Are We Doomed?

Are we doomed as a civilisation? I know it seems a strange question but it has been playing on my mind recently.  We all know that we live on a world of finite resources with an expanding population, but technology will surely protect us. 

 

Over the weekend I watched an interesting programme called ‘Doomsday 2210’ in which they theorised on what will happen over the coming decades. The programme first looked at ancient cultures such as the Mayans and others where great civilisations disappeared almost overnight due to changes in climate etc.  The programme also looked at Rome where the continual expansion of the empire provided the resources to expand further, however when they got to a certain size they more or less imploded.

 

Many parallels can be drawn today as climates change and population expands we face water, food and resource shortages around the world.  One just has to look at the water behind the Hoover dam to see how much lower the water level is now compared to twenty years ago and that thousands still die of starvation around the world.

 

One scary fact is that whereas when the ancient civilisations collapsed it tended to be a very localised collapse, today it would be world wide. You only have to look at what happened during the recent banking crisis to see that we are all connected and in many ways what happens to one happens to all.  Another example of this was seen over the summer with the droughts in Russia affecting world Grain prices.

 

We are literally at a crossroads it seems; we can either ignore what is happening around us, hope for the best and face a total collapse of civilisation as we know it in the next few decades. Or we can embrace new technologies, discard fossil fuels and adjust planetary life styles so that civilisation may continue to flourish.