If I remember correctly the upcming global famine was taught on environmental/oceonographic university courses I studied some years ago.
From memory:-
1. Various factors are beginning to affect pollination, including changes in ocean salinity and its effects on the deep water ocean currents and on to the air ocean interaction, through winds, land temperatures (Uk has a big risk here). There is a lot more to it, but offhand this is one serious factor.
2. More people reducing the amount of productive land (few pwople live on mountainsides) available (homes, factories.offices, shops etc), while increassing the pressure on the land to perform, at the same time that a goog chunk is become less productive through overuse.
This has been taught on undergraduate science courses for years now so it is hardly news. Just one of those things that because we dont have a united world hasnt been dealt with so could easily hit us hard.
My university education would tell me that it is not if but when. And when it does happen the wars over water and food will rip this world apart resolving the problem. Unless of course we all grow up first and learn to work together.
Forgetting about the natural changes due eg to the ocean/air interface for a moment, one related problem as I think Henka mentioned previously is that the respources are not in theg correct place. In the UK for instance Scotlands resorvoirs are 93% plus full, where much of central southern England is in drought and in the East crops havent really grown for years due to lack of water. Easily solveable, but money, profit, greed, short termism gets in the way.
Yup, that sums it up pretty well. There are lotsa other factors, seemingly minor but which will catch up with us sooner or later: the fact that a LOT of land is currently producing crops that are being turned into ALCOHOL to fuel CARS. Apparently this is now interfering with food production...is anyone going to want to drive anywhere when there's NOTHING to eat?
China is striving to become a world power and wants parity with the rest of the world. They also have NO regard for the environment AT ALL. Neither does Russia. (Nor does North America but they put up a good 'token effort") How long will the Earth be able to sustain the influx of industrial pollution that shows no sign of abating, while the population grows and grows?
All the major wars being fought currently have more to do with corporate greed than anything else; there are great unexploited mineral resources in Africa and Afghanistan, and it is over these that these that wars are being fought , and not because of 'the Muslim threat". That is merely the "pretext".
The ocean is becoming more and more acidic. This is going to cause a LOT of problems for those dependent on the ocean for their livelihood, not to speak of the ocean itself and all its creatures, as will the huge clot of plastic waste, nearly the size of the continental US, that is currently afloat in the Pacific ocean. I haven't noticed any abatement in the use of plastic, myself, so I don't see that thing reducing in size anytime soon; quite the opposite!
There are indeed significant ecological and geological issues for humanity to deal with.
I note however that the Gaia hypothesis emerged precisely because the Earth maintained a narrowly stabilised environment over very long periods despite huge catastrophes.
The Gaia hypothesis is that the Earth operates as a self-regulating system. If so, the Earth may well be able to deal with a recalcitrant species such as humans. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis
The same way it did with the dinosaurs. But THEY had a much longer run that we will, no doubt because they never developed nuclear weapons!
You do know that there was a VERY long period in the history of the earth when" nothing happened."? There is a great layer of silt that shows absolutely NO evidence of life activity, no fossils, nothing. The earth can certainly 'triumph" over anything we may do, but that will not, say, keep asteroids away from us; we are, after all, living in the middle of an 'asteroid belt", and sooner or later, an asteroid is going to "belt us"!
I remember, after 9-11, it was reported just a few months later in early 2002 that not one, not two, but THREE good-sized asteroids swung past earth, very near, so near in fact, that an 'asteroid watch" program lost its funding as a result!
I remember I had a very strong conviction at the time that it was possible that the 'fiery sacrifice' represented by 9-11 might well have been the "price paid" for those asteroids not to connect!
T...a very strong conviction at the time that it was possible that the 'fiery sacrifice' represented by 9-11 might well have been the "price paid" for those asteroids not to connect!
That is an interesting proposition and takes us into the realm of planetary karma. Certainly the various planetary logoi in the solar system are engaged in a family feud.
Could feuds divert asteroids? I don't see why not.
Could human activity affect solar systemic karma? Certainly, e.g. the Middle East.
Was 9-11 a sacrifice? It certainly was by and for some human groups.
Did 9-11 affect systemic karma? From what I can see, I certainly would not rule it out.
So I agree that your proposition is certainly possible.
They say Japan was made by a sword. They say the old gods dipped a coral blade into the ocean, and when they pulled it out four perfect drops fell back into the sea, and those drops became the islands of Japan. I say, Japan was made by a handful of brave men. Warriors, willing to give their lives for what seems to have become a forgotten word: honor. -The Last Samurai
What if it's the terrible visage of the Great Cthulhu?
They say Japan was made by a sword. They say the old gods dipped a coral blade into the ocean, and when they pulled it out four perfect drops fell back into the sea, and those drops became the islands of Japan. I say, Japan was made by a handful of brave men. Warriors, willing to give their lives for what seems to have become a forgotten word: honor. -The Last Samurai