Oil prices will go through the roof, he [Paul Gilding] said. Whether because of peak oil - the point at which it is not economic to extract - or because of a price on carbon, oil is only going to become more expensive. Our economy is run on oil so the knock-on effects are ubiquitous.
Food prices will soar, he said. Unable to feed their families there will be riots. Already, he said, this has been witnessed in the Middle East. Back in 2008, when food prices hit an all-time high, we saw riots, and again this year when food prices have matched those stratospheric records, we have seen uprisings around the globe. Thomas Friedman, writing in the New York Times has also made this comparison, most recently when reviewing Gilding's book.
And there will be stories in the news of natural disasters. A flood may hit, followed by a nasty cyclone. Maybe there'll be an unusually large hailstorm. Perhaps just a long, dusty drought.
None of these events could definitively be ascribed to climate change, but in sum, a picture starts to emerge.
Greek riots could provide a vision of the future
HT The Oil Drum
According to Kevin Steinberg, COO of the World Economic Forum, some event in the next few years will prevent "40 percent of the population in a major urban center from getting to work." For Steinberg, the important question is not so much how to prevent such events from happening, because they are inevitable. Instead, Steinberg tells Big Think that businesses and governments should focus on proactive approaches. To help global leaders prepare for disasters and coordinate their responses, Steinberg launched the Risk Response Network in Davos this year. He lays out his vision in this video:
After the Flood...What Happens Next?
No comments:
Post a Comment