NASA-Funded Study Predicts Impending Collapse of Industrial Civilization

(Inhabitat) For years, scientists and social activists have warned that income inequality, resource depletion, and unchecked population growth could lead to the collapse of civilization. However policy makers have so far regarded these assertions as little more than the predictions of delusional cardboard sign-carrying oracles on street corners. A new study funded by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center confirms these terrifying prophesies, stating that industrialized society as we know it could completely collapse within the next few decades.

It happened to the Roman, Han, Gupta, and Mauryan empires, and now NASA warns that utter destruction could befall our global economy as well. Working with a framework that incorporates mathematical analysis, social science, and observation of natural phenomena, the ‘Human And Nature Dynamical’ (HANDY) model projects “business as usual” could lead to the end of industrialized civilization. Accepted for publication in the Elsevier Journal of Ecological Economics, the study finds ample historical evidence that overpopulation, failing agriculture, limited access to water, energy consumption, and the unequal distribution of wealth could all combine to spell the end for society as we know it.