The End of the World is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization

by Peter Zeihan

If Venezuela—and the correct word is “if”—is to contribute to global oil supplies, someone will need to deploy forces to the country to impose security, arrest the fall, and bring in billions of dollars of supplies to support the population and tens of billions to overhaul the energy infrastructure, all while convincing the Americans that they won’t try anything cute. Impossible? No. But at a minimum it would be a three-decade reconstruction project.

Zones for which today’s greentech makes both environmental and economic sense comprise less than one-fifth of the land area of the populated continents, most of which is far removed from our major population centers. Think Patagonia for wind, or the Outback for solar. The unfortunate fact is that greentech in its current form simply isn’t useful for most people in most places—either to reduce carbon emissions or to provide a substitute for energy inputs in a more chaotic, post-Order world.