Risk factors

Here are some of the things that I think are big problems:

• Overpopulation
  
• Running out of resources
  
• Peak oil
  
• Global warming
  
• Coming food shortages
  
• Lack of fresh water
  
• Trashing the oceanic ecosystems
  
• Trashing land based ecosystems
  
• Economic failure
  
• The Islamic insurgency
  

There may be others I've heard of, but these are the big ones. Obviously, some of the items encompass others -- lots of people only becomes overpopulation when there aren't enough resources to support them.

The ones that I think are likely to cause problems soon are

• Economic failure
  
• The Islamic insurgency
  
• Peak oil
  
• Lack of fresh water
  
• Global warming
  

Any one of them by itself is possibly manageable. All of them together is a bit much. Also, they can interact to exacerbate the strength of any one. For example:

• Using fresh water for residences or business takes it from agriculture, thus reducing the amount of food that can be grown.
  
• Global warming reduces crop yields.
  
• Insurgent attacks destroy infrastructure and inhibit business.
  
• The obvious alternative to oil is coal, which produces greenhouse gasses.
  

I don't claim that everything is bad and getting worse, but there are big challenges.