You may have heard the expression: Follow the money. There is a book that is popular in the business sector. It is called: "Who Moved My Cheese?" It is a fictional account of two mice and two little people in a maze. One day, all four characters wake to an empty feeding trough. Cheese has always been in their trough before, but now circumstances have unexpectedly changed. The mice immediately adapt to the new situation, and begins scurrying their way through the maze in search of their next meal. On the other hand the little humans remained behind, assuming cheese would eventually arrive, as it always had before. In the end, waiting proved unsatisfying. The characters who continued to search for the cheese's new location enjoyed their meal.
This Aesop's fable style lesson carries a profound message. When circumstances change, those who adapt quickly are more likely to survive. This is true in business. It is actually true in many areas of life. It's not a moral issue. It's a practical one.
For decades, fossil fuel has driven our world economic system. It has been our proverbial cheese. Up until recently, it was believed that resources like oil and natural gas were irreplaceable, exhaustible resources. Like other essential resources, these fuels became a reason for wars and other national conflicts.
A destabilizing climate may not directly affect these resources, but it may affect how other essential resources are acquired in the future.
The fuel that is most essential to our survival is not fossil fuels. Like cheese in our story, food and water are far more crucial to our continued existence. As more equatorial regions become less hospitable, polar regions will become more temperate.
Whereas, the midwestern United States may have thrived for the last two centuries as a breadbasket, the future may not favor this region of the world. When this shift in food production occurs, who might be the new food barons of the world? Think about it. It has already begun. Alaska could be the most hospitable place to live in America one day.
How do you suppose its western neighbor Russia, and its Siberian region might look in this new global landscape? Now you tell me. Who stands to benefit from a climate restructuring? Areas of the world that are currently too cold for crops may thrive in the future.
As these new bread baskets emerge, countries like the United States may find isolationism much like the mouse who waited for new cheese to arrive. Unfortunately, people won't just lay down and die. People will migrate to greener pastures. What will you do when Canada wants to build a wall to keep you out?
The golden rule that Jesus Christ taught may prove a bitter pill to swallow in that brave new world. Americans may find themselves at the mercy of countries they previously disparaged. If greed based economics dominates those new bread baskets, our descendants may be in for a rude awakening indeed.
Unfortunately, it is not the new bread basket nations that should worry us. Rather, it is the waves of revolution and discord in the intervening years that will pave the road to the new prosperity.
Land and property will continue to be the most important resources of all. Powerful players on the world stage will no doubt navigate these changes like a chess game. Guess who will be the expendable pawns? Monopoly is a fun game... until you lose.
There are many different ways this story may unfold, but how quickly it unfolds may depend on how we choose to use our limited time on this planet. You may not live to see this global power shift, but your children and grandchildren will definitely face a refugee crisis. Probably as refugees.
Then there is the collapsing A.M.O.C. scenario. That is when the North Atlantic convection belt stops working correctly and world temperatures plummet. Known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, this would result in a new ice age sending the breadbaskets to the equatorial regions. That's assuming there are breadbaskets. Chaos in such a brave new world would be chilling in deed. In that scenario refugees would need to survive long enough to even migrate.
You may feel that none of these doomsday scenarios will come in your lifetime, but imagine if the founding fathers of America had taken the view that future generations can deal with the big issues. Just imagine the United States without a constitution. It's true, there have been many amendments in the past two hundred years. But they have usually been in favor of the overall population, in the interest of sustainability (albeit at the expense of indigenous peoples and natural habitats).
Today, it would seem that laws are gradually leaning away from this democratic concept, and more towards a corporate driven model. Sustainable development won't be about world hunger, as much as the bottom dollar (or whatever currency is in use going forward).
We may soon see a world on the run for greener pastures. This won't be the first time this has occurred in our planet's history, but it might be the most devastating and destabilizing time in recent record. Capitalism thrives on the drive to keep up. The question is: Can we keep up with climate change? It may hit us faster than you can turn the page.
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God Please Save Your Planet...from us.
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