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Math Models Predicted Global Uprisings
retroworks writes "Just over a year ago, complex systems theorists at the New England Complex Systems Institute warned that if food prices continued to climb, so too would the likelihood that there would be riots across the globe. Sure enough, we're seeing them now. The paper's author, Yaneer Bar-Yam, charted the rise in the FAO food price index—a measure the UN uses to map the cost of food over time—and found that whenever it rose above 210, riots broke out worldwide. It happened in 2008 after the economic collapse, and again in 2011, when a Tunisian street vendor who could no longer feed his family set himself on fire in protest."
"a Tunisian street vendor who could no longer feed his family set himself on fire in protest."
Well, it was also the constant harassment from officials too according to wonkypedia.
However I have limited sympathy with a certain type of person who you see on TV bleating that they can't feed their 5 or 10 kids. Perhaps if they'd invested some money in contraception or maybe just kept their pants on occasionally they wouldn't be in this situation. Unfortunately reproduction ability isn't governed by IQ - if it was there wouldn't be over 7 billion and counting on this planet already.
... food availability goes down for the same amount of farmland.
Sure , we could chop down all the forests and bulldoze all the other wild habitats to use more of it for agriculture , or ... people could use contraception or keep their fscking pants on now and then. If I see one more sob story of some halfwit who can't feed their ten kids....
How about ... not ? I can manage some empathy for people starving without their fault (for example war refugees). I will spare none for idiots who breed like rabbits and expect others to feed their spawn.