By John J. Hidore

August 24, 2013–In the second decade of the 21st Century Earth’s human population is in turmoil. People the world over have taken to the streets to protest hunger, poverty, unemployment, and drastic environmental change.

Desperate people take desperate measures. Civil uprisings and terrorism are widespread over the earth. The people want change, the ruling establishment does not. The determination of the establishment to hang onto the status quo has led to widespread uprisings and the overthrow of governments. The uprisings result directly from growing poverty among the people. In Africa, Asia, and South America governments have fallen to these uprisings. The Fund for Peace maintains a list of nations that are in danger of failing. Some 21 countries in Africa are on the alert list of collapsing into failed states. Out of the 35 countries at highest risk, conditions worsened in 25 of them from 2012 to 2013. Some of the characteristics of these unstable areas are:
High population growth rates
Economic decline
Deterioration of public services
Breakdown of law and order
Growing inequality of wealth
Tribal conflicts
The United States has not escaped these problems. Many of these characteristics describe our country–but not to the extent as some other countries. America’s population is also in a major state of confusion. In 2007 the stock market began a drop that in 2009 collapsed nearly 50% of its earlier value. The housing market collapsed and bankruptcies were widespread. Jobs disappeared by the millions. The Occupy Wall Street event was just the beginning of a wave just starting to grow. There are national protests against racism, unemployment, and voting rights among others.
There are a number of processes now operating simultaneously in the global culture that are root causes for the uncertainty and chaos. They are:
1.An exploding population
2.Economic growth and unemployment
3.The rapid transfer of wealth upwards into the hands of a few
4.Global warming
5.Resource depletion
6.Individual and International debt

Human history covers some three million years and modern humans have inhabited the earth for the last 200,000 years. The global population has been growing throughout this time. People have faced many of these problems in the past as the population has grown. However, all of these processes are problems at this particular moment in time. If we translate the three million years of human existence into a day, these events have become widespread in less than the last second of human history. What is unique is they are taking place at the same time on a global scale. Not only are they taking place at the same time, but the speed of these processes is increasing faster and faster. The rate of change in some cases is so rapid it is difficult to forecast their future status more than a few months or a decade or two.
If these trends continue, the results include, but are not limited to the following:
There will be more and more crowding
There will be more and more uprisings by large numbers of people as they protest the continual decrease in quality of life.
There will be more and larger migrations of people in search of better opportunities.
There will be more and more environmental problems of all kinds.
Global climate change will result in greater stress for most living species.

How long these trends will continue is unknown. However, they will continue because at present there is little will to change.

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