Greece: how bad does it get?
Thursday, November 15, 2012 at 8:31AM 
Malaria still existed throughout much of the US in the 1930s/40s. Since then it has gotten much warmer throughout the US. But malaria is basically gone now. Why? Rising incomes.
So the point on global warming is, it'll create real problems wherever states and societies don't have the money to deal with the challenges - such as insect migration.
Now take a look at this chart from the WSJ and realize what happens when incomes fall - and how quickly.
Recently, Wikistrat ran a sim where we discussed the possibility of states making sovereign land sales. Several analysts said that, while that happened in previous centuries (note how most of America was acquired), nobody would consider that now.
My comeback was, if the financial situation gets bad enough, countries will sell just like people get rid of an underwater house.
Greece is looking pretty bad, and I think it's a harbinger of massive debt issues to come for a demographically aging West.
The discussion we had was about the Arctic and the possibility of some Arctic Council members selling out to non-members so as to tap the finance needed for exploitation of opportunities. After all, the US bought its seat at the table - aka, Alaska.
Reader Comments (2)
I'm more curious about what the EU is going to do about it. Imposing austerity measures on Greece and telling the Greeks to suck up the consequences just means Greece is going to explode at some point. Not World War material as when the same thing happened to Germany, but a lot of people dying nonetheless.
Not that the alternative is all that great. Reconciling austerity and humanitarian help would mean lots of direct EU takeovers of various government services--and loss of sovereignty makes people cranky.
Malaria was eliminated in the Southern US due to a coordinated government campaign. They drained swamps and liberally applied insecticides to houses. I believe they also handed out thousands of mosquito nets to prevent those who were infected with malaria from transmitting it back to mosquitoes.
Rising incomes is at best an oversimplification. A social program eliminated malaria in the US. The real problem for a country such as America is the lack of priority placed on health care and social services even when we have plenty of money to spend.