $140 oil. Prices aren’t set. Prices are bid to whatever level they are at.

    You have too much faith in the central government, central planners. Because you believe they have a printing press.

    Japan has been doing QE and rate suppression for 30 years. Has it worked at any point over those 30 years? The answer is a resounding no it hasn’t. Why? Because all that stuff isn’t what they say it is. It’s just smoke and mirrors.

    https://peakoilbarrel.com/opec-update-march-2023/#comment-754673

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  11. I love Tim Watkins’ clarity of thought and ability to concisely explain complex topics. Today he explains what’s really going on in the economy. It’s an explanation you will not hear from almost any investment/economic expert, nor banker, nor mainstream news, nor political leader.

    We live in a reality free world now.

    https://consciousnessofsheep.co.uk/2023/03/24/time-trap/

    One of the remaining myths about currency, is the idea of the bank reserve – the belief that their has to be a token, a central bank reserve or a piece of precious metal, against which banks multiply their lending. The reality – which will become better known when the coming crisis is over – is that the only limit on bank lending within the Eurodollar system is perceived counterparty risk. That is, so long as an international bank believes that the corporation or nation which wants a loan is good for the repayment, they can create as many dollars as they wish… entirely independently of the US Treasury or the Federal Reserve.

    By 2022, the big multinational banking and financial corporations had radically altered their perception of counterparty risk. In part this was due to the lack of investment during lockdown, in part the impact of broken supply chains and the rising cost of essentials, and in part the likely impact of state and central bank policy. Either way, they began the process of tightening lending standards, while seeking to generate a safe cash cushion on their own ledger books. In practice, they ceased rolling over the debts of zombie households, companies and even countries, while buying up whatever “safe” government debt they could find – in theory, governments cannot go broke because they can always screw their taxpayers for more currency. Although this might not work out in practice.

    The feedback signal from the collective change in multinational financial institutions’ behaviour is what is known as a “yield curve inversion” – one of the most historically accurate predictors of a near-term economic downturn. A yield curve inversion occurs because the global financial corporations are prepared to lend to the government in the long-term at a lower interest rate than they could get by simply parking their money at the central bank overnight. They only do this when their data – which is far more accurate than the data used by governments and central banks – points to a weakening economy.

    To some extent, this becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy, since the main consequence of the institutional behaviour change is to pull currency away from the real economy. That is, zombie households and companies which had been servicing their debts are no longer able to do so – at least, not at an interest rate they can afford… a process not helped by the central banks raising interest rates at the fastest pace in history.

    This sets up what analyst Jeff Snider refers to as the “2008 trap.” When it comes to interest rate rises, it can take months for the effects to filter through. And so, viewed through the lens of employment and GDP data – which, remember, tells us about how the economy used to be, not how it is going to be – the picture looks far more positive than it ought to. The result is that economists and central bankers begin to talk about “soft landings” or even no landing at all, just at the point that inverted yield curves – synchronised across the western economies for the first time in history – are pointing to the mother of all economic downturns just weeks from now.

    On a much longer timescale, we have lived through a growing gulf between the nominal value of debt and currency claims on the economy and the true value of the economy itself for more than half a century. Each time it has faltered, the “solution” has been to inject even more debt into the system. But by 2008, we had reached “peak debt” – which is, in reality peak resources, as there is no longer enough surplus energy and resources to expand the real economy any further. And so, the reckoning that states and bankers have been putting off for decades – in shorthand, the bursting of the “everything bubble” – is at hand.

    It could be that the only question left to be resolved is how much of what was considered to be “too big to fail” last time around will prove to be too big to save this time?

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  12. Finally, a politician that speaks honestly and intelligently and ethically about covid.

    Senator Rennick from Australia was interviewed today by Dr. John Campbell.

    Lots of detail here and many things health care “professionals” did wrong that I was not aware of. The only reason he knows what he knows is because some very determined woman in Australia fought like crazy for a long time to force the government to release a document under a freedom of information act.

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  13. Hey all! I have been dealing with family Shit. Mother died. Seems simple right …wrong! I can not believe what is involved … no wonder everyone denies it ;-} She was in massive pain, in and out of conciousness for weeks, begging to die but hospice would not allow it and warned all family that they were watching everything. Total BS.

    Anyway I have an essay about ignorance that explains what I mean when I call someone ignorant, [definition is lacking information or knowledge…that it] and it also explains my thinking on denial.

    To Ian … musical genius or engineering virtuoso …” those are not behaviors.

    To Jim – I like including doubt into the equation.

