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.

A Look At Water Depletion In Australia

Think that oil, natural gas, uranium and coal are the only resources that are subject to permanent depletion? Sorry, but even so-called "renewable" resources can behave like nonrenewables when drawn down at unsustainable rates, which, by some coincidence, is starting to happen in many parts of the world due to (you guessed it) increasing population and resource use. Particularly in the case of the world's fresh water, this is quite a cause for concern, since water is used not only for drinking, but innumerable other uses, including industrial, and agricultural. A nice snapshot of efforts to contain profligate water use in the Murray-Darling river in South Australia is contained in this article. Chaos was heartened to read that a water conservation and use plan concerning the river was making headway, but along came a severe drought, causing all plans to grind to a halt. Interesting that the underlying problems continue not to be recognized (and certainly not ever in a mainstream publication like The Economist), but Chaos supposes that when the water runs out , as it eventually will, humans may begin to see. Best hopes for population dieoff!