Jared Diamond is a pulitzer prize winning author and scholar who has written about societal collapses over history. Not to be too alarmist, this is yet another voice that we are on a risky course and should be thinking seriously about how to cope with future challenges that may arrive sooner than most of us think. This year’s super El Nino will be another test and strong indicator of the impact of Climate Change and I would advise we pay attention. SZ
A researcher has dropped a bombshell warning there’s nearly a 50-50 chance civilization as we know it could crumble within the next quarter century.
Jared Diamond, an American academic and historian, has forecast that society might come crashing down by 2050.
Speaking to Intelligencer, he said: “I would estimate the chances are about 49% that the world as we know it will collapse by about 2050.”
Diamond pointed out that fisheries and farmland across the globe are being “managed unsustainably”, resulting in resources vanishing at a frightening pace.
He explained: “At the rate we’re going now, resources that are essential for complex societies are being managed unsustainably. Fisheries around the world, most fisheries are being managed unsustainably, and they’re getting depleted.”, reports the Daily Star.
“Farms around the world, most farms are being managed unsustainably. Soil, topsoil around the world. Fresh water around the world is being managed unsustainably.”
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author stressed that mankind needs to forge more sustainable practices by 2050, “or it’ll be too late”.
He cautioned: “With all these things, at the rate we’re going now, we can carry on with our present unsustainable use for a few decades, and by around 2050 we won’t be able to continue it any longer.
“Which means that by 2050 either we’ve figured out a sustainable course, or it’ll be too late.”
Diamond emphasized that change needs to come from people, companies, and governments alike. He said: “As for what we can do about it, whether to deal with it by individual action, or at a middle scale by corporate action, or at a top scale by government action – all three of those.
“Individually we can do things. We can buy different sorts of cars. We can do less driving. We can vote for public transport. That’s one thing.
“There are also corporate interests…I see that corporations, big corporations, while some of them do horrible things, some of them also are doing wonderful things which don’t make the front page.”
Wrapping up his point, Diamond added: “In short, climate change can be addressed at all these levels. Individual, corporation, and the national level.”