Friday, May 20, 2011

Concern For the Global Economy

There are several factors here that appear to be constipating the Global Economy

The first one is the Erratic Weather worldwide

The second one dependent upon the first is food that is grown

The third one is oil not easily obtained from the ground anymore

The fourth one is national and individual debt partially at least caused by the above factors.

First, the one that is affecting us right now in the U.S. is we have reached our debt ceiling. What this means is that until Republicans and Democrats agree (maybe? never?) we may watch our credit rating as a country slowly slip into the toilet with disastrous consequences not only for the U.S. but for the world.

Second, the food problem that is affecting the price of oil caused by the Jasmine Spring or the Arab Spring in the Middle East which extends all the way into Africa and over into China in Asia and everywhere in between is causing oil prices and government instabilities to increase throughout the world. But, the food problem is also caused by the erratic weather worldwide which keeps food production at 100% or below world actual food needs. this drives the price up and only about 50% or more of the people on earth actually can afford to eat and to survive. This causes uprisings and revolutions wherever there are not enough jobs for people to work at so they can buy food.

As this problem gets worse the price of oil gets worse because of the series of panics throughout ruling communities in the Middle East. Since the world (for now) runs on oil this will only cause more chaos because of increasing oil prices which will only make worse the price of food worldwide.

The debt problem in both the U.S. and Europe also will only cause more problems for the world also. The debt problem with increasing oil and food prices also will have a negative affect on China as people in the U.S. won't be able to afford Chinese goods because of ever increasing food and oil prices. So this will also have a negative affect on China as well as the rest of the world.

Add to that the very strange weather worldwide, for example, here in the U.S. the Mississippi River is at record flood stage (no equal in at least 100 years or more) and thousands of homes up and down the river have been destroyed and are completely underwater now for weeks to months with no end in sight all the way down to New Orleans. Here in California there has been 4 feet of snow in the last week in the Sierras around Lake Tahoe which is very unusual unless you go back as far as the 1970s and means we have finally come out of a very long drought cycle. But this 4 feet is on top of 20 feet of snow that remains from earlier snows this year and we are already into may 20th 2011. So this is remarkable in itself.

So, my conclusion about all this is that many people around the world are going to slowly starve now and the only way for anyone actually to do something about this is to find ways to grow food less expensively, for example hydroponically on a really large scale where external weather doesn't affect the outcome. However, this growing would have to be done where there is enough water ongoing to use to run over those plants. Though most of the world doesn't have the luxury of this type of technology I think developing enclosed spaces to grow food and to recycle water is necessary now worldwide. One way is to recycle water into fish ponds where the fish eat the algae and bugs and the fish excrement is used to fertilize the organic plants creating a natural cycle within a a greenhouse type of space. This kind of self sustaining environment where water can be recycled and added to might be a way to (if economically done on a large scale) feed many more people on earth than are now fed. This is my thought about the increasing problems regarding feeding people on earth. Though economic problems might increase if a way to feed everyone was created by wealthy governments this would lessen the coming unrest as possibly 50% of the governments on earth (in poorer regions of the globe) collapse because of starving people without jobs.

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