Every now and then, I find myself thinking about the long-term future of the human race. Will humans get into conflict under protracted adversity, such as rapid climate change, or will they cooperate? By and by, the answer is shaping in my mind. Humans will cooperate, but only within small communities in which they know and trust each other. They will be in conflict with everyone else, whom they will summarily distrust. This bodes well only for humans who already live in rural environments, where food can be grown. And it bodes ill for all the other humans, about a half of whom now lives in large urban agglomerations. Under adversity, as well as bereft of food and potable water, they will be heading for small communities within reach. But they will not be received well. The conflict will be intense for a while. Once it subsides, the marauding bands will be the main problem the small communities will face. Their number will subside over time, and small communities will come to their own. Conflict will wane and cooperation will rein most of the time. By then, the number of humans will have dropped to between a tenth or a twentieth of the present numbers. In a nutshell, this is the price of cooperation between humans.