Introduction  In a previous article (The Four Horsemen - Part 2: Pestilence), we discussed the risk of outbreaks of deadly infectious disease, whether natural in origin or the result of biological warfare or terrorism. They could be familiar and treatable strains, naturally occurring mutations, or engineered microbes known to have a high case ...

When we started writing on the theme of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, we intended to address only the first three: War, Pestilence, and Famine. What is to be said concerning the fourth: Death? But we've reconsidered, because there is a lot to be said about a perverse ideology that seems more widespread than any of us imagined when it first a...

Hunger is common in the less-developed world, and famine is never more than a crisis or two away. For a century and a half, it has seemed remote and unlikely to most people in the developed world, but it demands our attention now.   We've previously spoken of famine as an eventual consequence of demographic and technological trends. Now we rep...

Across the span of recorded history more humans have died of disease, and especially epidemic and pandemic disease, than any other single cause, war included. We've recently seen the damage done worldwide not by a respiratory virus, but by the misguided response of governments. COVID will no more go away than will the ineffectual meddling of co-opt...

The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse – Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death – are a powerful, evocative image out of the Book of Revelations. While the image is chillingly applicable to the present day, our arguments in this series are not theological but practical and historical in their basis. We need to understand their underlying causes while we s...