Zach Galifianakis On Climate Collapse
Posted by oneirosisdead@reddit | collapse | View on Reddit | 39 comments
I haven't watched the full show yet, but Zach Galifianakis' This Is a Gardening Show has collapsnik vibes.
I hadn't made the connection myself at first, but after watching him interviewed on Conan's recent podcast it became clear. On the podcast he mentions that we have around 60 harvests left, a figure which I'm sure will be scoffed at here as too high, but is touted by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
Now as I watch it, I'm getting the sense he is talking to a future audience, one who never grew up with a stable climate, and one that might be curious about the lost practices of old.
I also found it interesting watching him trying to discuss the heavy topics with Conan, who is somewhat famously avoidant so as to keep his show silly and light. I love Conan but I personally don't like when artists(the ones I agree with anyway) try to stay aloof in the face of existential threats.
HolyMoleyGuacamoly@reddit
man - 60 harvests is way more menacing than 60 years for some reason
clandestine-ideefixe@reddit
“60 harvests left” would be a sick name for an apocalyptic dystopian novel…
I’d imagine as harvest numbers start to dwindle, they wouldn’t be producing high numbers of successful crops…so maybe it’s more like 40 successful harvests in reality. Damn
veal_of_fortune@reddit
Or maybe even an apocalyptic ambient electronica album.
Lost_Birthday_3138@reddit
It does hit harder, doesn't it. Less abstract, more specific.
memarco2@reddit
Because 60 harvest does not necessarily mean 60 years. Some crops can have multiple cycles, especially with farming tools and technology
Meow-Kitty-Kat@reddit
It was a great show! Hoping he does more episodes.
mellbs@reddit
First line on the trailer -
"if I were to offer a remedy to the human condition it would be a garden. Or acid."
Yep take my money
3seconddelay@reddit
Blotter, microdot, liquid on a sugar cube, whatever you got
ProstateSalad@reddit
Windowpane. We also had a weird mix called white lightning which was acid + either speed or strychnine depening on who you asked. Intense bone rushes.
Sherbert_art@reddit
I googled this word and strychnine is a poison? please tell me more
3seconddelay@reddit
White lightening was before my time. Jellies were rare in my parts.
LIB_Laugh_Luv@reddit
Both…this is the way hahaha
funke75@reddit
I hate when people force me to choose
Myth_of_Progress@reddit
Nothing wrong with a little rye humour.
ludakris@reddit
I follow him a lot through a lot of improv podcasts and he was on Comedy Bang Bang back in the day as one of the first to tell everyone the Covid 19
Pandemic would last for years, not weeks like everyone was expecting at the time. He definitely has his finger on the pulse.
Housing-Beneficial@reddit
The Future is Agrarian
Cool-Contribution-68@reddit
No stable climate on which agriculture depends tho?
whereismysideoffun@reddit
People have grown food during unstable climate times. Things will get harder, but it's not like all land will somehow instantly become infertile.
aJoshster@reddit
No, just gated and guarded.
whereismysideoffun@reddit
People who don't live rural forget the scale of the size of even just the US. You can't gate the entirety of rural America. The ability to gate, guard land, and maintain weaponry/ammo in a collapse situation diffused across the whole of the US or world is not feasible. When the supply chain goes, so does security and large scale farming.
That doesn't mean individuals or small communities can't farm.
aJoshster@reddit
The Uber wealthy 0.1% are already buying massive swaths of the most productive farmland to do just that. They are privatizing key access points to previously protected public lands to do just that.
Oh, and I have spent more time in rural settings than urban by a wide margin.
whereismysideoffun@reddit
There will be no way they can maintain fuel resources, food, and ammo. The police and military would have no chance at continuing on across the whole country without the supply chain. How are uber wealthy somehow going to recruit an entire army and supply that entire army? You are overestimating by a crazy margin the ability for anything to be held.
Privatizing access to what?
Protected federal lands aren't prime farm land. I'm not sure what you are on about.
