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Showing Original Post only (View all)NASA-funded study: industrial civilisation headed for 'irreversible collapse'? [View all]
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2014/mar/14/nasa-civilisation-irreversible-collapse-study-scientistsA new study sponsored by Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center has highlighted the prospect that global industrial civilisation could collapse in coming decades due to unsustainable resource exploitation and increasingly unequal wealth distribution.
Noting that warnings of 'collapse' are often seen to be fringe or controversial, the study attempts to make sense of compelling historical data showing that "the process of rise-and-collapse is actually a recurrent cycle found throughout history." Cases of severe civilisational disruption due to "precipitous collapse - often lasting centuries - have been quite common."
The research project is based on a new cross-disciplinary 'Human And Nature DYnamical' (HANDY) model, led by applied mathematician Safa Motesharri of the US National Science Foundation-supported National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, in association with a team of natural and social scientists. The study based on the HANDY model has been accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed Elsevier journal, Ecological Economics.
It finds that according to the historical record even advanced, complex civilisations are susceptible to collapse, raising questions about the sustainability of modern civilisation:
Noting that warnings of 'collapse' are often seen to be fringe or controversial, the study attempts to make sense of compelling historical data showing that "the process of rise-and-collapse is actually a recurrent cycle found throughout history." Cases of severe civilisational disruption due to "precipitous collapse - often lasting centuries - have been quite common."
The research project is based on a new cross-disciplinary 'Human And Nature DYnamical' (HANDY) model, led by applied mathematician Safa Motesharri of the US National Science Foundation-supported National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, in association with a team of natural and social scientists. The study based on the HANDY model has been accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed Elsevier journal, Ecological Economics.
It finds that according to the historical record even advanced, complex civilisations are susceptible to collapse, raising questions about the sustainability of modern civilisation:
"The fall of the Roman Empire, and the equally (if not more) advanced Han, Mauryan, and Gupta Empires, as well as so many advanced Mesopotamian Empires, are all testimony to the fact that advanced, sophisticated, complex, and creative civilizations can be both fragile and impermanent."
Read the rest of the article at the link.
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NASA-funded study: industrial civilisation headed for 'irreversible collapse'? [View all]
Fumesucker
Mar 2014
OP
Well, as soon as civilization crashes we'll be back to eating melons on the plains until we turn 40
Nuclear Unicorn
Mar 2014
#52
yeah well we aren't going to take the necessary steps. The Mayan and Roman models apply.
Warren Stupidity
Mar 2014
#5
The focus of the report appears to be broader, resource exhuastion in general, it is a very real
Warren Stupidity
Mar 2014
#30
I know a lot more actual facts than most of the "doomers", that's for sure. nt
AverageJoe90
Mar 2014
#41
It will all be ok once we stop people from smoking, owning guns, eating olive garden, and porn
The Straight Story
Mar 2014
#14
They must be figuring in Apophis visiting and knocking out satellites and in 2029 before it returns
freshwest
Mar 2014
#37