Writing about the zombies in the last post reminded me that I hadn’t written up this book, which I read a couple of months ago. I was a little disappointed with it, in that it had a lot of very interesting information and reportage, but the writing itself didn’t engage. That being said, I do think it is a book which we should all read, and the argument seems largely incontrovertible. The planet is warming; sea levels are going to rise.
The point about the zombies was this: consider the city of Lima in Peru. Virtally all of its fresh water comes from the glacier which is rapidly melting (and the inhabitants have been drinking the meltwater). When that process comes to an end in the next decade or so, there will be ten million people without water for six months a year. They will move because, to put it in the words of Darth Cheney, the human way of life is non-negotiable. They will then migrate to where water is available.
There will be many situations like this. They will cascade, like dominoes, each separate area will negatively reinforce the others. It has already started in Africa, in Zimbabwe and Darfur.
I believe that it is too late to prevent the global warming that is already in train. Peak Oil itself will “solve” the emissions problem; eventually the carbon emissions will come down to virtually zero, but by then the damage will have been done. I think we are facing a decade or two of continuous low-level warfare, with the possibility of larger ones breaking out every so often.
What do you do if you can’t get water to drink? Roll over and die? Some will, but those who are prone to aggression – young males – will make every effort to take water from those who have it. Guess where the most young males are located?
