tipping point

Is industrialised civilisation on the verge of a tipping point to decline? Well, if you have the patience, this sobering analysis is well worth the read.. Near-Term Systemic Implications of a Peak in Global Oil Production "We are at the cusp of rapid and severely disruptive changes. From now on the risk of entering a collapse must be considered significant and rising. The challenge is not about how we introduce energy infrastructure to maintain the viability of the systems we depend upon, rather it is how we deal with the consequences of not having the energy and other resources to maintain those same systems."

In the same vein, is the snappily titled Nine Meals from Anarchy from the New Economics Foundation in a 2008 Schumacher Lecture.

As a late addition, here is a link to David Malone's, High Anxieties - The Mathematics of Chaos, in which James Lovelock prefers the model of a slope as opposed to a tipping point in reference to climate change. "..I like to think of it not so much as a tipping point, but as a slope that gets ever steeper and at some point it gets so steep you can't hold on any longer.."

And then of course there is the eponymous book by Malcom Gladwell. And his enjoyable TED talk on spaghetti sauce.