Category Archives: Collapsed & collapsing nations

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

Lessons learned from how Cuba survived peak oil

Preface. After seeing the film “The Power of Community: How Cuba survived Peak Oil” in 2006, I thought about how those lessons might apply to California agriculture. California grows about one-third of the U.S. food supply.  And how an energy … Continue reading

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Civil war coming?

Preface. I read Turchin’s latest book which attempts to show why his past theories about the rise and fall of agrarian nations also applies to our modern civilization.  But there was not one mention of fossil fuels, natural resources, or … Continue reading

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House hearing on Venezuela’s collapse March 2017

“The economy of Venezuela is largely based on the petroleum sector and manufacturing. Revenue from petroleum exports accounts for more than 50% of the country’s GDP and roughly 95% of total exports” (wiki). Preface. Venezuela supposedly has 18.2% of the … Continue reading

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House hearing: no solutions for North Korea in sight

[ This is a summary of the March 2017 house hearing titled “Pressuring North Korea–evaluating options”. First are some of the reasons why nothing is going to change –in my own wording–followed by congressional testimony.  Then Chairman Yoho gives a … Continue reading

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Book review of “In order to live: A North Korean girl’s journey to freedom” by Yeonmi Park

Related Posts North Korea collapse posts How different nations have coped with oil shortages Dmitry Orlov: How Russians survived the collapse of the Soviet Union A book review of “Russia’s Food Policies and Globalization” Lessons Learned from How Cuba Survived … Continue reading

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Climate change is already collapsing nations

  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”

[ 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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Failing states, collapsing systems: biophysical triggers of political violence

Preface. 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 Cascading Failure, Caused by Scarce Resources, Collapse of Civilizations, Collapsed & collapsing nations, Drought & Collapse, Exports decline to ZERO, Food production, 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”

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

[ A great post by Dmitry Orlov 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 will be the case in … Continue reading

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