If a few hundred million of us in the west/global north drastically cut our overconsumption and economic participation, and the militaries that exist to secure our access to the energy and resources we mindlessly squander were to drastically reduce their footprints (yeah, right), would there be a chance to save even a portion of what's left of the biosphere before we devour it?

Though “inconceivable" seems far too optimistic a word, I still like to think so. However, the next time you're out on the freeway, observe everything you see - every detail, every action, and every choice, including your own - then tell me there's a snowball's chance that any widespread voluntary reduction of consumption at the individual level, or planned degrowth at the societal level, is even remotely possible.

Out there, atmospheric carbon increases by the second, overshot well beyond the point of mitigation or reversal, despite the EVs and eco-friendly stickers and license plates that pretend to care.

Speaking of EVs, imagine an electrified version of every vehicle you see all around you, including the ones criss-crossing in the sky above.

Even if it that "transition" was possible, it's still the same overconsuming, planet-devouring civilization, only with a clean and green patina that may or may not buy it a little more time.

“Inconceivable" once again comes to mind.

All those batteries still need to be manufactured and kept charged, and the electricity to do this is not - and can never be - free of ecological costs, regardless of how the electricty is generated. The same is true for the vehicles, regardless of their propulsion systems. Atmospheric carbon levels will continue to rise, because instead of reducing our consumption levels, we’ve only moved around the sources of carbon.

The freeway is an every day, all day microcosm of our global growth civilization's non-stop stream of insanity, narcissism, insatiability, and terminal separation from Nature and Reality.

We're so many generations deep into the entangled poly-predicaments of this civilization that we can no longer tell if we're a mirror of it or if it's a mirror of us.

We're locked into the choices, excuses, and compromises made so long ago that they're now automatic, unquestioned, and "normal." They're manifested as behaviors and features of the human-made hellscape into which we've converted Earth, and the freeway is one of the most obvious reminders of this.

Honk if your love the planet.