Category Archives: Collapsed & collapsing nations

Failed nations and states — what it’s like to live in an unstable or collapsed region

Climate change is already collapsing nations

Posted on May 9, 2017 by

  Ahmed, Nafeez. 2017. Failing States, Collapsing Systems BioPhysical Triggers of Political Violence. Springer. “The last half century has seen a dramatic increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events in the form of droughts, wildfires, extreme rainfall, … Continue reading →

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Book review of “Empires and Barbarians: the fall of Rome and the birth of Europe”

Posted on February 14, 2017 by

[ After these introductory comments is my book review of Heather’s “Empires and Barbarians: the fall of Rome and the birth of Europe. What follows is from Ward-Perkins “The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization” about the role … Continue reading →

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Book review of Failing states, collapsing systems biophysical triggers of political violence by Nafeez Ahmed

Posted on January 31, 2017 by

[ In this post I summarize the sections of Nafeez’s book about the biophysical factors that bring nations down (i.e. climate change drought & water scarcity, declining revenues after peak oil, etc.) The Media tend to focus exclusively on economic … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Cascading Failure, Caused by Scarce Resources, Collapse of Civilizations, Collapsing, Drought, Drought, Exports decline to ZERO, Interdependencies, Limits To Growth, Middle East, Net Energy Cliff, Other Experts, Over Oil, Overpopulation, Peak Oil, Violence, War & Violence | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Ward-Perkins “The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization”

Posted on January 10, 2017 by

[ This is a book review of Ward-Perkins “The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization“. What sparked my interest in reading several books on the decline of Rome was when James Howard Kunstler  (KunstlerCast 278) interviewed me about … Continue reading →

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Venezuela collapse: looting on the rise, running out of food, electricity

Posted on July 9, 2016 by

[ Venezuela is experiencing a double whammy of drought and low oil prices, which has lead to blackouts and inability to import food.  At this point the newspapers are saying that Venezuela has collapsed. 2017-5-2 Venezuela Is Heading for a … Continue reading →

Posted in Central & South America, Social Disorder | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Nothing is true & everything Is possible: the surreal heart of the new Russia by Peter Pomerantsev

Posted on December 7, 2015 by

Peter Pomerantsev. 2014. Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia. Public Affairs. [ OVERVIEW. This is an amazing look at what it is like in Russia these days. There are schools that teach … Continue reading →

Posted in Corruption, Financial, Russia | 2 Comments

Dmitry Orlov: How Russians survived the collapse of the Soviet Union

Posted on August 18, 2015 by

This is one of the best articles I’ve read about what collapse may be like, the best strategies to survive, and why the Russian way of life and culture prepared them far better for hard times than America.  Related posts … Continue reading →

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How different nations have coped with oil shortages

Posted on June 5, 2015 by

[ In this article, Friedrichs shows how differently Cuba, North Korea, and Japan coped after a sudden loss of most of their oil.  Also see my posts about collapse in North Korea and Cuba. I first became aware that Japan … Continue reading →

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Jared Diamond Why Societies Collapse

Posted on March 12, 2015 by

Professor Jared Diamond, Professor of Physiology at UCLA, speaking at Princeton University about what we can learn from the collapse of ancient societies. Professor Diamond won the Pulitzer Prize for his book, ‘Guns, Germs and Steel’ in 1997. October 27, … Continue reading →

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Bryan Appleyard Waiting for the lights to go out

Posted on March 12, 2015 by

Bryan Appleyard. October 16, 2005. Waiting for the lights to go out. We’ve taken the past 200 years of prosperity for granted. Humanity’s progress is stalling, we are facing a new era of decay, and nobody is clever enough to … Continue reading →

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