Having spent more of my life, most of it, out in the country, as opposed to cities, my sense is that while the current civilization might well overwhelm our senses, it really is a ripple in the grand scheme of things.

I might live in rabbit time, but I like to think in turtle time.

Frankly the end of the fossil fuel age will be more of a breakdown, than nuclear war, or climate change. Yet some will survive and carry on.

Stephen Jay Gould explained the cycle with his "punctuated equilibrium" adjustment to conventional Darwinian evolution.

The equilibrium stage selects for complexity and specialization, as every niche is filled and every resource is used. The punctuation stage selects for adaptability and resilience.

Some is seed, the rest is fertilizer.

Think more in terms of the light shining through the film, than the stories playing out on it. The stories will always rise and fall, then the light goes onto the next.

Or as I like to say, when the going gets tough, downshift.

Which, reading your writing, you understand all too well.