The Ecocivilisation Diaries

A blog about collapse, survival and transformation

About this website

This website is about the journey from what western civilisation is right now to what, if it survives the eco-apocalypse, it will eventually have to become: an ecologically sustainable civilisation. Ecocivilisation a form of civilisation which has established a stable long-term balance with the ecosystem in which it is embedded and upon which it depends, and is therefore sustainable indefinitely. In the most general sense it is the final state or stage of the evolution of human social organisation. We cannot go back to the Stone Age, or to any previous stage in human socio-cultural or technological development, because we aren't going to forget what books are for. Assuming we avoid exitnction, it follows that we will have little choice but to continue trying to re-invent civilisation until such time as we get it right – even if it takes us many thousands of years. And “getting it right” has to mean “getting it right ecologically”. It does not matter what else we get right, if the ecology does not stack up then collapse will surely follow, sooner or later.

This raises two huge questions.

1: What could a real ecocivilisation, derived from Western civilisation, actually look like?

2: What is the least bad path from here to there?

These two questions lead to countless others, and this blog is intended to be an exploration of the answers.

Email: Geoff@ecocivilisation-diaries.net

About Geoff

In the past I have been a software engineer, a student of philosophy and a professional teacher of foraging. I have written two ground-breaking books on wild food, including the most comprehensive book on European fungi foraging ever published in English. Since 2022 I have lived on a smallholding in West Wales, where my family is preparing for a troubled future. We produce much of our own food. We keep mixed poultry, for eggs and meat, and below the old pond system (there was once a waterwheel here) there is now a plantation of basketry willows. I've planted an orchard of 40 fruit and nut trees and we are self-sufficient in firewood. This personal environment and way of life also allowed me the time and space to finally finish a book I started writing in 2008. It is called The Real Paths to Ecocivilisation: From collapse to coherence – integrating science, spirituality and sustainability in the West. This book is due to be published in the near future.