Loving life? Well, lap it up because the days of driving around in comfy cars, feasting on fancy food and enjoying an air conditioner-cooled existence could be numbered.

With rising population, depleting natural resources and stretching social divide, civilization could be facing collapse within the next few decades, according to a scientific study funded by NASA. And if you think this is a load of scaremongering, it’s happened before. Remember the Roman Empire?

In the report conducted by applied mathematician Safa Motesharri, his “Human And Nature Dynamical” (Handy) model claims “the process of rise-and-collapse is actually a recurrent cycle found throughout history.”

“The fall of the Roman Empire, and the equally (if not more) advanced Han, Mauryan, and Gupta Empires, as well as so many advanced Mesopotamian Empires, are all testimony to the fact that advanced, sophisticated, complex, and creative civilizations can be both fragile and impermanent.”

Our modern world might appear to be pretty sure of itself, with advanced technologies helping people live longer and revolutionizing everyday life, but this might be to blame. Using his theoretical model, Motesharri explored several factors and ran different scenarios that could lead to the collapse of industrial civilization, and found a breakdown of society could arise from rapid global population growth and unsustainable resource exploitation.

And as resources are depleted, they will become more expensive. This is where he further states that “economic stratification” — where society is further divided based on wealth — will create “Elites” (rich) and “Masses” (poor), with the Elites being responsible for over-consuming, leaving the Masses in famine.

But before you start hoarding resources, the study does conclude that this scenario is not inevitable. In order to prevent such catastrophe, it calls for action by the Elites to share the wealth and to do their bit in restoring balance.

“Collapse can be avoided and population can reach equilibrium if the per capita rate of depletion of nature is reduced to a sustainable level, and if resources are distributed in a reasonably equitable fashion.”

It does serve as a wake-up call that if we don’t want to face disaster, we need to seriously consider how we manage resources, population growth and wealth. The end is not yet nigh … if we can help it.

This article originally appeared on News.com.au.