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Page added on July 26, 2013
The end of the world as we know it.
Ever wondered how our world may really end? Are we going to run out of food as our population reaches 9 Billion people…. or can we expect another Pandemic with millions dying from a virus outbreak?
Leeds University in the UK which says food prices are going to soar as the world population booms to over nine billion people by 2050.
The report predicts the cost of food will treble in the next twenty years and the era of cheap food is over.
But what is Australia’s food future are we secure? Doctor Jamie Penm is from ABARES (Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences )..
From food security to health security.
Almost 100 years ago, there was a flu virus that swept the world – and it was a monster of a thing – the Spanish Flu which killed between 20 and 30million people.
So, is it inevitable we will suffer another pandemic and how is likely to evolve?
The CSIRO has been holding a conference on human pandemic and internationally recognised scientist from the CSIRO Prof Linfa Wang. He says the next virus will probably come from wildlife.
7 Comments on "The end of the world as we know it."
BillT on Fri, 26th Jul 2013 11:02 am
So many of the Four Horsemen riding full speed towards us…so little time.
1. Famine(GMO)
2. Pestilence(Biological)
3. War(Bio/Chem/nuclear)
4. Death (All of the above.)
rollin on Fri, 26th Jul 2013 3:47 pm
You want food security, grow food on your own land. It’s fun, good exercise, educational and you can eat the results.
So the next virus will come from wildlife? Not chickens, pigs and people? There is not that much wildlife left and most of it is not as related to us as pigs are. Linfa studies bat viruses.
Doing the math, if the next one takes out 20 to 30 million people the population will only have risen by 50 million people that year.
eastbay on Fri, 26th Jul 2013 4:24 pm
If it took out a half billion people over a six year run the human population would unchanged.
actioncjackson on Fri, 26th Jul 2013 5:35 pm
The end of the human species isn’t the end of the Earth, which has endured multiple globally catastrophic events during its lifetime. Evolution will continue as it has for the last 4.5 billion years and life will fill the niche we leave behind.
Oldmusher on Fri, 26th Jul 2013 5:50 pm
As hard as it is to accept, a large loss of the human population (3 billon+) is probably the only way we will avert a far worse outcome. Unless the number of people on the planet is drastically reduced we will literally kill the very system that sustains us. A large scale pandemic is ultimately better than a world tearing itself apart through nuclear war and industrial scale terrorism.
GregT on Fri, 26th Jul 2013 6:37 pm
The entire medical community is very aware of the impending threat of a world wide pandemic. With so many people on the planet now living in densely populated areas, millions travelling internationally on a weekly basis, increasingly difficult to treat secondary infections due to antibiotics overuse, and changing climatic conditions, the next pandemic is more likely to kill billions. My wife is a medical biologist/ technologist, and she talks about it all of the time.
“Leeds University in the UK which says food prices are going to soar as the world population booms to over nine billion people by 2050.
The report predicts the cost of food will treble in the next twenty years and the era of cheap food is over.”
Food prices have already ‘soared’. Some items here have ‘trebled’ over the last five years. The country, supposedly, with the world’s largest economy, has 50 million people on food assistance programs, and growing. Almost 1 out of every 6 people cannot afford food now. The era of cheap affordable food is already over. In the coming years, energy costs, droughts, flooding, economic contraction, pests, disease, water scarcity, population growth, and GM foods, are all going to be major contributing factors in soaring food prices.
I give it 10 years at the most, before we see mass civil unrest in developed countries. Just like what we are seeing throughout the world already.
Frank Kling on Sun, 28th Jul 2013 9:41 am
Do not waste your time with the audio. The individual interviewed had to be asked how climate change might affect food prices since the subject matter was neglected. The response was, “Climate change may put upward pressure on food prices.” Wow! What a revealing response…….