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Can decentralized eco-communities survive Earth's energy crisis?

Lei Zhu, William Zhu

May 26, 2026

With Earth's energy imbalance locking in 1.5°C warming within 6.5 years, direct emissions cuts alone won't help; most heat comes from atmospheric forcing, not waste heat. The authors propose replacing centralized economies with decentralized eco-communities that run their own energy, food, and computing independently to survive cascading failures.
Published as The Structural Case for the Eco-Civilization Paradigm arXiv:2605.27274
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