A post submitted by CGI member Dave68.

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Back in 1972, researchers at MIT did a study and determined that there would be a global world economic catastrophe by 2040.

All good indications are (if you look at United Nations studies) that the outcomes predicted in the study are still on track to occur. Humans, as technically sophisticated as we are, have not advanced enough socially to tackle truly global problems in a coordinated manner and are just not able to control our desire to procreate. (Should we need to reduce our population by about 1/10,000th of what it is today to sustain ourselves until the next asteroid hit? Maybe, but there are too many variables to even guess an order of magnitude.)

Not only can the world’s resources not be able to withstand even a 2% annual growth for the next 50 years, there are a number of scientists that believe that the global warming from C02 emissions have already pushed us past the tipping point — although the worst of that won’t be felt for a while longer than just the next 10-15 years — and that we are already doomed no matter what we do. And then we also know that we are already in the sixth global mass extinction. What will that really mean for humans as the flora and fauna around us continue to disappear at the rate it is today?

I personally came to the conclusion about 7 years ago that it is unrealistic to think that humans can use technology to get out of our problems now. We can prolong the inevitable for a while. That is all. Social upheavals are already underway in various parts of the world and they will continue to get worse as societies clash over limited resources. Terrorism will increase as a result as well. Trump can go to war against ISIS, but it will just be a case of Whack-A-Mole as other groups fill the void.

Each day, I think about it. Each day it makes me sad. The petri dish is just too small. And we are not designed physically to live on other planets. This is where we began, and this is where we will end.