Public Service Announcement

A public service announcement from On Beyond Zero:

Be prepared for resource depletion in your area.

I don't mean "be prepared" as in "here it comes", I mean it as in the Boy Scout motto.

New Orleans didn't teach the Brits much:

Looting, panic buying - and a water shortage

Be prepared for a water shortage, a food shortage, a power shortage.

Also, be prepared for a communications shortage. Land phones. Cellphones. The Internet.

Certainly prepare for a local law enforcement shortage (and prepare as well for the government's response to it), and a shortage of courtesy and kindness. I'm not going all care bear here, guys. Prepare for a shortage of decent human behavior.

That is all. For now.

Ground Zero articles of interest:

How about mauve?

Both parties plan green conventions

The interest in greening political conventions, from buying confetti made from recycled paper to purchasing carbon offsets to reduce the impact of greenhouse gas emissions, shows the increasing relevance to both parties of appealing to voters mindful of global warming.

Oh, give me a BREAK. If you want to reduce hot air emissions, cancel the goddamned conventions altogether.

(Yes, I know, that joke is trite. C'est la mort.)

Stick with the red, white and blue, guys.

Purchase carbon offsets? Bwahahaha! The emissions are happening NOW. Offsets take years to have any impact.

The point here, always assuming global warming is indeed what is happening, is:

IT'S TOO LATE!

It's too late to stop global warming!

The effects of pollution have escalated past the point of no return. The polar caps are breaking up, people! It's over! What is this we've-got-five-years crap? Five years is NOTHING in the context of the life of the earth. The earth takes millions of years just to reach over and scratch its ass. It's about to. And the dead skin that flakes off will be YOU.

I suppose we might be able to maintain a holding pattern, if everyone cooperates really hard for the rest of eternity, which everyone won't.

Any of you who let this pathetic pandering to the politically correct affect your choice of candidates deserve exactly what you get.

Ground Zero articles of interest:

What ya gonna do when the well runs dry, honey....

Chinese city panics over undrinkable water supply

Algae threatens Wuxi's water supply

They'll^TM soon tell us it's global warming, of course, making water levels lower and temperatures warmer allowing algae grow when and where it shouldn't. Sewage pollution? Naah, that's not all trendy and sexy like global warming. True, but not sexy.

What...global warming makes water levels higher, not lower? Make up your minds.

While you're thinking about it, don't forget the effects of resource depletion -- in this case, loss of safe drinking water -- on a community. They're hoarding now, but at least going through the motions of helping each other, and stiff fines are to be imposed for anyone hiking up the price of water. They're being civil to each other. But all of this could crumble with one good, hot, thirsty altercation at a supply depot, growing into a riot.

It was the food riots that finally brought about the French Revolution. Lack of water starts killing people long before lack of food does.

From the past...just a taste. Riots, looters, corpses, diseases, military, gun confiscations, general fear and loathing.

Resource depletion. Don't underestimate it.