We’re currently teetering on the edge of a world historical mass global famine. The United Nations Security Council has acknowledged as much, as have political leaders in France and the US.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a key factor in the looming catastrophe, but there are other contributors, as well. Those include surging natural gas prices driven by years of misplaced faith in the promise of renewable energy technologies, global supply chain disruptions, and drought in the American West.

I spoke to Emmet Penney, editor of the indispensable GridBrief about what he calls the “Black Cascade” of converging global energy, food and logistics crises. If he and other prognosticators are right, we’re looking at another long year ahead: one full of humanitarian emergencies, political instability, and likely further geopolitical conflict.

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