MIT predicts Global Economic Collapse by 2030

Next Great Depression? MIT researchers predict ‘global economic collapse’ by 2030

By Eric Pfeiffer | The Sideshow – 10 hrs ago

(AP/Andy Wong)

A new study from researchers at Jay W. Forrester's institute at MIT says that the world could suffer from "global economic collapse" and "precipitous population decline" if people continue to consume the world's resources at the current pace.
Smithsonian Magazine writes that Australian physicist Graham Turner says "the world is on track for disaster" and that current evidence coincides with a famous, and in some quarters, infamous, academic report from 1972 entitled, "The Limits to Growth."

Produced for a group called The Club of Rome, the study's researchers created a computing model to forecast different scenarios based on the current models of population growth and global resource consumption. The study also took into account different levels of agricultural productivity, birth control and environmental protection efforts. Twelve million copies of the report were produced and distributed in 37 different languages.

Most of the computer scenarios found population and economic growth continuing at a steady rate until about 2030. But without "drastic measures for environmental protection," the scenarios predict the likelihood of a population and economic crash.

However, the study said "unlimited economic growth" is still possible if world governments enact policies and invest in green technologies that help limit the expansion of our ecological footprint.

The Smithsonian notes that several experts strongly objected to "The Limit of Growth's" findings, including the late Yale economist Henry Wallich, who for 12 years served as a governor of the Federal Research Board and was its chief international economics expert. At the time, Wallich said attempting to regulate economic growth would be equal to "consigning billions to permanent poverty."

Turner says that perhaps the most startling find from the study is that the results of the computer scenarios were nearly identical to those predicted in similar computer scenarios used as the basis for "The Limits to Growth."

"There is a very clear warning bell being rung here," Turner said. "We are not on a sustainable trajectory." end quote from:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/next-great-depression-mit-researchers-predict-global-economic-190352944.html

However, since the Human Singularity is supposed to be around 2045 many different dynamics are converging simultaneously. I agree that population likely will begin to drop from pandemics, no more fish in the ocean, not enough clean water, and Global Climate Changes. It is not necessary to have a World War to reduce population because it likely is going to reduce by many different factors on its own. If you study any animal species that overpopulates an area without being thinned out by humans you will see part of what likely will happen on its own without any help from anyone. 

However, simultaneously there will be many breakthroughs in technology. For example, by 2030 the solar cell will be the most efficient generator of electricity on earth, much like the microchip is now billions of times faster and more efficient than it was in the 1970s when first invented. So, this and other breakthroughs might solve the energy problem. So, the biggest problems likely will be Global Climate change, droughts, and over 100 mph winds in tornadoes, Hurricanes and storms which are being predicted by Weather scientists and computer models worldwide. So, droughts and the inability to grow food in the open many places because of high winds in various forms might be a problem. And it is likely there will be little to no wild fish in the oceans likely by 2030 as well. However, there will be fish farms in the oceans and lakes and large rivers of many nations.