Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Food Tsunami:800 million may starve

I was listening to the TV news today on NBC at 5:30 pm pdt in California, USA.
Just like many articles I have been reading about the last few weeks in worldwide media.

The Perfect Storm. It goes something like this. Australian drought for two years which stopped 98% of its grain from ever being grown or harvested and the rest was needed by Australian people. Then because of the weak US dollar people around the world who normally would invest in US dollars as a hedge against other currencies losing value suddenly, people around the world began to invest in commodities like food which drove prices sky high. Then with the Subprime in the US and people there with their houses values plummeting don't have money to donate to charity at home or around the world. Then one of the commodities, Oil, became one of the favorites to invest in as a hedge against the dollar in free fall.(It is 62Cents in value compared to the Euro about 5 to 6 years ago.) Then oil because of all the speculators and because of the plummeting dollar became more valuable. Then because of long term prognostications from 5 to 10 years ago,oil is becoming more difficult to get out of the ground as cheaply as it once was because of inflation around the world and because it is now deeper, of lower quality and harder to access. In addition to this because of worldwide inflation on a mostly national level wages are going up. So this is the perfect storm and because of it is is much worse than the ocean Tsunami of 2004 instead of 200,000 dying this time it could be as high as 800 million deaths just in the next year.

However, you might say to me, "I live in the US or Canada or Europe or even Australia or wherever, why should I worry, I have enough to eat?"

Well, there is another problem which is less visible as of yet. It is said that the veneer of civilization is three meals from anarchy. This has proven true over and over again through history. So what we are looking at is the potential collapse of at least 30 to 40 of the poorest nations on earth. What this will do if it happens is that those who survive watching all or part of their family starve to death will first bring down their own governments and execute their leaders and upper class who ate while they starved. Then many of these who survive will become terrorists against all those who did not come with food while they starved. This is just human nature. If you watched one or more of your closest friends and family die of starvation how rational about this would you be?
It is said there is enough food to feed everyone. The problem is everyone is scared worldwide because of all the instabilities on earth so nations are hoarding food, companies are hoarding food to get more money for it to survive and the likelihood of millions and millions dying isn't just likely it is already happening. How long can you live with only water? Maybe 40 days at best without dying. Within 7 days on only water one is pretty spaced out and living a constant alternate reality somewhat like a cartoon or fantasy movie. By 40 days it is difficult to make sense of most people and what they are saying if they are on water only this long.

Without water one can last 1 to 3 weeks if they are kept completely immobile. This is only true of a completely healthy person and if temperatures don't go above about 80 to 90 degrees farenheit. I myself have gone 4 days and nights without food or water and was able to hike about 5 miles after that with good health at age 32.

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