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.

The Human Ecological "Footprint"

Here is a somewhat scholarly and technical article (pdf warning)on measuring the human ecological "footprint," a popular concept in environmental circles. Suffice to say, the factors of population and affluence are the prime indicators of the said footprint (and of course, the US has by far the largest one). Article includes a nice graph of current footprints among nations and projected increases out to 2015. Observe (with alarm) how much China's footprint is projected to increase, with India not far behind. The road to 2015 and beyond is projected (by Chaos) to be more than a little interesting...