Floods, fire, famine. The collapse of industrial civilisation. The end of the world as we know it.
Scientists predict a global catastrophe in the next 30 years if we don’t change our ways now — and Australia won’t be spared.
With the world’s population set to hit nine billion by 2050, demands on the Earth to meet food and water supplies could be stretched so tightly humankind will implode on itself; causing civil wars, relentless terrorism and heightened weather events that will leave the world in tatters.
Supported by the British and US governments the Food System Shock report, released by Lloyds this week and developed by Anglia Ruskin University’s Global Sustainability Institute in the UK, suggests a cataclysmic series of events will sweep the world, triggered by a combination of climate change, food and water shortages, energy loss and political instability.
The report, written for the insurance industry, was published in order to assess the risks associated with a global food supply shortage, which is “considered plausible on the basis of past events” and “heightening political instability”.
The theory focuses on the world’s agricultural model and the “increasing pressure” to match supply to demand, as the global population peaks at 9 billion by 2050.
“Global demand for food is on the rise, driven by unprecedented growth in the world’s population, which is expected to surpass 9 billion by 2050. To meet the increased demand for food driven by these factors, the FAO (UN Food and Agriculture Organisation) projects that we must more than double global agricultural production by 2050.
But our “chronic pressure” to keep up with food supply “heightens the system’s vulnerability”.
The report predicts an increase in the “intensity and frequency of extreme weather events” including flooding, droughts and wildfires, coupled with the spread of agricultural pests and disease, will leave the global food supply on shaky ground.
“This is further exacerbated by the growing issue of water scarcity, which is accelerating at such a pace that two-thirds of the world’s population could live under water stress conditions by 2025.
“Volatile food prices and increasing political instability are likely to magnify the impacts of food production shocks, causing a cascade of economic, social and political impacts across the globe.”
“Severe drought affects eastern and south-eastern Australia and Southeast Asia. Australian wheat is reduced by 50% by drought,” it states, noting Australia’s most sever drought in 2002 “coincided with a 21 per cent decrease in summer monsoon rainfall”.
“Eastern and south-eastern states of Australia experience well below average levels of precipitation, which overlap the majority of the nation’s wheat-producing areas. The effects of the drought ripple from the agricultural sector through to urban areas and the broader Australian economy.”
The hypothesis predicts wheat, maize and soybean prices will “increase to quadruple the levels seen around 2000,” while rice prices increase by a whopping 500 per cent.
From there begins the domino effect: “Significant negative humanitarian consequences and major financial losses worldwide” are followed by political turmoil, terrorism, and war.
“The increase in grain prices causes difficulties for some countries and food riots break out in urban areas across the Middle East, North Africa and Latin America.
“On the back of the deployment of the military in Kenya to manage food distribution, several terrorist attacks take place across the country, resulting in travel bans, and simultaneous bomb blasts occur on buses and in museums in Nairobi.
“A coup breaks out in South Sudan. In Nigeria, food shortages are seen as a further move by the government to control food supply into the north of the country and Boko Haram launches a major offensive. The capital city experiences running battles while the main ports are captured by rebels. Looting is widespread. Violence spreads further into Cameroon.
“African troops are deployed into Nigeria but fail to stop the country from falling into civil war.
Tensions between Pakistan and India rise as the Pakistani media and nationalist politicians blame India for exacerbating the crisis and forcing further food price inflation on Pakistan. A bomb explosion at an Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket match is claimed by the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist group in retaliation for India’s aggression against the Pakistani people.
“All IPL matches are suspended pending the completion of a security review.”
Considering population growth has grown by six billion in just 200 years, the strain on our Earth and the consequences surrounding it is a very real prospect.
According to Insurge Intelligence, who initially reported on the scientific model, Anglia Ruskin University’s Global Sustainability Institute (GSI) Director Dr. Aled Jones confirmed if there is no change in the ways we operate, there is no doubt this will be our fate.
Preparation and change, they believe, is key.
It comes as musician Anthony Hegarty fired up on Q&A last night, accusing politicians and spin-masters of ignoring climate change.
Mr Hergarty said 50 per cent of the world’s species will be extinct in the next 70 years and that unless governments “changed track” we were “all doomed”.
“You’re doomed, I’m doomed and your children will be doomed,” he added.
Now there’s some food for thought.
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