What Have We Learned?

Came across this article today, and even though it's a few months old, thought it might not be a bad start, just to see what's at stake here and what we are doing to ourselves. These are excerpts:

Is it possible that global civilisation might collapse within our lifetime
or that of our children? Until recently, such an idea was the preserve of
lunatics and cults. In the past few years, however, an increasing number of
intelligent and credible people have been warning that global collapse is a
genuine possibility. And many of these are sober scientists, including Lord May,
David King and Jared Diamond - people not usually given to exaggeration or
drama.

The new doomsayers all point to the same collection of threats - climate
change, resource depletion and population imbalances being the most important.
What makes them especially afraid is that many of these dangers are
interrelated, with one tending to exacerbate the others. It is necessary to
tackle them all at once if we are to have any chance of avoiding global
collapse, they warn.

Many societies - from the Maya in Mexico to the Polynesians of Easter
Island - have collapsed in the past, often because of the very same dangers that
threaten us.

Unlike these dead societies, our civilisation is global. On the positive
side, globalisation means that when one part of the world gets into trouble, it
can appeal to the rest of the world for help. Neither the Maya nor the
inhabitants of Easter Island had this luxury, because they were in effect
isolated civilisations. On the negative side, globalisation means that when one
part of the world gets into trouble, the trouble can quickly be exported. If
modern civilisation collapses, it will do so everywhere. Everyone now stands or
falls together.

The enormity of such a scenario makes it hard to imagine. It is human
nature to assume that the world will carry on much as it has been. But it is
worth remembering that in the years preceding the collapse of their
civilisation, the Mayans too were convinced that their world would last
forever.