Looming Crisis

I have been watching the markets lately with great interest. For those of you who are reading this, like climate change, you can be sure that the economic reactions to the sub-prime housing crisis will touch everyone's lives in one way or another. These effects are already starting to be felt. I can personally testify to this fact as my significant other has lost her job as a result of these events.

Even though this unfortunate event is no more than a small bump in the road for us, I cant help but feeling like this is but a taste of what is to come. To clarify what I mean, I shall describe what I see as the environmental changes most likely to threaten the way of life I have come to love.

A shortage of fresh water world wide:

Fresh water is disappearing all over the planet. There is more than one cause for this phenomena but in general we can reasonably assume that human activity accounts for a majority of the problem; nevertheless, because we are not taking drastic actions "right now" to address climate change, it is only a matter of time before we begin to see war on the horizon.

Rising ocean levels:

As whole regions of ice and snow melt away, sea levels will rise. As the average global temperature warms, the oceans will also expand causing the oceans to rise even higher. When these two effects are combined, a majority of the worlds population will become displaced as most of the human race lives on or near coastal zones. As millions of people begin to migrate from those regions, conflict will be inevitable.


Burning of the green belts within regions that lie on and/or immediately north and south of the equator:

As fresh water continues to disappear all over the planet, places that are vital to life on earth as we know it....like the amazon rain forest...will begin to catch fire. This will occur throughout these same general regions all over the globe. Keep in mind that as something burns it releases all of its stored carbon into the atmosphere. All of the worlds plants act as carbon sinks. If these plants are burned away one of natures life support systems will be totally gone.

These are but a few of the challenges that we all are soon to face.....

If no action is taken soon, our civilization is doomed.

Update 10/04/2024 Reading this 17 years later....boy was a wrong. 

Emergent Complexity