I was watching this documertary serise and notice large(old dynasty egypt, the maya) civs the type that can't be blown up by a volcano tend to suffer a JW style grea tribulation if there is a global climate change. Usually causing a water shortage for a major pupulation center. Since water is a resource that we all need if deprived a few decades most of those agrarian civs did not stand a chance.
The movie day after tomarrow is based on what if the ice age comes next week and has a happy ending mostly due to the fact it is sudden. The die of is swift for most of the world.
My thing is since most climate changes are caused by arctic cold spells which cause drought for the temperate regions can the big-a happen today to an economic giant. Meaning could some country with a large population of farmers for example china have drought colapse and economical implode the world. When super powers go down the entire government is set back to zero. Basically people loose faith that GOd or the Government can end the drought and "martial anarchy" is envoked. WHere basically people form their own tribes and kill their country men for reasorces. Cannibalism also rears its head again.
THe only change now is water and food can be preserved and transported anyplace. But what if like north korea this aflicted super power tries to ride out help. Or help comes with strings attached. ALso since these changes tend to be global. THere may not be enought extra food to send over for basically free. Other countries may hold of aid thinking that they can starve their enemy to death.
Also this is a trade oil for water and food. To ship all this aid you need to tap into the world oil supply. What if that is already low?
Basically I am asking could we stop a 50 to 100 year water shortage from destroying a helpless super power? In the past the world as not as connected so the chinese did not know when the maya fell. Nor did it effect their economy. What about today? If a major contributor to the world ran out of water and maybe even oil or god forbid both. What could happen. Also the scary thing is these climate time bombs can start at any time.