On the eating of crow...

[NoOneMan]

5. We may have a social collapse before 2050

In terms of disasters, we haven't seen "bad" yet (especially as far as a drought is concerned). If this continues and our crop yields make China's 3 Years of Famine look like a Ramadan fasting, the elites will be scrambling to maintain order among a hungry population while building levies and dykes. There will be no energy left for economic growth, further exacerbating the social problems. In a few decades, we may be doubling our energy expenditure to simply keep peasants down, the water back, and most bellys full. And at some point, it will simply not be economically feasible to keep on keeping on. Cities and infrastructure companies will start going bankrupt. Services will break down. The will to fix these issues, and the energy to do it, will be sapped from the people who are swimming in their own existential crises, as they see the futility in the underpinnings of civilizations.

This is probably the most preferable scenario we could envision.