Engineer, author and building contractor Mat Stein discussed preparing for social collapse, environmental catastrophes and inevitable disasters. He detailed six key areas where current trends suggest impending disaster for the planet: oil depletion, climate change, collapse of the world's oceans, deforestation, food shortages, and overpopulation. Taken individually, each of these are serious issues, Stein said, but since they are happening simultaneously and exacerbating each other, the cumulative result could be even more catastrophic. Ultimately, he warned that "if human beings don't start controlling their consumption and controlling their growth patterns, then nature will do it for us" via famines and plagues.

Expressing hope that the human race could find a way to reverse these trends, Stein joked that "I call myself 'the optimistic doomer.'" That said, he declared that changing the outlook for the planet would require global cooperation in the face of these impending tipping points. To that end, he appealed to corporations to "make sustainability like the God of the marketplace" rather than merely maximizing profits with no regard for the negative effects on the environment and populace. Chillingly, he mused that, by the time the human race decides to make a serious effort to address these troubling trends, it may be too late and "we're gonna go over that cliff, no matter what we do." Despite the potential futility of such an effort, Stein stressed that it's "a good fight that's worth doing" for the betterment of future generations.

Biography:

Matthew Stein holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. He is an engineer, author and building contractor. He has also worked as a schoolteacher, carpenter, and rock climbing and ski instructor. As the owner of Aloha Aina Builders, Stein built hurricane resistant, energy efficient and environmentally friendly homes. As a mechanical engineer and president of Stein Design, he has designed consumer water filtration devices, commercial water filtration systems, photovoltaic roofing panels, medical bacteriological filters, drinking fountains, emergency chemical drench systems, computer disk drives, portable fiberglass buildings and automated assembly machinery for Open Energy, Hewlett Packard, Seagate, Plantronics, Duraflame, Haws, and IGT, among other companies. ...