Between the existential chaos around the world and whatever we're all dealing with in our personal lives, it feels like we're collectively acting like everything is fine these days, but that's not really the case.
Political turmoil is wreaking havoc across the globe, climate change is getting realer by the second, and the global economy is shifting, for better or for worse.
Needless to say, we're in very trying times, and it feels like burnout is now a universal feeling. A recent post on the r/AskReddit sub asked users the following question: "What is currently on the brink of collapse but no one is talking about it?"
From collapsing ecosystems to the rise of AI, these 19 responses highlight just how close our dystopian future might be:
1. "The orca pod known as J-pod, that are residents of the Pudget Sound, are starving as the salmon population is collapsing."
2. "And to be specific, Chinook salmon. Chinook are their main food source because of the fat content, and they're on the brink of collapse. I mean, it's not looking good for all salmon species, but when/if the Chinook go extinct, that's the first big domino to fall in the Salish Sea ecosystem."
3. "Here in the UK, the water table. Already seen a massive drought in the North with unprecedented lack of rainfall this year. Reservoirs and rivers are lower than they've been in decades. On top of leaking pipes that date back to WWII, we could honestly be talking about real drinking water shortages in 5-10 years."
4. "Honestly, I'd say the internet. Everything requires an account, everything collects your information, you can't own anything because you can only get subscriptions to services. There are way too many social media platforms, which are somehow all owned by the same few mega corporations (Meta, Google, Microsoft, etc.) AI is slowly taking over everything and spewing out misinformation left and right."
5. "Lots of collectively-owned private, professional businesses: Private equity has been relentlessly buying up veterinarian practices, CPA firms, and — I’m sure — all kinds of other businesses so they can egregiously increase prices, sell everything that isn’t nailed down, cut staff to nothing, then sell the little bit that’s left to some naive future buyer at a hugely inflated cost."
"That whole last part isn’t any kind of a secret, either. That’s just how their unconscionable business model operates. Make no mistake, though, because they’ll get richer, and all the rest of us will pay for it (same as it ever was)."
6. "Teachers. Not teaching itself, but the whole system around it. So many teachers are underpaid, overworked, and just done. A lot are quitting quietly or switching careers, and schools are struggling to replace them. It’s kind of scary how fast it's unraveling, but no one's really screaming about it yet."
7. "Maybe not on the brink, but possibly approaching — The AMOC, or Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, is a large system of ocean currents that acts like a conveyor belt, circulating warm and cold water throughout the Atlantic Ocean."
8. "Bridges, railroad lines, power grids, and water pipes. Some of them are decades old and unstable (Germany)."
9. "A bunch of small ecosystems around the world."
10. "The working class. Hopefully, the collapse will wake some folks up, but I don't have a lot of hope when they seem perfectly happy in their caves staring at the shadows."
11. "Critical thinking. Humanity is over-reliant on devices and AI to do their thinking for them instead of using tech to enhance their own thinking."
12. "The movie industry feels that way in Hollywood right now."
13. "The Cascadia Subduction Zone."
14. "The 'enrollment cliff' is starting. This year, the lack of kids born during and after the 2008 recession is starting to graduate from high school. In this population pyramid, you can see that starting at the 15-19 age group, birth rates went down and kept going down. Now, it was already going down on average, but right before the recession, there was a small uptick that could have been a turnaround."
15. "Civilizations decline/collapse over generations — I'd suggest that there is a strong possibility that 'the free liberal West' is in the early stages of a multi-generational decline, not unlike that of the Roman empire. Facebook and Netflix are our bread and circuses while around us, cultures that are not compatible with our (democratic, egalitarian, progressive, liberal) values are rising to challenge and eventually displace us. It won't happen in my lifetime, but it is happening."
—u/jannw
16. "The Anthropocene."
17. "Overly complex appliances, cars, TVs, etc."
18. "I think our civilization’s ability to write without Generative AI. I believe writing is thinking, and it provides clarity to our thoughts. A vast majority of university students are now relying on services like ChatGPT, which I believe will eventually affect us in the long run. I don’t have research backing up my claim, and I hope I’m wrong. Regardless, I’m worried."
19. "Surprised I didn't see many posts about insects. We are in a mass extinction event of something like 60% of their population."
Note: Responses have been edited for length/clarity.