How bad is bad?

Likely worse than the Great Depression according to this opinion piece from Salon.com.

In a nutshell, here's what it forecasts.

• Skyrocketing hydrocarbon prices
• Skyrocketing food prices
• Stillborn newly industrialized economies
• Massive unemployment
• Massive poverty and starvation
• Massive civil unrest
• Regime threatening instability

Add global climate gone haywire, something the Great Depression didn't suffer from, where we'll be enjoying all this under 50-degree heatwaves and super hurricanes, and we might just witness the beginnings of a great die-off that'll bring world population back to a manageable level of oooh... maybe a billion people, give or take.

Call me pessimistic but I think Salon might just be on to something here for a couple of reasons.

One, that most of us have been conditioned to place personal gratification and conformity over the consequences of our actions. I remember the food fights we used to have at school, the gas guzzlers we drove around in, the number of cellphones and gadgets we would have by the time we were 18, and how we're shunned if we didn't look or act like everyone else.

The story of the resulting environmental and economic collapse, while intriguing as a good scary novel, never really moved us to do much. There's always a reason not to do it. Something about hanging on to our thick wallets, frail egos and stubborn beliefs no matter the cost. We have a name for it. "Reality."

Two, most of us underestimate the power of greed and how it fans the flames of our own demise. Even as things are disintegrating today, the opportunist in us is still abuzz out how to make a killing from stocks and property. Yes, when markets are frightened, get greedy. This is the golden opportunity to be the next Warren Buffet. Never mind that all we've got left is the shirts on our backs.

Clearly we have no desire to change. The good life is too ... good to give up.

If you loved Alien vs. Predator, you're gonna love Humans vs. Mother Earth. One armed with its Wall-Street smarts, the other with her natural resources, ecosystem and time. Guess who will win.

What goes around comes around.

If only we humans actually believed in what we said.