This post is part of a living literature review on societal collapse. You can find an indexed archive here. While we generally aim to avoid a collapse, it is crucial to understand the potential recovery time if one occurs. Assessing this is challenging, as it depends on the starting level of complexity, the extent of the loss, and the desired recovery level.

This post is part of a living literature review on societal collapse. You can find an indexed archive here. Many articles highlight famine as a major issue for societal collapse, emphasizing the overall vulnerability of food production and trade. The speed at which such events affect us depends on our food reserves.

This post is part of a living literature review on societal collapse. You can find an indexed archive here. Democracies have a stronger incentive to keep their general population content compared to authoritarian regimes, as the political elite’s survival is more directly linked to the general population through elections.

This post is part of a living literature review on societal collapse. You can find an indexed archive here. Historical evidence shows that human civilizations repeatedly engaged in self-destructive behaviors in the past, especially in terms of resource overuse (1). Today, we could point to climate change, as a clear example of self-destructive behavior.

This post is part of a living literature review on societal collapse. You can find an indexed archive here. Most things you use and particularly the food we consume rely on an intact global supply chain. Without trade, essential resources such as fertilizers would become inaccessible, making food production much harder.

This post is part of a living literature review on societal collapse.

This post is part of a living literature review on societal collapse. You can find an indexed archive here. One question that often comes up when discussing global catastrophes and societal collapse is: What is the best place to stay in such a case? This simple question is surprisingly hard to answer, as it depends on a lot of factors.

Is climate the fundamental cause that topples civilizations?

Understanding famine and its consequences Existential Crunch is a living literature review about societal collapse. When I read new things, which update my views, I’ll also update my posts. This post highlights updates I made to four posts. In addition to those updates, I am also happy to announce that I was invited to the “Prioritäten Podcast” to talk about my work.

This post is part of a living literature review on societal collapse. You can find an indexed archive here. One explanation for collapse is just bad luck.

This post is part of a living literature review on societal collapse. You can find an indexed archive here. This post primarily centers around a comprehensive 2022 case study conducted by Markus Stoffel and colleagues (Stoffel et al., 2022). This information dense paper is notable for its integration of a literature review and the combination of data from diverse sources and historical records.