Our Apocalyptic ‘New Normal’: Most Global Conflict Since WWII, Most Billion-Dollar Disasters Ever, & Most Hungry People In History

Authored by Michael Snyder via The End of The American Dream blog,

Our world is witnessing apocalyptic events so frequently that many of us are starting to become numb to it all.  Major wars are raging all over the globe, children in Africa are literally dropping dead from starvation as hunger spreads like wildfire, and “billion dollar disasters” are hitting us more frequently than we have ever seen before.  But as long as these tragedies are not affecting us directly, most people don’t really care too much.  As the level of worldwide suffering rises, it seems as though hearts are getting colder at the same time. 

The traumatic events of the past several years have left deep scars, and there are many that prefer to ignore the apocalyptic things that are happening in the world because it is just too much for them to handle emotionally.

According to a brand new study, the number of armed conflicts in 2023 was the most that we have seen in a single year since the end of World War II…

More armed conflicts took place worldwide in 2023 than any other year since the end of the Second World War, according to a Norwegian study published Monday.

Last year saw 59 conflicts of which 28 were in Africa, the the Peace Research Institute of Oslo (PRIO) showed.

We really are living in a time of “wars and rumors of wars”.

But since it isn’t our sons and daughters that are being gunned down on the killing fields of eastern Ukraine, most of us in the western world aren’t really moved by all of the bloodshed.

Every single day, more young lives are being wasted.

But if you think that things are bad now, just wait until Israel and Hezbollah start lobbing thousands of missiles back and forth, China invades Taiwan, and the Russians and NATO begin directly pummeling one another.

Meanwhile, global hunger just continues to grow.

In fact, it is being reported that the number of people facing acute food insecurity last year was the highest ever recorded…

The number of people threatened by hunger in the world has never been so high. In 2023, 281 million people in 59 countries were facing acute food insecurity, according to the 2024 Global Report on Food Crises, published on Wednesday, April 24, by several international organizations (including UN agencies, the European Union, the US Agency for International Development). This figure is up on 2022 (257 million) in its fifth year running.

“This Global Report on Food Crises is a roll call of human failings,” warned UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, prefacing the analysis.

A decade ago, world leaders dreamed of a day when hunger would be eradicated.

Today, that dream is completely dead.

Right now, hunger is exploding in areas all over the continent of Africa.

In Sudan, people are literally eating dirt and leaves just so that they can fill their stomachs with something…

Time is running out to prevent starvation in Sudan, warns the World Food Program.

Twenty-five million people in Sudan need humanitarian assistance, 18 million are facing acute food insecurity and 5 million people are at emergency levels approaching famine as the country’s civil war passes the one-year mark.

Amid so many other crises, the world’s largest hunger crisis is drawing little global attention. In the Al Lait refugee camp, for example, people are eating dirt and boiling leaves, just to have something in their bellies, reports Reuters. Others are eating grass and peanut shells, according to the World Food Program.

Since it isn’t happening to us, most of us don’t really care.

But hunger is growing here too.

According to one recent survey, over one-fourth of the entire U.S. population is now skipping meals due to crazy high food prices…

More than a quarter of Americans have resorted to skipping meals to avoid paying inflated grocery store prices, according to a new survey.

According to a study by Qualtrics on behalf of Intuit Credit Karma, 80% of Americans say they have felt a “notable increase” in grocery costs in recent years. More than a quarter of respondents said the increased cost has led them to occasionally skip meals, while about one-third said they spend more than 60% of their monthly income on mandatory expenses such as food, utilities and rent.

“Food insecurity is a major issue in this country as millions of Americans don’t have enough food to eat or don’t have access to healthy food,” Courtney Alev, a consumer financial advocate at Credit Karma, said in a statement.

I keep warning my readers that this is just the beginning, and I hope that they are taking me seriously.

We are also living at a time when major natural disasters are becoming more frequent.

Last year, our world was hit by more “billion dollar disasters” than ever before…

The planet was besieged by a record 63 billion-dollar weather disasters in 2023, surpassing the previous record of 57 set in 2020, said insurance broker Gallagher Re in its annual report issued January 17.

Unfortunately, we may top that number this year.

So far in 2024, there have already been 11 “billion dollar disasters” in the United States alone…

A deadly outbreak of tornadoes last month caused $4.7 billion in damages across the Southern, Southeastern and Central U.S., making it one of the costliest weather events of the year so far, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Monday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said there had been 11 confirmed weather and climate disaster events so far this year with losses exceeding $1 billion, with the total price tag topping $25 billion. There were more than 165 tornadoes during the May 6-9 outbreak, impacting Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, officials said.

