collapse

Deforestation and flooding in Bangladesh, the collapse of Black Sea fisheries, the desertification of sub-Saharan Africa and “a nearly endless list” of other issues, he said, would drive human migration.

With prisons across the country running out of cells and the government releasing offenders early to ease pressure, the BBC has been reporting on the issues facing a system on the brink of collapse.

Robert D. Putnam’s 2000 book “Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community,” which surveys how Americans have become increasingly disconnected from each other with the decline of social institutions like bowling leagues, had been a big influence in Schur’s crafting of “Parks and Recreation” and Leslie Knope’s guiding principle.

Musk did not specify if he would aim to deliver $2 trillion in savings in a single year, or over a longer period, but many US public finance experts, including those who are in favour in principle of reductions in US government spending, are sceptical savings on such a scale can be found in the near term without either a collapse in the delivery of important government functions or sparking major public resistance.

“They collapse suddenly and then inflate and collapse suddenly — that was kind of the basis of the choreography,” Oppenheimer recalls.