climate disruption -> refugees -> conflicts -> strongmen

so goes the prediction. As an exercise...

Assume for the moment we know this will happen (or maybe you think it is happening)...

What can we do to stop each step of this?

@brewsterkahle If that's the way you see things, then obviously the thing to do is to slow down and maybe ultimately prevent the climate disruption. But that's what Greta Thunberg has been saying, and no one pays attention to her.

@arkiuat

This exercise, called scenario planning, is to take a possible future, then say for the moment "we know it is going to happen... so what do we do now".

so for the purpose of the exercise, we dont have to answer "do I think this will happen?"

Then we run this for other possible futures. Some steps are in common, and some are nobrainers...

it is a technique.

@brewsterkahle Okay, taking the spirit of the exercise more seriously: back in the early 1980s, USA, UK, Canada, and probably several other countries got rid of progressive taxation of income, which the USA had for over 60 years before then. A lot of this feedback cycle results from the increasing concentration of wealth in the hands of a very few, so bringing back progressive taxation, ending fiscal dumping, and other measures proposed by Thomas Piketty would probably be a great start.

@arkiuat

Yes,

rising and large wealth inequalities lead to societal breakdowns [according to Graeber and Michael Hudson]

other ages evolved stability via 25-50 year scheduled debt forgiveness systems (Jubilees, and resets upon new monarchs) and peaceful wealth redistribution (progressive taxation)

rising wealth inequality makes our societies fragile and prone towards civil wars. And 'strong men'

"Refugees" is an extreme of wealth inequality thus 'strong men'