Ateday,

On population explosion, you may like to read this:
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/01/world_population_may_actually_start_declining_not_exploding.html

And that warming pause seems to be stretching out :)

As for east-coast sea-level rise, are any beaches being washed away yet ? Any of them contracting ?

As for a 'world government', and although I don't support it, it's possible that Scotland will break away from the UK tomorrow, or at least will vote to do so. So much for bringing all governments under one. What megalomaniac would even dream of such a totalitarian prospect ?

Another blow against 'world government': what might happen if, yet again, New Zealand was asked to incorporate into Australia ? Fat chance of that ? Then what about Australia and Indonesia ? Fat chance of that ? Then what about Vietnam and China ? Etc.

How easily the 'good' slides into the 'dreadful'.

Thank god for dissidence, chaos, and human contrariness.

Joe

What I believe will happen is none of the above !
As energy gets more expensive and other resource develop higher costs
everything will be come local. As this happens government operations
will withdraw to smaller areas of concern.
Local government will be the most important authority that concerns
the population.
Food production, transport of food and its retailing will all be done
locally.
No longer will we see very large factories with production on a scale
that makes you wonder who is buying all that product.
If you want a table, you will go to the furniture man in the local
suburb, town or village.
The most important thing that we can do is to keep the railways going.
If we manage that we will be able to continue feeding the cities the
way we do now. If we fail we will have to start removing some houses
parks and AFL fields from the denser suburbs to enable market gardens.

Don't think the internet and telephone will keep on keeping on either !
Maybe simple local networks could be kept going but worldwide undersea
telephony would end quite soon.

Electricity will be the measure of our foresight and ability to assign
priorities. If we let that go, we will be going back to the 18th century.

I think reading James Kunstler's fiction book World Made By Hand
would give you a few ideas. It is in many Australian libraries.