Brangdon; please understand that not all Americans dismiss global climate change. Some of us have been screaming about it since the 70's (when we might have been able to do something about it) it's only in the last few years that the mainstream has caught on.

The Peak idea is (in my mind) the tipping point. That is to say with so much stress put on systems one "minor" crisis, could/might/will/is going to start an avalanche of system failure. Given that we have mostly eroded away the robustness of most of our necessary systems in the name of efficiency and cost savings, it feels like the whole thing could fall like a house of cards.

I believe you are right about terrorism being less of the threat now, but if the government (any government) is in disarray some people might use that as an opportunity. Just like the Anthrax attacks right after 9/11. It didn't go very far but the potential was enormous.

Even with the threat of pandemic flu; all it would take is a few hundred people getting sick around the country and all of a sudden, no one is willing to go to work. I don't think there would even have to be actual deaths, just panic, and the system would collapse under its own weight. As I write this is realize that it really sounds paranoid. But it seems to be everywhere I look.