Thanks to the NPG Journal for drawing my attention to this article from AOL News.
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In 1823, a government surveyor named Stephen Long was working to map out the Great Plains, an expanse of land acquired along with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. He was unimpressed by what he saw. As his geographer wrote in the report that accompanied the expedition: I do not hesitate in giving the opinion that it is almost wholly unfit for cultivation, and of course, uninhabitable by a people depending upon agriculture for their subsistence.

Long would have been shocked to see what the region looks like today — not merely fit for cultivation, but in fact one of the most fertile and productive areas of the world. Since World War II, dramatic leaps in technology have allowed farmers to pump groundwater for irrigation and extend America’s breadbasket through the entire Great Plains, transforming what Long called “The Great American Desert” into an expanse of green circles defined by the reach of central pivot irrigation systems.

For full article, visit:
http://www.aolnews.com/earth-day/article

Thanks to the Post Carbon Institute for this article.
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We all need to pause for a minute and consider the possible implications of the droughts that are engulfing China. One of these is in the north — Inner Mongolia, and the second more serious one covers most of southwestern China.

If the weather patterns revert to normal and the May monsoons come on schedule in the next month or so, then all should be well and we, along with 60 million or so Chinese farmers, can stop worrying. But these are not normal times and even the disappearance of the El Niño in the central Pacific may not bring enough rain to mitigate the situation. Then, there could be serious trouble not only for the Chinese and southeast Asian peoples, but for the rest of us as well.

For full article, visit:
http://www.postcarbon.org/article/90195-the-peak-oil-crisis-china-s-latest

Thanks to Frank Arundel for this article.
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Major economies are pushing for substantial increases in the price of water around the world as concern mounts about dwindling supplies and rising population.

With official UN figures showing that 1 billion people lack access to clean drinking water and more than double that number do not have proper sanitation, increases in prices will be – and in some countries are already proving to be – hugely controversial.

However experts argue that as long as most countries provide huge subsidies for water it will not be possible to change the wasteful habits of consumers, farmers and industry, nor to raise the investment needed to repair old supply systems and build new ones. And price rises can be managed so that they do not penalise the poorest.

For full article, visit:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/27/water-price-rise

Also see the website of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and their online water gateway, Downstream. Go to http://pulitzergateway.org/downstream/. The Pulitzer Center is a non-profit international journalism organization that sponsors reporting on the undertold, systemic crises and problems of our time. For the past two years, they have maintained a focus on water and sanitation issues in addition to the other work they do. As a part of this effort, they’ve published in major news outlets, developed educational news websites, visited schools with journalists, and organized a film screening with the DC Environmental Film Festival. In the coming year, they plan to report on population issues.

Thanks to Jack Martin for alerting me that the May 2010 issue of National Geographic is devoted to the water crisis.

Joyce Tarnow of Floridians for a Sustainable Population, sent the following response to National Geographic

I was so excited when the special issue of National Geographic, “WATER, Our Thirsty World,” arrived in my mailbox. Finally, a too little reported crisis would get national attention from a respected institution. Many critical aspects of water supply and safety were spotlighted, but not the most critical one–population numbers. This glaring omission continues the restriction that has crippled environmental progress since the mid 1970′s. On Page 52, the last sentence of the large print text is revealing of this decades long practice of ignoring population demand on all of our resources, not just water. “….With 83 million more people on earth each year, water demand will keep going up unless we change how we use it.” There are no logical remedies to stave off a more thirsty future, other than reducing population numbers.

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Thanks to Joe Bish for this story. The story is illustrated by a photo from the United Nations of what used to be the Aral Sea. It shows a view of rusted, abandoned ships in Muynak, Uzebkistan, a former port city whose population has declined precipitously with the rapid recession of the Aral Sea. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon witnessed the shrinking Aral Sea – a sight which he said underscores the need for collective action to save the planet’s resources. “It was shocking,” Mr. Ban told reporters. “It really left with me a profound impression, one of sadness that such a mighty sea has disappeared.” The Aral Sea was once the world’s fourth largest lake.
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This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

The lack of clean drinking water is a major problem worldwide. The World Health Organization says more than one billion people live in areas where renewable water resources are not available. The problem is especially serious in Asia and the Pacific. A United Nations report says water availability in that area is the second lowest in the world, after Africa.

