Brace yourself. You may not be able to tell yet, but according to global experts and the U.S. intelligence community, the earth is already shifting under you. Whether you know it or not, you’re on a new planet, a resource-shock world of a sort humanity has never before experienced.Tom Dispatch
Two nightmare scenarios -- a global scarcity of vital resources and the onset of extreme climate change -- are already beginning to converge and in the coming decades are likely to produce a tidal wave of unrest, rebellion, competition, and conflict. Just what this tsunami of disaster will look like may, as yet, be hard to discern, but experts warn of “water wars” over contested river systems, global food riots sparked by soaring prices for life’s basics, mass migrations of climate refugees (with resulting anti-migrant violence), and the breakdown of social order or the collapse of states. At first, such mayhem is likely to arise largely in Africa, Central Asia, and other areas of the underdeveloped South, but in timeall regions of the planet will be affected.
To appreciate the power of this encroaching catastrophe, it’s necessary to examine each of the forces that are combining to produce this future cataclysm.
Entering a Resource-Shock World How Resource Scarcity and Climate Change Could Produce a Global Explosion
Michael T. Klare | Professor of Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College and author of Resource Wars and The Race For What's Left.
The vise is tightening. When Klare says, "We aren't there yet," the reality of the magnitude of the situation has been largely concealed from a public that is in denial of this anyway and willing to be let off the hook as long as possible, even though that will exacerbate the consequences. Several military establishments, including that of the US, have said that this is the greatest threat to peace and security in the coming years.
The preppers may be crazy, but not completely so. Moreover, the "everybody for themselves" approach assures wider disaster than if coordination and cooperation are applied to these emerging challenges.
I wonder about coordination and cooperation though. Today I was driving behind a pickup with a bumper sticker reading, "I'll keep my guns, money and freedom, and you can keep the "change." A lot of people seem to believe that if they don't change, the world won't either. The sad thing is that there were several young kids in the truck. It's their future that is not being priced in.
The preppers may be crazy, but not completely so. Moreover, the "everybody for themselves" approach assures wider disaster than if coordination and cooperation are applied to these emerging challenges.
I wonder about coordination and cooperation though. Today I was driving behind a pickup with a bumper sticker reading, "I'll keep my guns, money and freedom, and you can keep the "change." A lot of people seem to believe that if they don't change, the world won't either. The sad thing is that there were several young kids in the truck. It's their future that is not being priced in.
4 comments:
Sure, the climate, natural resource, economic and political chaos predicted in this article is possible, but the central theme seems to be a combination of "The Sky Is Falling" scaremongering and Malthusian BS.
Regarding energy, is there anyone on this blog who does not believe that commercially viable thermonuclear fusion reactors will not be possible if not already a growing part of the energy grid vy 2035 when the article suggests that oil supplies will be in full retreat? Fusion is the technology that will fundamentally change humanity's relationship to nature.
A "resource-shock" environment? Let me see, that would be earth, circa 3.5 BILLION years BC?
Dynamic resources matter far more than static resources. Matter is immutable - so far as we know. Evolution, however, is dynamic.
Only thing we can EVER run low on is our own initiative to adapt to change.
What did you say we were running low on again?
Given the trajectory we are on and its forward momentum institutionally, along with the prevailing level of collective consciousness, humanity is in deep doo-doo. The prospect of innovating and scaling up "on time" is not encouraging. It is already late and getting later as we fiddle with the trivial. TPTB are in denial of the challenges instead of meeting them, and most people are too isolated from the process to make a difference. We are unlikely to see any major shift in consciousness before a large enough crisis hits, and that will be well beyond the point of addressing these issues on time.
That means the likes of Simpson & Bowles won't be around to bother us in another few decades.
Sounds good to me. Yes, it's tragic how many good people will be harmed by Luddites on their way out the door. But, you have to admit, it's always been this way.
Humanity "as is" changes yearly. Or at least with each human generation's life span.
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