Jeffrey Sachs

The temperatures and rainfall patterns and drought patterns and storm patterns in all of the tropical and subtropical regions of the world are hard hit.

One of the things, for example, that happened in the 1973-74 oil shock was that there was also an El Nino that year.

Just remembering.

And it was the combination that sent food prices soaring worldwide.

And if we have that dual combination, I've been saying to myself for years, the next...

Big El Nino or Super El Nino is by itself going to be world destabilizing because there are a lot of countries on the edge right now, on the edge financially, on the edge socially.

The world's an unstable place because it's been so perturbed by...

everything that's happened in in the last years that many places are just on the edge of solvency in their governments or financial stability and so forth but if you combine a mass uh destruction in west asia the gulf the eastern mediterranean uh with a super el nino

I don't even know.

Somebody's going to have to write the next book quickly about this because we would not have had a shock like that since World War II, certainly.

And the effects on political destabilization, on the effects of governments falling, the potential cascading of this war would be tremendous and uncontrollable.

Just think.

In addition to everything else, a naval fleet from China is heading towards the Gulf right now.

It's heading towards the Gulf to escort Chinese vessels, or I don't know if it's only Chinese flagged or vessels heading to China, to give them military escort.

Suppose there's a war going on.

Suppose the United States says we have a blockade and we interdict a Chinese vessel.

Suppose that a Chinese destroyer comes alongside.

you know, we're not in self-control right now.

Sailors are not in self-control.

Captains are not in self-control.