Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe by Niall Ferguson review
(Evening Standard) – From plagues and volcanic eruptions to the current Covid pandemic, mankind has always been faced with catastrophes.
Thought Leader: Niall Ferguson
Peter Zeihan: The Geopolitics of Climate Change
From Peter Zeihan: With a glacier as the backdrop for this video, I figured it only appropriate to discuss resource exploitation, Arctic shipping, and agriculture as it relates to climate change.
Places like Canada and Greenland hold immense resources, but extraction isn’t straightforward. Given the harsh conditions (an ice sheet in Greenland and permafrost in Canada), these resources will remain where they are until some new tech comes along or some drastic changes occur. The use of the Arctic Ocean as a shipping route is another hot topic. Given that the Arctic won’t be ice-free in the winter for a while, this route poses some big challenges: lack of icebreakers, infrastructure limitations, and demographic issues in the countries that could make this happen.
However, a more immediate impact will be felt on global agriculture. Wheat thrives in extreme conditions and depends upon globalized supply chains for fertilizers and irrigation. These supply chains will weaken in the coming years and could even collapse, leading to widespread famine in several places.
Sure, there will be some new opportunities tied to climate change, but the crises that will follow should be of much greater concern.
Relevant posts
Michael Baker: Ukraine’s Faltering Front, Polish Sabotage Foiled, & Trump vs. Kamala
In this episode of The President’s Daily Brief with Mike Baker: We examine Russia’s ongoing push in eastern Ukraine. While Ukrainian forces continue their offensive…
Thought Leader: Mike Baker
Paul Nicklen: A Reverence for Nature
Standing in front of any of Canadian photographer Paul Nicklen’s large-scale images in the current exhibition at Hilton Contemporary, one cannot help but be totally…
Thought Leader: Paul Nicklen
More with this speaker
Peter Zeihan: It’s Recession Time
Thought Leader: Peter Zeihan
Peter Zeihan: Should the US Stay in the Middle East?
Thought Leader: Peter Zeihan