The Donald is a bifurcation signal
Speaking from informed intuition, Trump and Trumpism look to me like consequences of the chaotic behavior of the non-linear complex dynamical system of global civilization as it enters the region of a bifurcation.
At the point where various thresholds are surpassed and the system's development begins to shift to an entirely new trajectory, novel behavior becomes more frequent, and the divergence from previously experienced behavioral paths becomes more extreme.
From a complex-system perspective, Trump seems to be the political equivalent of a double Category 5 cyclone, the 2008 economic crash, the recent plummet in oil prices or the Iraq war. In other words, yet another signal that the tipping point is behind us.
We can get a hint of how complex and powerful the human system is by looking at it in terms of "energy-equivalent population". That's the numerical population of a country (or the planet) multiplied by the ratio of the the average per-capita power consumption (the global average is ~2400 watts) compared to the 125 watt power consumption of an average hunter-forager. It reflects the ecological impact of a single person using the energy made available to them by their society.
In energy-equivalent terms, we are now dealing with a world population equivalent to 140 billion naked apes. To me, that convincingly explains our devastating ecological impact, at the same time as it illuminates the inherent size and complexity of human civilization.
The graphic above shows the energy-equivalent populations of some countries relative to their numerical populations.
If per-capita energy consumption is a reasonable proxy for a person's ecological impact (as I am convinced it is) then it's easy to see the scale of the problem. For example, China's energy-equivalent population is over 32 billion, 24 times larger than their numerical population of "only" 1.3 billion. In comparison, the US population of 320 million has the equivalent impact of a population of 25 billion non-technological humans - energy use multiplies the ecological impact of the American population by almost 80 times.
Have a nice tipping point, everyone!
= new reply since forum marked as read