For full article, visit:
http://www1.voanews.com

Thanks to Joe Bish for sending this editorial from the Bangor Daily News.
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The ship Titanic, the crown jewel of the White Star Line, boasted as unsinkable by its owners and foolishly driven by them on that premise to its destruction, is a grave warning to mankind. Our mother ship Earth, captained by fools recklessly ignoring nature’s warnings, is on a parallel course with the Titanic. The population bomb is planet Earth’s iceberg.

America’s rapidly growing population is wreaking havoc on the environment. Because I am a conservationist, I am also a populationist and advocate having a stable population for America and the world.

The pressures associated with population growth are dominating our public discussion with issues such as traffic congestion, school overcrowding, loss of open spaces and increases in municipal taxes, said Robert Puentes, a scholar with the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. America has become much more urban and crowded. An average of 84 people now live on each square mile, up from 56 per square mile in 1967. Under President Lyndon Johnson, the U.S. had only five cities with at least 1 million in population. Today there are 44 urban areas of this size.

For full article, visit:
http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/138961.html

Thanks to Tim Murray for this article. In an email to me, Tim said, “Environmental NGOs should be like the fire department, shouting at us to get out of a burning house. Instead they are inside polishing the furniture. The one faction of our society who should be sounding the alarm is instead boasting of pyrrhic victories. This new park dedication or that new vehicle emissions standard. They are the Green Salesmen of Delusional Hope—anything to keep up grassroots morale without offending their corporate donor base.”

As you’ll see from a paper you can find at https://docs.google.com/a/populationmedia.org/leaf?id=0B5F-idWfw7TeZmMwMzI3YmMtNDAzMC00YWM1LTgyZGMtZGIwMGExMDliMTE4&hl=en&authkey=CLaFkoYG, Chris Clugston is in general agreement with Tim Murray’s sentiments. Thanks to Jack Alpert for sending Clugston’s paper to me.
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In her book, “Titanic”, author Stephanie Barcszewski described the exchange between Captain John Smith and the ship’s designer Thomas Andrew just over ten minutes after the collision with the lethal iceberg.

“Smith asked Andrews how long the Titanic had left and Andrews did some quick calculations: An hour and a half, possibly two. Not much longer.” That quick calculation was not far off. The ship sank two hours and forty minutes after it hit the iceberg, or roughly two hours and twenty minutes after Andrews made that grim pronouncement.
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Thanks to Paul Farrell for sending me this paper he published at MarketWatch.
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Imagine a secret society, code name “Avatar 2154,” based on the date of the “War of 2154″ between the “Sec-Ops” armies from “Eaarth,” funded by the “Resources Development Corporation,” against the “Na’vi” indigenous tribes on the Pandora moon.

The war is over mining rights to Pandora’s unobtanium, a powerful new energy source needed back on Eaarth to save our planet, where rapid population growth is exhausting limited natural resources, resulting in a dying civilization. Obviously this is a metaphor for today’s global threats.

The goals of Avatar 2154: Maximum security and wealth preservation for future generations of members from the elite of Wall Street, Washington, Corporate America CEOs and the Forbes 400. Avatar 2154 secretly supports climate-change-deniers in think tanks, academic research and politicians who negate the impact of scientific facts. This effort is necessary when high-profile voices like Al Gore and Bill McKibben surface and new propaganda is required to attack their efforts stirring global climate initiatives.

For full article, visit:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/12-ways-to-cash-in-on-the-collapse-of-eaarth-2010-05-18

Thanks to Joe Bish for this link. For the video of Michael Rupert’s talk, see http://www.shtfplan.com
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Peak oil activist, author and documentarian Michael Ruppert discusses a variety of topics including our dependence on oil, what happens when the oil runs out, the real possibility of collapse, government’s role, the human population bubble and his new CollapseNet project.

Thanks to Rick Blaine who sent this one over. In Rick’s own words:

Ruppert is on fire

Re the population bubble – that’s one of the more interesting things Ruppert has talked about. Even if you ignore the possibility of already passing peak oil, the simple exponential increase in human population over the last 150 years or so does raise an interesting scientific point – it seems that most, if not all, systems experience some sort of collapse at some point after seeing such an increase.
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