Euphemisms of the Apocalypse #2 Biodiversity Loss

To have any hope of averting or even surviving the looming apocalypse, some entrenched ideas and cultural shibboleths are going to have to die. 

One of the most salient is the idea that mankind has a God given right to exert dominion over the rest of nature – to treat the existence of all other life on the planet as just so many externalities in service of human greed and pleasure.

Bio-diversity loss is a widely used euphemism deployed to talk mildly about our grotesque destruction of nature in service of our own ends. As we merrily process the majestic beauty of nature into iPhones, chicken nuggets and shopping malls we can safely chat about dead landscapes and destroyed species via this soft societally approved phrase.

The euphemisms of the apocalypse facilitate denial and avoidance – they allow us to:

* Dodge the moral implications of our actions

* Ignore the systemic connections that link all exigent emergencies

* Reject the overarching (moral) nature of the crisis

* Neglect and bury feelings of shame and fear

* Avoid potentially unpleasant audits of our own behaviour

* Negate the need for moral dialogues and confrontations

* Dismiss the need for effortful thinking

* Push away the need for radical changes in our behaviour and outlook

* Postpone any need for us to work cooperatively in service of common good      

Biodiversity loss overs all the bases… it sounds like it might happen to your hair or your lawn. Scientists know what it actually means and where it will inevitably end (our extinction) – but it serves a different purpose for nearly everyone else.

Politicians use it interchangeably with phrases like ‘local sustainability’, ‘building resilience’ and ‘green growth’ – and thus it fades into the background – just another part of the culture wars between left and right. The left demands ‘action on biodiversity loss’  (‘action’ being the most abused word of the apocalypse chatterati) and the right just laughs and asks the ‘snowflakes’ if they want fries with that.

We ought not to be chatting mildly about “how to combat ‘biodiversity loss’ via the grass roots development of sustainable local resilience, long term adaptation and eco-deliverables” – we ought to be SCREAMING WITH HORROR and abject shame about what we have done so far and vowing that we WILL NOT DESTROY what is left of nature and thus ourselves.   

If an axe-murderer chopped your family into meat burgers and put them in their freezer – you wouldn’t go to the police and sigh sadly that you seem to have suffered an unfortunate case of ‘biodiversity loss’ and wonder if the solution might be something to do with hemp.

If a corporation lobbed the inhabitants of entire towns into wood chippers to make kebabs at low low prices – nobody would ‘investigate ways to mitigate the rate of biodiversity loss while balancing it against the need for local employment and sustainable growth’ –  we only deploy this soft language when we are describing the industrial murder of all other life.

If a new species of AI driven super robot gorillas were to romp around the earth killing all the humans they could find – the last terrified survivors would not be chatting in Cafe Nero or on Facebook about their worries about ‘biodiversity loss’. 

The euphemisms of the apocalypse are cultural camouflage, deployed to hide our sins from ourselves. We don’t need entire sentences and lengthy reports to say that we ought to stop killing everything – we only need these grotesque and complicated evasions if we intend to carry on killing everything – which of course we do. 

The next international gathering on ‘biodiversity loss’ should address the question ‘Shall we stop killing everything?’ and the published report can have a one sentence summary ‘nah –  lets carry on – we like chicken nuggets’.

Collectively we are doing an efficient job of mulching the miracles of creation – a World Wildlife Report (WWF) in 2014 noted that between 1970 and 2010 then globe had lost:

* 52% of its overall biodiversity

* 76% of freshwater wildlife

* Latin American had lost 83% of its biodiversity

An updated report in 2018 showed that humanity has wiped out 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles since 1970 and invented the grotesque phrase ‘wildlife crash’.  Another study reported that humans have destroyed 83% of all wild mammals.

It is straightforward to evaluate the moral implications of ‘climate vandalism’, the ‘industrial destruction of everything except humans’ and ‘the apocalypse’ – which is why we deploy the phrases like ‘climate change’, ‘biodiversity loss’ and ‘climate emergency’ instead. 

I urge the hinterland of Sodium Haze readers to refuse to discuss the apocalypse in the approved phrases of these end times…

…if this annoys people and they smack you in the mouth – fear not – as blood pours down your face and you spit teeth on to the ground you can confront your attacker and demand ‘action’ on ‘facial change’ and the potential for ‘mastication capacity loss’. 

Euphemistic problems demand euphemistic solutions – so ‘climate change’ and ‘biodiversity loss’ are to be fixed with a ‘New Green Deal’.

Our next stop on the euphemisms of the apocalypse will thus outline our most wild, natural, and certified 100% eco-fresh deals yet.

Since 2013 I have worked between 4-6 hours a day on this Ad-Free site: trying to give a voice to those without the power or agency to speak out for themselves and uncovering truths that well paid journalists in the corporate media dare not utter.

I am a home schooling parent on a low income – paying for the domain, web hosting and security entirely out of my own pocket.  

If you found this article useful and could spare us a few shillings to help keep our lights on, it would be very much appreciated.

Thank you in solidarity with all our readers. John Lynch, Editor.     

Follow Sodium Haze on Facebook