The Industrial System is At War With the Planet

In this conversation, Justin McAffee and Max Wilbert discuss the state of the world, the unraveling of ecological systems, and the question of how we’re meant to live in a time like this.

We talk about the coming heat, food instability, and the growing cracks in industrial civilization. From water scarcity in the Southwest to the fragility of global agriculture, the signs are everywhere.

Margi Prideaux, PhD was mentioned as an excellent Substack publication, including this recent post about the hunger gap coming.

At the center of this episode is a hard realization:

“They are waging war against the planet and people… with economic weapons, with military weapons, with political weapons…”

It’s a systemic, ongoing conflict against the natural world and, ultimately, against ourselves.

We explore:

• Why consumer choices and “green” lifestyles won’t solve systemic collapse

• The difference and intersection of resilience and resistance

• What history (like the Great Depression) can teach us about survival

• The importance of direct relationship to land, food, and place

• How industrial systems disconnect us, and why that matters

• Why real change requires more than individual action

We also share personal experiences from time spent living close to the land, to hunting, fishing, and witnessing what a truly non-industrial relationship with food looks like.

We hope you enjoy the discussion. Let us know in the comments if you’d like to see more of this type of content, and if there are topics you are interested in seeing covered.