Prophets of Doom We are facing many serious issue all at once History Channel

'Prophets of Doom' starts off with Michael Ruppert, an ex-police officer and detective who is mighty worried about Peak Oil. That is the point where production begins to decline, forever. The United States hit it's domestic Peak Oil in 1970. Many analysts say that we are near, or are already now in, the Global Peak Oil moment. Ruppert tells us that about 5 Billion people alive today owe their existence to our dependency on oil and natural gas. He's looking for a mass culling, with the world depopulating, suddenly or steadily, from here on out.

Nathan Hagens, a former hedge fund manager takes a similar view but sees the financial system as the shakiest plank on the deck. He believes our monetary system is one big global Ponzi scheme. The United States is insolvent. We are in the middle of two races; Technology versus Depletion and the National Debt vs. Natural Resources. Our problem is both Peak Oil and Peak Credit. One is bad enough, but we are facing two at once.

Or is it three? John Cronin has been studying our freshwater situation and he concludes that it is getting scarcer. Not only is our supply of freshwater running short, but the quality of the water we have is getting worse. Shortages will become more frequent and the potential for disease and contamination increases. The other prophets agree that water is an essential need for survival.

James Howard Kunstler was a journalist who often covered energy issues. Like others, he is also concerned about Peak Oil. He sees an Energy Crunch coming soon. Kunstler cites the Hirsch Report, authorized by the Department of Energy in 2005. Hirsch spells out that we are indeed approaching the Global Peak Oil point in history. But the DoE buried the report because the findings were just too dismal. Kunstler believes that it is a common human frailty that the desperate become delusional.

Professor Hugo De Garis is less concerned with human frailty as he is with the coming age of self-aware robots. An expert in Artificial Intelligence, De Garis sees us rapidly approaching 'The Singularity' point, where robots will be able to think and act independently. The IQ gap between Man and Machine is steadily decreasing. The future is automated, says De Garis. He gives the example of South Korea, which is making it a national effort to develop a domestic home robot that will be in every home by 2020. Will robots develop into a rebellious force that will take over and dominate, if not outright eliminate, Humanity?

Finally, Robert Gleason brings us back down to Earth with an ever growing worry, nuclear terrorism. As editor for 'End of Days', he talks regularly with military and intelligence experts. While the threat of a nuclear war between nations seems less, the threat of nuclear terrorism has increased. Security at many facilities, even some in the United States, is very poor. Russia arrests nearly 500 people a year trying to steal fissionable material. Al Qaeda and other groups are eager to get their hands on enough to build a bomb.

The consensus of the panel from the History Channel's 'Prophets of Doom' was that we are facing many serious issue all at once. Individually, any of them could cause a collapse of civilization. The ensemble of Michael Ruppert, Nathan Hagen, John Cronin, James Howard Kunstler, Professor Hugo De Garis and Robert Gleason, all paint a dire picture. But they do offer some ideas for softening the perils. At the heart of it is decentralization. Localizing food production and water purification would go a long way to saving lives. Large institutions are the most vulnerable in their Apocalyptic scenarios. But they advocate cooperation, not the isolation of running for the hills or crawling inside a bunker.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• apocalyptic
• water
• oil
• natural
• gas
• middle
• east
• energy
• crunch
• global
• peak
• humanity
• earth
• pole
• shift
• history
• channel
• micheal
• ruppert
• nathan
• hagen
• john
• cronin
• james
• howard
• kunstler
• hugo
• de
• garis
• robert
• gleason

[sarahlivesey]

amen

[sarahlivesey]

working on it

[Diablo2410]

@bryanrb57 The topic of artificial intelligence becoming self-aware and "taking over" is a possibility. The solutions to any of these issues aren't simple at all. It won't be solved by any "supreme being". It's all on the American public to control and repair our nation.

[efortune357]

"The tremendous and still accelerating development of science and technology has not been accompanied by an equal development in social, economic, and political patterns...It is safe to predict that...such social inventions as modern-type Capitalism, Fascism, and Communism will be regarded as primitive experiments directed toward the adjustment of modern society to modern methods" ~ Dr. Ralph Linton

[efortune357]

"While all other sciences have advanced, that of government is at a standstill - little better understood, little better practiced now than three or four thousand years ago." ~ John Adams

[AbuBishir]

I hope the robots do take over

[xgelytotx]

just watch nearly ten mins so far.... our population boom isnt because of fossil fuels, its because of health care , infant/child mortality rates are much lower than a hundred years ago and ppl are living longer, that in my opinion is the reason for the population boom.

[phwoart]

@firstpriorities1 Lol last time I was home I would walk by the beach every so often: There was literally water as far as I could see. It was even falling out of the sky. This guy just spends too much time measuring stuff in streams.

[firstpriorities1]

Oh John. We can't run out of water, it's not possible. We live in a closed system, unless our atmosphere is stripped away. We may dirty our water, we may pollute it. But, the same amount of water will always be here, until that day that the Sun strips our atmosphere from Earth. You are not thinking clearly. We will, no doubt, have to purify our water before we can consume it, but it's still water. A new business is born! An opportunity for jobs! You don't belong with these other guys, sorry.

[bryanrb57]

It's all possible except for the robot guy, but the earth and everything in it belongs to GOD. GOD is responsible for the rise and fall of empire's and nations.

Solution= Pray and stay close to, and obey GOD. It's just that simple!

[iorr98]

We are about to get a huge lesson in humility and revert to more humble time.