Cool-Contribution-68@reddit
It's my understanding that humans have grown food only during stable climate times (i.e. the Holocene).
whereismysideoffun@reddit
Doing any small amount of research on the history of agriculture will show you that the time since the last Ice Age is the MOST stable climate compared to other parts of the history of the Homo genus existing. That said, there have been hundreds of collapses caused by short and medium term climate instability.
There have been many periods such as the Little Ice Age or the time period of the Sea People that there was outlier climate situations that threw things off balance. The Little Ice Age was the death nail for the Vikings in Greenland. But did major damage to crop production in Europe. Could have a crazy wet and cold year, then drought with hot temps the next year.
There was a massive drought in the time of the Sea Peoples that spanned the whole Mediterranean and into Westrn Asia. It was likely the cause of movement ir people.
This list goes on ad nauseum with small civilizations that fell apart due to some climate shift in their time.
I am maximally diversifying what I am growing do deal with all the different ways climate instability can play out.
Housing-Beneficial@reddit
I imagine people will still be able to grow food. But the systems we rely upon now will change. Of course, that remains to be seen. We should stop tolerating the people who wanna kill us though.
norrel-@reddit
Agrarian relates to social, economic structures whereas agriculture relates to the science and practice of farming.
Nathan-Stubblefield@reddit
The Age of Agrarius!
LIB_Laugh_Luv@reddit
I’ve only seen episode 1 of his gardening show, but I watched his Conan episode today and it made me really wanna knock out the rest of his gardening show. It’s so interesting seeing someone I’ve essentially ONLY laughed at for 15 years suddenly be so relatable and chill and esoteric.
oneirosisdead@reddit (OP)
Yeah that's a good way to sum it. I found it refreshing. I know we shouldn't be putting our hopes into these famous people, but the reality is a lot of us have parasocial relationships with them and it can have a big impact on the culture. I really hope more of them start being more realistic about what's happening.
LIB_Laugh_Luv@reddit
Yea, he seems like “one of the good ones”, whatever that means. Kinda like a rare uncorrupted specimen of showbiz.
climbermedic@reddit
"The future is agrarian," is the most profound statement I feel I have heard in mainstream about collapse.
Odd_Awareness1444@reddit
We just binged it. All along we kept saying he is trying to send a message.
Electrical_Gas_517@reddit
60 is an optimistic count.
Final_boss_1040@reddit
FWIW I think this show has collapsnik vibes because of where it was filmed. There's a very strong indigenous culture throughout the Gulf islands and that region also saw a huge influx of "back to the land" types during the Vietnam war era. So you have a combination of people that never willingly assimilated with modern (white) western culture as well as those who were deliberately trying to deassimilate. Add 40-50 years, and you basically have a local population who was raised on the Whole Earth Catalogue as their Bible.
Shoddy-Childhood-511@reddit
Importantly, the veggies you'd grow for yourself would usually not be the veggies that farmers would grow to sell. Check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiF8wggfVBo
It extols the virtues of skirret, Good King Henry, Alexanders, Scorzonera (black salsify), Rampion, Salola soda (Agretti or Burill), and Orach (mountain spinach)
clandestine-ideefixe@reddit
Watched it this weekend! I was rooting for the Apple farmer and Zach. They had chemistry lol. It was well done though, lots of good gardening/foraging info and interesting conversations!
I’ve also never craved a fresh picked, sun warmed tomato so bad in all my life, while watching the tomato episode. It truly is one of the tastiest foods out there.
investigatingheretic@reddit
“Humans will survive. There’ll be mass population decline, and then there’ll be a small group of people that will be able to continue on, and their lineage will be able to continue on. But a lot of us are gonna die.
stares at camera
turns to film crew
We’ll just add a laugh track.”
(episode 6)
Wellyaknowidunno@reddit
Watching this too and he says a lot of people will die in the compost episode at the beginning. Then he says we’ll add a laugh track. Love the show. Good for the heart
StrawberryFailcake@reddit
Yes! My husband and I just binged all the episodes this past weekend and said the same thing. We actually sat down to watch it because we love gardening and to cheer ourselves up.... Kinda had this weird effect of making us feel validated and more sad even though we laughed a lot lol