Re: Storm Coming II

A letter to an English Friend of mine------ Yes, I'd say thats the way things appear to be headed. We are now rapidly approaching 7 billion people on the planet, rising to pehaps 9 billion around 2050, by some estimates. However, if hydrocarbon depletions dire case senarios play out as suggested, we may never reach the 9 billion figure. Some scientist suggest that 2 billion, is along the lines of how many people could live in sustainable societes, spread across the earth. Cheap energy has driven the explosion of wealth and populations in the last 150 years world wide. Hydrocarbons run 90% of the transportation, ships, planes, trains, trucks and everything else. Farming in today's world has transformed itself to be completely dependant, in huge ways on cheap energy. But now, the days of cheap energy are coming to an end, and it all adds up to a crisis facing humanity, a coming time of great consequence, transformations, and great struggles between the people of the planet, for what resources are left. It also looks to be the case, that all the alternative energy sources, will not come close, to filling the void left behind, when hydrocarbon supplies start sliding down the backside of thier seperate peaks. So things are looking grim to say the least. Of course we all hope for a future, that is not as bleak as what is suggested above, but when I put all the signs together, it doesn't look to me as if the headlong, mass consumer, rush to build and " progress ", and proliferate ourselves across the planet like lemmings, is not leading us toward a series of cliffs, disasters of great human suffering, and conflict! Of course, how the future will actually play out, remains to be seen. I will be keeping abreast of developments, through various information sources, so there will be a chance of preparing in what ways we can, for a world, that may become, more of a struggle to live in, as compared to the days of our lives thusfar.............. This thing is like a big wheel, rolling along, and I can't see how it will be stopped, how it will not crush many, but, if we educate ourselves about it, and become aware of its nature, just maybe, we can make ourselves a special niche, with like minded peoples, living sustainable lifestyles, away from the path of this big wheel. My simple way of describing the possiblilities, of a hopeful future beyond the problems now coming.