Are we headed for a collapse of our global society?

An important article summarizing the findings of a NASA-funded scientific study should be read here. It is brief but insightful.

The findings of this scientific study are not about climate change. They are about factual, historical human activity. The scientists who wrote the study pointed to the collapse of numerous highly evolved, creative, and thriving societies around the world.

They wrote that the over-exploitation of natural resources accompanied by growing wealth inequality resulted in the collapse of those formerly thriving societies.

I don’t think it takes a wizard to understand that we are using too much of what the Earth has to offer. We know we are running out of oil to fuel our global economy, and we are taking steps to wean ourselves from this habit. Agribusiness uses chemicals indiscriminately that are linked to colony collapse among bees and obesity among people. Water is increasingly seen as a valuable resource to be fought over among nations. The CEO of Nestle stated that water should be bought and sold as a commodity.

An article in Forbes magazine of all places quoted a study by Oxfam International that there are now walking on the planet 85 individuals who own as much wealth as another 3,500,000,000 persons. To clarify, there are 85 humans with wealth equivalent to half the entire current population of the planet. That kind of wealth inequality is unsustainable. Personally, I believe it’s immoral, too, but that’s another question.

The NASA-funded study also addresses the threat that it will be written off as a fringe paper by alarmists.

Have we created a global society headed for collapse?

Is this scientific study the proverbial canary in the coal mine?

Please, note this is a General Section question. Let’s do our best to keep the discussion related to the topic at hand.