Brexit (arrgggghhh)

I was heartbroken when the brexit referendum result came in and I still think that it is insane to leave the EU, but that is now (apparently) inevitable and we'll just have to put up with it.

There are a couple of things that I think are worth saying about the whole debacle that are not the usual "we're going to be poorer", "we're condoning racism" type of things. In the grand scheme of history I suspect that brexit will be seen as a bizarre sideshow to the slow-motion, multi-vehicle car crash that is currently unfolding in Europe and the wider world.

Climate change is rapidly altering large tracts of farmland in Africa, the middle East and Europe. The effects of this are I suspect going to be very dramatic in the near future, probably including famine and/or crop failures in large areas leading to physical and economic hardship on a relentlessly increasing scale. This is likely to lead to the abandonment of already marginal farmland and migration of large numbers of people. People will move Northward in increasing numbers by crossing the Mediterranean Sea and placing further pressure on Southern European states such as Greece, Italy and Spain which will also be suffering from changes to their climates. I find it difficult to imagine the effect that this will have on the EU, but I suspect that at some point it will result in dilution or abandonment of the free-movement of people and further tightening of borders. There may also come a time when the richer Northern states decide that they are better off without the poorer Southern states. This is likely to prove very difficult for the continued coherence of the EU as it currently stands. I have no idea of what the implications of this will be for the U.K. or Wales.

Populist and increasingly right-wing governments are also popping up in increasing numbers and are unashamed or actively proud of destroying international, collaborative endeavours whether they be arms treaties, emissions targets or trading agreements. This does genuinely seem to be a global phenomenon with multiple European states, the U.K., the U.S., India, Australia, Russia and various other states wandering down this path. Quite where this ends is difficult to imagine, but it is not a large leap of the imagination to see wars and isolationism. Brexit seems to be a symptom of this affliction and also provides fuel to the fires of other similar isolationist projects in Europe and around the world, but is I suspect pretty much irrelevant for the vast majority of people beyond the U.K.'s shores.