The title for this post was a comment made by the American geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan during his seminar for a Naval Post-Graduate Course:
https://i.postimg.cc/rFsk5mc9/Screenshot-at-2022-06-03-07-47-44.png [Larger image]
The entire two-plus hour talk, made April 26th, 2022, for the Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy, is here:
Energy at the End of the World Seminar - Peter Zeihan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWyhKobyM68 https://nps.edu/web/nps-video-portal/-/energy-at-the-end-of-the-world
Peter doesn't mix his words that's for sure, I don't discount what his saying when it comes to geopolitics, we've taken food and production for granted for so long too many people focusing on services and money instead of the real shit we need.
I can't gauge if he's using hyperbole to sell his upcoming book, or maybe he said that trying to raise awareness of the potential impact of the energy collapse, in hopes to get course correction before that.
But from his previous talks and books, he most certainly has been incredibly right on the general direction well before they become apparent to the rest of us.
good context from the latest Vaclav Smil book review from Tom Morgan:
Four Pillars of Civilization: cement, steel, plastics, and ammonia
Smil’s assessment of the importance of ammonia is staggering.
“In 2020, nearly 4 billion people would not have been alive without synthetic ammonia…. the Haber-Bosch synthesis of ammonia [is] perhaps the most momentous technical advance in history.”
https://thekcpgroup.com/insights/insights-from-how-the-world-really-works
Fritz Haber of the "Haber-Bosch synthesis" won the Nobel Prize for this discovery and is also the father of chemical warfare. His work led to the development of Zyklon B used in the gas chambers during WWII.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-13015210
With commodity money (e.g., gold-backed ruble, bitcoin), governments will lose their ability to print to pay for militaries and infrastucture. Nobody has any idea how things will play out.
Seems that governments around the world, even the ones who are in theory opposed to each other are in lockstep about pivoting from COVID to world war. I read a theory that these things all serve to slow down the velocity of money so people don't see how f'ed they are too quickly and start bringing out pitchforks... do people even own pitchforks anymore?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Population_Bomb
The Population Bomb is a 1968 book written by Stanford University Professor Paul R. Ehrlich and his wife, Anne Ehrlich. It predicted worldwide famine in the 1970s and 1980s due to overpopulation, as well as other major societal upheavals, and advocated immediate action to limit population growth. Fears of a "population explosion" existed in the 1950s and 1960s, but the book and its author brought the idea to an even wider audience.
The book has been criticized since its publication for its alarmist tone, and in recent decades for its inaccurate predictions.
Interesting.
That contrasts quite a bit from what Peter Zeihan is describing how things look today.
Since I don't understand geopolitics well, this all seem believable. Is there someone with similar details who's actively debunking Zeihan or is able to provide counter-arguments?
You need look no further than the BBC.
New Sri Lanka PM: There won't be a hunger crisis https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-61441000
Oh wait, .. did you mean someone with credibility who would debunk Zeihan on this?
There's a kind of druid/occultist guy called John Michael Greer and he writes about scenarios like this, peak oil, etc. Pretty interesting takes. Very gloomy, not light reading.
Watched this yesterday and it’s impressive. One red flag about him was his comment on effectiveness of US produced covid vaccines (98% he said). Like wtf, do you really believe that nonsense?
He explained what exactly he means by the effectiveness in couple sentences.
I watched a lot of mostly unvaccinated people die from mid 2021 through the end of last year.
Thankfully after a crazy initial spike in hospitalizations things have cooled off since Omicron.
There is another video from Peter Zeihan, posted recently here on SN:
📺 Geopolitics, Innovation, and Deglobalization With Peter Zeihan - EP 130 | ARK FYI #34358 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_gw4eTr-hM
The segment where these statements are taken starts here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWyhKobyM68&t=4355s
Here's another segment on Agriculture:
"[Before 1945, ...,] either you had the oil, and so you had an empire and colonies, or you did not, and you were a colony."
view on www.youtube.comI can't find the part where he had said [something to the effect of] agriculture in Africa won't see nearly as much of a decline (e.g., in percentage terms) because in Africa farming techniques generally are not using the same methods as in other areas where there is a higher reliance on farm equipment and fertilizers.