Quote Originally Posted by Dream of the iris
As I sat here on my desk getting stoned I thought of all the new changes that are about to erupt. The oil crisis, global warming, the conflicts with Iran, America's declining economy and so on and it seems that the more I read up on the news the crappier things are getting. I'm not saying there's gonna be a whole new social revolution or America is going to crumble or whatever, but regardless there is no doubt in anyone's mind not just in America but in the entire World, that shit is about to hit the fan. No matter where you are it seems that everyone has this idea embedded in their mind. They may not think about it all the time but deep down in everyone something big is about to change. So upon sitting here pondering these thoughts I thought it would be interesting to get other peoples input on what is projected to happen in the next 10 to 20 years. I wanna know from you guys what you think the World will be like when we enter this new World?
I've posted a few silly responses to this thread but my honest answer is that I think we are balanced on a knife edge between survival and disaster. Our global human population is so high, and our rate of consumption so high that we are stripping our world of resources faster than they can be replaced. That is a known, undisputable fact. We are on an unsustainable path.

I spent a few years in a row going to a small island that had a population of mice and no predators to keep them in check. The first year, you wouldn't have even noticed that there were any mice, because they stayed hidden like mice usually do. The next year, there were a lot of mice around. And the next year, there were freakin' mice everywhere! They would get into everything! All the vending machines were shut off because mice would get into them, eat everything, and crap all over the place. They were in the commissary kitchens, in all the food. They were eating things that weren't even food --- gnawing on wires, eating wallpaper, eating paper labels off of canned food and bottles, eating their own dead. It was like a biblical plague. The next year, there were no mice at all. They had all died out. They ate everything they could possibly eat, completely ran out of resources, and their population crashed back to almost nothing. Long time residents of the island said it was an ongoing cycle lasting roughly 4 to 5 years where the populatiuon would accellerate upwards, peak, and then crash. It is a cycle common in nature when there is a closed population with no outlet and no check on population except for resources. The population rises to the "carrying capacity" of the ecosystem and then crashes.

Human beings are reaching the peak carrying capacity of the planet. In the past we've had more territory to expand into. And we have had new ways of making new resources for ourselves --- new kinds of farming techniques, irrigation, industry, new energey resources.

The problem is that some of those new techniques are also damaging the long term sustainability of the natural systems we ultimately rely on. Divierting rivers for irrigation boosts farming production but it also damages the river estuaries that support our fishing industries. So this year the entire west coast salmon season has had to be canceled to keep our salmon fishery from completely collapsing. The salmon are almost gone because there is not enough water in the rivers.

Chemical fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides can boost farm production in the short term but ulimately deplete and poison the soil and water, kill off the beneficial organisms that sustainable agriculture relies on, and breed resistant strains of pests. So now were are seeing the honey bee and wild bee populations crashing. The bees may be dying because of new kinds of insecticides and other environmental factors.

Once revolutionary sources of energy, like fossil fuels, power the industry that makes our modern lifestyles possible, but it alos poisons the atmosphere. So now we are seeing the begining of sudden destabilizing climate change. Our weather may become unsuitable for food production because our fuel resources have changed the composition of the world's atmosphere and are altering the climate.

If we are going to survive this period of time, we are going to have to find a way to make our resource consumption sustainable. We need energy resources and food production techniques that do not degrade our natural environment. And we need to stabilize our global population. Otherwise we will end up like the mice, fighting for the last crumbs, and most of us dying.

There is a narrow chance that we will do what we need to do in time, in which case we have a pretty bright future. There is some chance that we are already too late, and even if we do all the right things at this point, we can't avoid some serious hardship ahead. And there is a big chance that we do have time, but we will squander it, and face a true disaster of unimaginable proportions.