Water, Water, Everywhere?

Taking a short break from observations of the current high and higher oil prices and their effects, we find our friend Lester Brown of the Earth Institute with this interesting article on how we are drawing down the world's supply of "fossil water" (that which has accumulated underground over oh, say, several million years). Anyway, a brief pondering of the implications will suffice to make one realize that goofy stuff about humanity's "footprint" is probably understated, and things are tending more towards the dieoff than you probably realized.

Introduction To Richard Heinberg: Peak Everything

This man, author of Party's Over and The Oil Depletion Protocol, has a new one out: Peak Everything, wherein apparently the author has discovered (or just read Lester Brown) that most of the planet's "renewable" resources aren't that renewable after all, especially when exponential human economic growth consumes them all. No, seriously, here's a nicely-written introduction to the latest, for those who can't wait to see it at the 1/2-priced bookstore.

Lester Brown Wishes You A Happy Holiday

This eminent being, featured here several months ago in context of his book, is here with us again with a message of holiday cheer:

"Underneath the American Christmas spirit and good cheer is a debt-laden society that appears to have lost its way, marred in the quicksand of consumerism. As a society, we seem to have forgotten how to save so we can invest in a better future. Instead of leaving our children a promising economic future, we are bequeathing them the largest debt burden of any generation in history."

How sad, and true. The rest of the article is equally penetrating and eloquent on the subject of the declining culture of the Empire....its citizens are only preoccupied with endless consumption, at the expense of future generations.