Cascade

[phantom power]

Coal supply in South Africa falters
--> Eskom loses 25% of its generating capacity
--> South African mines are forced to close, to reduce load on Eskom
--> Spot-price of platinum spikes
--> Auto makers have trouble procuring platinum for Catalytic converters
--> Theft of catalytic converters spikes

Note, each of these steps is taken from headlines posted here in E/E in the last week or so. This is just one of the cascading failure networks we happen to know about.

A gloomy Tinkerbell-killing person such as myself might wonder if our adaptive pathways are beginning to change phase from liquid/percolating to frozen/isolated.

[gateley]

1. K&R - Definitely thought provoking. Thanks. nt

[GliderGuider]

2. Oooo. That's a nice one.

It's going to be fascinating tracking causal chains like this over the next few years. Whenenever I can take time off from my new "precious metals procurement" career, that is.