[Johnny Electriglide]

This month's NPG Forum Paper was "The Edge of the Abyss", by Lindsey Grant. It went a lot into the energy crunch and a little beyond his "Age of Overshoot". We passed the peak of oil production in May 2005, will reach the same point with coal in 2025, and have 34 years of natural gas left. Food production (with chemical fertilizers and heavy farm machinery) and distribution will be greatly affected by this energy crunching, and also the accelerating effects of global warming, and dimming from soot of coal downwind (like the Maldives from India's soot, losing 10% of production of crops). The increased cutting of the Amazon has led to a feedback loop of increasing desertification in that region, and food production losses. The driving force is over-breeding for the conditions at hand or anticipated. You may not to want to place blame, but that is where most of it lies. Hispanic women still having 4.4 children by 24 years old, moslem women forced to have 7 children by 28, African women still above 6 by their late 20s. From cultural stupidity, attempts at conquest through numbers, or plain low IQ stupidity, they are still driving up demand, which drives up prices and causes shortages which further drive up prices. Governments are the main end owners of energy, yet they can not increase production with increased energy costs making amortization of new refineries unfeasible with dwindling supplies. So called vast sources are proving to be not so vast. Canada's vast tar sands are costing 2 units of clean, expensive energy(natural gas), to produce 3 units of dirty oil energy. No one in the past or even now, seems to want to conserve what is left for the future. Only the few have controlled their breeding since the 1960s when overpopulation's first alarms rang out. Governments put money for social security into general spending funds, forcing one generation to pay for another, and a growth only stupid economy.
Now the first stages of an accelerating combination of effects is being harshly felt with rapid rise of food and energy costs. The prognosis for future effects and costs is even worse than most can imagine, with rationing starting soon.
We have talked about a variety of energy solutions such as solar, tidal, and geothermal, but they do not translate to transportation well. We have talked about women's rights and stayed away from real population quality and quantity control when it was still possible with reasonable "niceness".
The migrations from the economic effects of overpopulation started a generation or more ago, overloading host countries like the USA. We have seen increased pollution and trash, and the effects of increased demands. Not only will 2/3 of the world's people be "water stressed" by 2025, but we will be out of areas to put trash. I feel so sorry for people, like my son, who will be alive during the worsening times to come. Our Presidential hopefuls have no clue as to over-population and overshoot. They talk of reducing greenhouse gases while allowing an unfettered invasion(acts of real war) of low IQ over-breeders. It is so stupid, it is sickening. All it means is the few rich get richer, and the many get poorer, with increasing pollution and depletion. Even with their vast wealth, they can't eat the devaluing money. They can not buy what is not there, or buy a good climate. Even when fish hits 100 dollars per pound, it will still have high levels of invisible mercury. Amid all the fighting and increased diseases, the poor will be dying off, then the old, then the very young. If you are under 40 years old, you will probably see much of it. What I, Lindsey Grant, and many others have been saying for 40 years has fallen on deaf ears too much. My own personal sacrifices of one child and living solar, have been way more than offset by one invading family.