So, What Did You Expect?

Over about 200 years, the world human population climbed from about a billion to over 8 billion. Currently, there are more people alive than in the whole of earlier recorded history. It's predicted that, eventually, the population will climb to over 12 billion. Even if the climate remains the same (it won't), the distinctly finite resources of the planet are limiting factors. The life-styles of folk in many parts of the world, exceed what's available (for example, if everyone lived like the average US citizen, we would need 5 Earths). The Grab is a documentary that details how a variety of countries and individuals have recently taken 'ownership' of scarce resources (https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/jun/12/the-grab-documentary-review). The Grab starts with the observation that, in 2013, a Chinese company (the now renamed WH Group) bought US conglomerate Smithfield Foods. Overnight, the WH Group gained control of 25% of US pork production. Similar phenomena have been seen in relation to access to potable water and many other food items. There's also, of course, competition for limited resources like lithium; cobalt and nickle. The folk, making these 'grabs', are people/countries, who became rich by, in the first place, creating many of our environmental problems (climate change and biodiversity loss). Their activities, of course, will have made limited resources scarcer (even the area available for agriculture is likely to be reduced). Clearly, this is a very potent mix. The very predictable Resource Wars are looming?