2023 was ok for most of us: Covid over, people moving again; Less than 100,000 killed in global cross-border wars/skirmishes; No natural catastrophes that took more than a million lives, though it got rather hot in places like Italy; Rapid deployment of AI that has potential to accelerate solutions to human problems; Global financial markets held together fairly well; All in all, 2023 might go down as a great year - if you are living on this planet in 2023. If, however, you are living on this planet in 2123, this year will most certainly go down as a catastrophe, given what you see from your window; and on your smartchip: the dystopian landscape, natural disasters, rampant conflict, destroyed economies and widespread poverty. It was a catastrophe, because in 2023: They knew their use of fossil fuels was killing the planet for future generations, but still used more fossil fuels than any other year in history; They know plastics were choking ecosystems but continued to produce and use them at the highest rate ever; They had the knowledge and the money to transition to a sustainable future urgently , but did not ; They flew more flights, ate more caviar, drank more wine and sat idly scrolling on their phones when what was needed was urgent action to give hope to future generations. So, if you live in 2123, 2023 was a shit year. It was another year in which the people of the world, like Nero, fiddled while Rome burned.