While the world has seen civilization collapse many times before the last 15 000 thousand years I highly doubt that humanity will be able to really survive the next one. If we do, the world will be unrecognizable even from a natural standpoint because what will happen during the next downfall will be unlike anything humanity has ever experienced.
While the collapses of older civilizations were caused by many factors, the high technological nature of this one is what might be the nail in our coffin. The difference between our civilization and the ones in earlier recorded history is that they never had the technological capability to harness and refine oil and the atomic nuclei.
Oil is a finite resource that is in absolutely everything and is the reason for the modern world's existence. It's used as fuel, in tires used in machines powered by oil. In fertilizers and pesticides that make modern agriculture possible, while also destroying the soil quality. It's used in the ships of the worldwide merchant fleet and used to build them. The same goes for airplanes, cars, and trains. Most of the world's electricity is still being created gas and coal power plants and that power is the backup power for nuclear power plants, which I will come back to later. The worlds reserve currency, the US Dollar is tied to oil. Without it, The American dollar would be completely worthless. I could go on and on all the areas where oil is used, but I think all of you know that without it, the modern world will cease to exist.
The environmental damage this technological civilization has caused have eroded the world's base carrying capacity. For most of human history. the world population was no bigger than a few million. Now thanks to soil erosion, water, and air pollution the true carrying capacity of our planet are at an even lower level.
Geologist M. King Hubbert was the first to come up with the theory of peak oil. He predicted that US oil production would peak in 1971, and his prediction proved correct. There is no coincidence that the oil crisis and the end of the Bretton-Woods Gold Standard happened at this time. A few years later the American Dollar would be tied to Saudi oil. A scheme to make the dollar stay afloat by being the only currency used worldwide for oil trade, thus ensuring American economic dominance.
My point is that when the peak is reached globally, there will be no way of saving the system since all of it runs on oil. The machines and the economy itself. When the entire system collapses, there will be no jobs and money will be worthless. During the collapse, the entire supply-chain of society will break down. Because there's no oil, most of the world will be left without electricity with the exception of places near power-plants that uses other alternative sources of energy.
Nuclear power plants will be one of them. They will be able to supply electricity for some time, but will now most likely be under the control of rogue military units or chad feudal war-lords since governments have collapsed. These areas will without a doubt be hot-spots for conflict because of their value, personally, I would stay as far as way from these areas. Since qualified nuclear scientists are no longer being produced by society and almost all forms of backup power sources are now lost, these reactors are ticking timebombs. Sooner or later these nuclear reactors will enter meltdown and explode. Every single one of them. It will be Chernobyl all over again, with every single nuclear power plant in the world. That already is bad enough but the Chernobyl alone disaster itself almost wiped out all of Europe. Because the molten nuclear material almost reached the cooling tanks. If it had, it would have vaporized the contents so quickly that it would have caused an 8 megaton explosion. comparable to the B53 nuclear bomb and scattered nuclear material all over Europe.*
That was what almost happened with one reactor, now consider that scenario with almost every reactor. With the few remaining melting down and entering the groundwater, irradiating all of the environment from the ground before entering rivers and then the sea. Because of civilization collapse, there will be no liquidators around to clean up this time. Just the world getting slowly irradiated to death. This is our future. I've seen a lot of great and intelligent people warn about the inevitable collapse but very rarely have I heard anyone mention the consequences of all the world's nuclear reactors going Chernobyl. That one incident was bad enough, now imagine 500.
While the collapses of older civilizations were caused by many factors, the high technological nature of this one is what might be the nail in our coffin. The difference between our civilization and the ones in earlier recorded history is that they never had the technological capability to harness and refine oil and the atomic nuclei.
Oil is a finite resource that is in absolutely everything and is the reason for the modern world's existence. It's used as fuel, in tires used in machines powered by oil. In fertilizers and pesticides that make modern agriculture possible, while also destroying the soil quality. It's used in the ships of the worldwide merchant fleet and used to build them. The same goes for airplanes, cars, and trains. Most of the world's electricity is still being created gas and coal power plants and that power is the backup power for nuclear power plants, which I will come back to later. The worlds reserve currency, the US Dollar is tied to oil. Without it, The American dollar would be completely worthless. I could go on and on all the areas where oil is used, but I think all of you know that without it, the modern world will cease to exist.
The environmental damage this technological civilization has caused have eroded the world's base carrying capacity. For most of human history. the world population was no bigger than a few million. Now thanks to soil erosion, water, and air pollution the true carrying capacity of our planet are at an even lower level.
Geologist M. King Hubbert was the first to come up with the theory of peak oil. He predicted that US oil production would peak in 1971, and his prediction proved correct. There is no coincidence that the oil crisis and the end of the Bretton-Woods Gold Standard happened at this time. A few years later the American Dollar would be tied to Saudi oil. A scheme to make the dollar stay afloat by being the only currency used worldwide for oil trade, thus ensuring American economic dominance.
My point is that when the peak is reached globally, there will be no way of saving the system since all of it runs on oil. The machines and the economy itself. When the entire system collapses, there will be no jobs and money will be worthless. During the collapse, the entire supply-chain of society will break down. Because there's no oil, most of the world will be left without electricity with the exception of places near power-plants that uses other alternative sources of energy.
Nuclear power plants will be one of them. They will be able to supply electricity for some time, but will now most likely be under the control of rogue military units or chad feudal war-lords since governments have collapsed. These areas will without a doubt be hot-spots for conflict because of their value, personally, I would stay as far as way from these areas. Since qualified nuclear scientists are no longer being produced by society and almost all forms of backup power sources are now lost, these reactors are ticking timebombs. Sooner or later these nuclear reactors will enter meltdown and explode. Every single one of them. It will be Chernobyl all over again, with every single nuclear power plant in the world. That already is bad enough but the Chernobyl alone disaster itself almost wiped out all of Europe. Because the molten nuclear material almost reached the cooling tanks. If it had, it would have vaporized the contents so quickly that it would have caused an 8 megaton explosion. comparable to the B53 nuclear bomb and scattered nuclear material all over Europe.*
That was what almost happened with one reactor, now consider that scenario with almost every reactor. With the few remaining melting down and entering the groundwater, irradiating all of the environment from the ground before entering rivers and then the sea. Because of civilization collapse, there will be no liquidators around to clean up this time. Just the world getting slowly irradiated to death. This is our future. I've seen a lot of great and intelligent people warn about the inevitable collapse but very rarely have I heard anyone mention the consequences of all the world's nuclear reactors going Chernobyl. That one incident was bad enough, now imagine 500.
