They are nonlinear, and sometimes runaway or self-sustaining.

The Ten Days of Christmas Awareness, a collaboration by Deep Green Resistance (the book, not the group), and me; a primer on the integral, intersectional nature of existence with particular emphasis on this time, now.

“The media report on these crises as though they are all separate issues. They are not. They are inextricably entangled with each other and with the culture that causes them. As such, all of these problems have important commonalities, with major implications for our strategy to resist them.

“These problems are urgent, severe, and worsening, and the most worrisome hazards share certain characteristics.”

“The hazards get worse over time, but often in unpredictable ways with sudden spikes or discontinuities. A 10 percent increase of greenhouse gases might produce 10 percent warming or it might cause far more. Also, the various crises interact to create cascading disasters far worse than any one alone. Hurricanes (such as Katrina) may be worsened by global warming and by habitat destruction in their paths (Katrina’s impact was worsened by wetlands destruction). The human impact may then be worsened further by poverty and the use of the police, military, and hired mercenaries )like Blackwater) to impede the ability of those poor people to move freely or access basic and necessary supplies.”(Page 50, Deep Green Resistance by Aric McBay, Lierre Keith and Derrick Jensen, Seven Stories Press, 2011)

Tomorrow: These crises have long lead or lag times.