Already on the record here at Hmm saying my biggest concern for the annihilation of most life on earth is an asteroid collision. A slower form of death concern of mine is the impact of global warming.

I’ve seen predictions of serious problems on Earth by the end of the century but this is the first time I remember reading that this might happen in the next 20 years:

By 2020 ‘catastrophic’ shortages of water and energy supply will become increasingly harder to overcome, plunging the planet into war. They warn that 8,200 years ago climatic conditions brought widespread crop failure, famine, disease and mass migration of populations that could soon be repeated.

Before beginning work on your bomb shelter, keep in mind the word “could” is being used here. There are lots of experts predicting bad things all the time and being wrong. Still, it’s hard not to be disturbed by the possibility that our next 20 years might be getting increasingly worse, leading up an event that could make all the things we think are important today completely insignificant by comparison of basic survival needs: food, water and shelter.