It’s Later Than You Think!
by Erik Derr
The National Aeronautical and Space Administration is distancing itself from a controversial study that suggests modern civilization is mere decades from collapse — and, according to media reports, was sponsored by the space agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
The report, written by applied mathematician Safa Motesharrei of the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center along with a team of natural and social scientists, explains modern civilization is doomed by its entire fundamental structure and social nature.
A news release posted at the Website of the University of Maryland-sponsored research center noted Motesharrei “received minor support from NASA” to develop a model to study earth systems. Then, later on, “some of this funding was spent on the mathematical development” of his Human and Nature Dynamics model, which was used to conclude contemporary society on the fast track to the same fate suffered by the Roman and Mayan civilizations.
Soon after that funding link was discovered, it was widely reported that NASA itself had concluded the end of the modern world is close at hand.
The study, said a brief statement issued by NASA, “was not solicited, directed or reviewed by NASA. It is an independent study by the [University of Maryland] researchers utilizing research tools developed for a separate NASA activity…As is the case with all independent research, the views and conclusions in the paper are those of the authors alone.”
In its analysis of population, climate, water, agriculture and energy, identified as the five “risk factors” of societal collapse, the report asserted contemporary society faces the same kinds of falls suffered by the Roman and Mayan civilizations, due to “the stretching of resources due to the strain placed on the ecological carrying capacity” and “the economic stratification of society into Elites [or, rich] and Masses (or, poor].”
The study explains that unless society changes its current trajectory, eventually the Elite population will work to restrict the flow of resources accessible to the Masses, accumulating a surplus for itself which, at the same time, proves a strain on natural resources. The ongoing situation, the findings continue, will result in the destruction of society.
And how can we save ourselves?
The study suggests modern society may not have to fall if it acts to reduce economic inequality in order to ensure fairer distribution of resources and drastically cuts the consumption of natural resources and reduces population growth.
In its statement refuting an association with the study, NASA emphasized it “does not endorse the paper or its conclusions.”