    To Monk – Nailed it! ontological, metaphysical, mystical…I have no time for any of it. The physical is where I live and that is more than enough for me.

    To Varki – I agree 100%…men are destroying everything but to be fair women have the potential too.

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    3. It’s so hard watching a loved one suffer when they are ready to die. My deepest condolences for your mother. I hope the funeral and estate process all goes well

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  17. Russia replied FUUK today to the UK’s decision to supply depleted uranium shells to Ukraine.

    Russia will deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus by July 1.

    Curious minds want to know what a has-been soon to be starving island with no asset other than City of London money launderers is doing mucking around in Eastern Europe?

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  21. A good summary (one more) from B of our predicament and how f..d we are – just as a reminder to enjoy life now, as long as possible.
    I’m not totally convinced by the timing he proposes, since I think there will be some dramatic events which accelerate our way to rock bottom (like the global financial bubble, whose burst we are witnessing right now).

    https://thehonestsorcerer.medium.com/me-the-fossil-fuel-shill-d5cfbd55c946

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    1. That’s an excellent essay, thanks!

      I agree he’s probably optimistic on the speed of the decline. I also note he did not mention one word on how feeding 8 billion requires affordable diesel and natural gas. I expect food will be a bigger issue than the loss of a stable grid or personal transportation.

      A few quotes I liked:

      We’ve found ourselves in a hole, yet we keep insisting that digging deeper is the way out.

      It is absolutely no wonder then that there was not a single project in the past half a century aimed at proving that renewables can be made by renewable energy alone, all the way through the entire supply chain. As I explained above, every process step, be it mining or manufacturing has its optimal fuel type for very good reasons, and this won’t change just because some government want it so.

      At a certain point — and I firmly believe that we are right there — demand outstrips supply. Prices spike, then fall sharply as machines burning the fuel get mothballed and companies using them go bankrupt. Oil companies become reluctant to invest into new drilling, because they don’t see a return on rising costs (energy, equipment, other inputs), plus drilling new wells becomes riskier as fat, high yield ones dry up and only the low quality dregs remain. This lack of investment begets a new supply shortfall, followed by another price hike and another round of demand destruction. This is peak oil: not running out of oil all of a sudden, but slowly one step at a time, while leaving most of it under the ground.

      ‘Renewables’ and electrification simply replace the consumption of one finite resource and its related pollution (fossil fuels and CO2) with another set of finite resources and their related pollution (metals and ecological destruction caused by mining, plus the CO2 released during the process). All the while these technologies are doing nothing to stop the sixth mass extinction and pollution crisis we are witnessing… The same goes for carbon sequestration, geoengineering, the hydrogen economy, nuclear, bio-fuels, fusion, mining in space, colonizing other planets and all the rest. None of these ‘solutions’ address excess consumption of the living world and turning her into lifeless junk, just prolong its shelf-life.

      If you want to save the world, first do no harm.

      We are at a turning point though, where global growth slowly becomes impossible and turns into a global economic contraction — primarily due to the increasing scarcity of energy and resources. This change is coming whether you like it or not, want it or not. It is not going to be dictated by governments, politicians or ideologues, but the very biophysical reality, all of our lives are rooted in.

      Until that sinks in, denial will prevail though.

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  22. For any who have not seen it yet I highly recommend this interview. It explains my position better than anything I have come across in a long time. Please do not skip the last 20 minutes of summation.

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  23. Anyone following Charles Rixey?

    This smells legit and significant to me but I have no history with Rixey.

    https://prometheusshrugged.substack.com/p/the-evidence-of-the-origin-of-the-pandemic

    They KNEW – The REAL case against Fauci et al

    We don’t need to know the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to know the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic

    I am a member of DRASTIC,

    Last fall, I signed an affadavit with 4 others, submitted to each state’s attorney general.

    I will soon provide testimony under oath in support of grand jury proceedings to hold US and international officials & organizations responsible for actions taken before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, which constitute crimes against humanity.

    This post lays out many of the conclusions formed through my research.

    Many of the features listed above have direct ties to historical bioweapons research, in the US and abroad. Superantigens including SEB were stockpiled as part of the US offensive bioweapons program until its closure by President Nixon in 1969. Furin Cleavage Sites are even more ubiquitous, in all the wrong places/viruses.

    The FCS, HIV-like inserts, immune dysregulation and chimaeric viral construction were four key features that were described as project goals within the DEFUSE proposal that EcoHealth Alliance submitted to DARPA in March 2018. Neither Dr. Fauci nor the US intelligence community disclosed this proposal in testimony or in the “Biden Report” on the origin of SARS-CoV-2; they covered up what is in fact proof of intent to produce a virus much like the one that caused the COVID-19 pandemic.

