A recent study has suggested that a series of ecological destruction, limited resources and population growth could trigger a worldwide breakdown “within a few decades”, with climate change making things worse. In addition, the world has already been wrestling with the COVID-19 pandemic; therefore, scientists believe there might be an apocalypse waiting for us in the future.
Under this situation, a team of scientists from Anglia Ruskin University in the United Kingdom researched to identify the countries where humanity is most likely to survive in case of a global societal collapse soon. The study examined the places on Earth best suited to deal with breakdowns in global supply chains, financial structures, and other complex systems that we couldn’t count on anymore after a true breakdown of world order.
“Significant changes are possible in the coming years and decades,” said Aled Jones, one of the researchers who worked on the study, in a press blurb. “The impact of climate change, including increased frequency and intensity of drought and flooding, extreme temperatures, and greater population movement, could dictate the severity of these changes.”
The scientists shortlisted in the journal Sustainability, 20-least countries that can survive a catastrophe. New Zealand, among these, stood on top to survive civilisation collapse, followed by Iceland, Tasmania Island in Australia, Ireland, and the UK. Unfortunately, economic centres such as the USA and China also did not make it to the list.
These listed countries are islands or island continents with fewer extremes in temperatures and varying amounts of rainfall due to their proximity to oceans. Therefore, according to scientists, these nations would have stable conditions in the future, despite climate change.
“As well as demonstrating which countries we believe are best suited to managing such a collapse — which undoubtedly would be a profound, life-altering experience — our study aims to highlight actions to address the interlinked factors of climate change, agricultural capacity, domestic energy, manufacturing capacity, and the over-reliance on complexity, are necessary to improve the resilience of nations that do not have the most favourable starting conditions,” Jones said in the blurb.