We have already experienced so many historic disasters, and hurricane season and the heart of wildfire season are still ahead of us.

Almost every day, we are seeing things happen that we have never seen before.

For example, storm chasers in the middle of the country just recovered a piece of hail that was “about the size of a pineapple”…

Val and Amy Castor, veteran storm chasers with Oklahoma City television station KWTV, discovered a piece of hail more than 7 inches (17.78 centimeters) long Sunday along the side of the road near Vigo Park while they were chasing a major thunderstorm system.

Val Castor said the stone was about the size of a pineapple.

“That’s the biggest hail I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been chasing storms for more than 30 years,” Castor said.

We aren’t supposed to have hail of that size.

But this is the “new normal” where the old rules simply don’t apply.

In California, there has been an alarming series of earthquakes during the past couple of weeks…

First, a magnitude 3.6 earthquake in the Ojai Valley sent weak shaking from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles on May 31. Then came two small quakes under the eastern L.A. neighborhood of El Sereno, the most powerful a 3.4. Finally, a trio of tremors hit the Costa Mesa-Newport Beach border, topping out at a magnitude 3.6 Thursday.

Having half a dozen earthquakes with a magnitude over 2.5 in a week, hitting three distinct parts of Southern California, all in highly populated areas, is not a common occurrence.

The “Big One” is coming eventually, but I don’t think it is coming quite yet.

Hopefully I am not wrong about that.

Other nations are getting pounded by natural disaster after natural disaster as well.

Brazil has been getting hit particularly hard.  Nightmarish flooding was making headlines down there for a while, but now wildfires are taking center stage…

After historic floods recently claimed 172 lives in coastal Brazil, the country now faces a new crisis as fires rage through the Pantanal wetlands. These fires have surged nearly tenfold compared to the same period last year, setting the stage for a potential catastrophe worse than the devastating fires of 2020. With severe to extreme drought conditions expected, the situation is becoming increasingly dire.

Data from the Brazilian space research agency, National Institute for Space Research (INPE) reveals a staggering 980% jump in fires across the Pantanal wetlands this year through June 5, compared to the same timeframe in 2023.

Speaking of Brazil, it is in the midst of the worst pandemic of dengue fever that has ever been recorded in that nation…

Brazil recorded the highest number of dengue cases globally in 2024 according to new data from the World Health Organization (WHO). There are nearly 6.3 million probable, and 3 million confirmed cases in the country.

The South American country counts 82% of the 7.6 million probable cases of dengue recorded in the entire world by the WHO this year. Sadly, it also accounts for 77% of the 3,680 deaths globally from the virus and 82% of the 16,242 cases of severe dengue reported.

Thus far, 2024 has seen the most serious dengue outbreak ever recorded in Brazil. According to the Ministry of Health, by the end of May, the number of probable cases was 328% higher than that recorded in the same period last year, which had already seen a record number of dengue diagnoses.

So many pestilences are causing major problems all over the globe right now.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the number of Mpox cases has surged to an all-time record high, and it is the form of the disease that has a particularly high death rate…

The ongoing outbreak of clade I mpox in the DRC has already claimed many victims: The DRC reports “multiple provincial outbreaks” occurring between the beginning of 2023 and April 14, 2024, with an estimated total of 19,919 cases and 975 deaths — meaning that about 1 in every 20 patients have died.

This outbreak is also perhaps the most widespread: “During 2023 and 2024, clade I mpox cases were reported from 25 of 26 provinces and, for the first time, from the capital city of Kinshasa,” the CDC team noted.

Children are especially vulnerable: According to the report, “two thirds (67%) of suspected cases and more than three quarters (78%) of suspected deaths have occurred in persons aged 15 years [or younger].”

If you ever catch this form of Mpox, you will remember it for the rest of your life even if you survive, because it will be the worst pain that you have ever experienced.

On top of everything else, it is being reported that scientists have discovered “giant viruses” in the enormous sheets of ice that cover Greenland…

The idea of a giant virus lurking on a vast ice sheet might sound like the plot to the latest science fiction blockbuster.

But it’s become a reality, after researchers discovered giant viruses while exploring the Greenland ice sheet.

Hopefully none of those “giant viruses” poses a major threat to humanity.

But without a doubt, there will be more global pandemics in our future.

In fact, all of the trends that I have discussed in this article are going to continue to intensify.

Our apocalyptic “new normal” is here.

We live in a world that is going completely and utterly mad, and you can try to ignore that if you wish, but it is the truth.

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Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.