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.