    These conclusions indicate that the potential human cost of Dr Fauci’s pandemic decisions to suppress information about the FCS and other inserts may exceed that of President Franklin Roosevelt’s decision to call for declarations of war against Japan and Germany in World War II.

    Without hesitation, I will testify under oath to the veracity of the evidence in support of these conclusions. They involve implications that are horrific regardless of which scientists, from which country, may have been responsible for creating SARS-CoV-2; [their] actions constitute crimes against humanity.

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    1. Here is a MUST WATCH background discussion from April 2022 between Rixey and Couey (who I can vouch for). I don’t detect any BS, just super smart high integrity people seeking truth and justice.

      What they did is so horrific it boggles the mind.

      Fauci needs to hang.

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  24. A rare politician speaks to vaccine harms and almost all of his colleagues boycott his speech.

    Does this demonstrate poor ethics or our genetic tendency to deny unpleasant realities, in this case that they’ve probably damaged their own health?

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  25. Nate Hagens today interviewed a permaculture expert and somehow forgot to ask the only questions that matter:
    1) What percentage of the calories you eat do you grow?
    2) How much money do you make per acre growing and selling food?
    3) How did 1) & 2) change when you adopted permaculture techniques?

    It seems permaculture experts always make their living selling expertise rather than food.

    That’s a big clue.

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      1. AND the weather stays consistent with your climate zone and always cooperates by not throwing once in 100 year storms at you, or late or early season cold snaps, or heat waves, or droughts, or fires OR nuclear winter.
        ALL gardening/food growing is now a crap shoot (and unreliable) now due to unstable weather brought on by climate change/overshoot. (I apologize fob being a little snarky here;) ).
        AJ

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    2. Hey Rob;
      Might want to rethink your take on permaculture.
      First- conventional farmers don’t earn enough money to get by either. The system is rigged to get big and maximize subsidies to get by.

      https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2021/september/off-farm-income-a-major-component-of-total-income-for-most-farm-households-in-2019/

      Second- Permaculture based food systems have to deal with competing with the entrenched food system of ultra cheap, fossil fuel subsidized empty calories. Makes it hard to match price points.

      Third- Permaculture, being based on perennials, inherently takes time to get up to production, and as a system, is still in the early stages of refining the best practices. (My chestnut trees gave their first few nuts after eight years)

      Fourth- As we transient off fossil fuels, ( whether by choice or otherwise) what else would you suggest? Endless square miles of row crops managed with diesel equipment and fertilized with Haber Bosch nitrogen will not be happening. Perennial systems try to work toward closed loops and tap into natural nutrient sources.

      Yes, many permaculture advocates end up on the promotion circuit, but they need the off farm income, and they obviously see the need for the food system to transition, so are trying to ge the word out.

      There are going to be all sorts of relocalized variations on growing food more sustainably, but the base principles of permaculture are sound.

      https://permacultureprinciples.com/permaculture-principles/

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      1. I have nothing against permaculture. I studied it about 10 years ago and it has a lot of wise ideas. I’m just not convinced the ideas are any different than those known by pre-industrial small-scale farmers. Especially when you remove the diesel needed to build the water conservation structures that permaculture frequently advocates.

        It also bugs me that permaculture experts often dress up their desire for unsustainable planet destroying long distance travel with a “green” story. Why doesn’t this guy stay home and teach his Oregonian next door neighbors?

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        1. I have been doing permiculture design ideas since 1997 in landscaping and then my own farm and for the most part it is just massive amounts of work. It also requires massive amounts of fencing materials and other high end IC inputs unless one has inherited a property that has hedge rows and ponds all included. But even my ponds need a large excavator in every 10 years to clean them out. All this could be done by hand of course and eventually will. Though by younger people. I highly recommend permiculture but it is not an easy path.

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          1. I live on a big-ish property (11 acres). I had dreams of doing permaculture stuff. Have realised how incredibly hard it is just to maintain what we’ve already got. Everything you need is so expensive. Contractors are expensive. We just make hay and do lease-grazing at the moment. I am hoping eventually to grow a lot of native plants and do restoration planting

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    3. Despite the lovely principles, it does seem like the old Permaculture Design Certificate is an elaborate ponzi scheme

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  26. el mar´s survival question:

    What does a bacterial culture do when the nutrient solution on which it lives disappears?

    It sets up wind turbines?
    It escapes into space with the help of trans-bacterianism?
    It dies?

    What does a human civilization do when it runs out of fossil fuels?
    …

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