It's the Water, Stupid.
sweetpotato
Posts: 1,278
[size=+5]Our Drinkable Water Supply Is Vanishing[/size]
By Tara Lohan, AlterNet
Posted on October 11, 2007, Printed on October 11, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/64948/
Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, the Hungarian biochemist and Nobel Prize winner for medicine once said, "Water is life's matter and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water."
We depend on water for survival. It circulates through our bodies and the land, replenishing nutrients and carrying away waste. It is passed down like stories over generations -- from ice-capped mountains to rivers to oceans.
Historically water has been a facet of ritual, a place of gathering and the backbone of community.
But times have changed. "In an age when man has forgotten his origins and is blind even to his most essential needs for survival, water has become the victim of his indifference," Rachel Carson wrote.
As a result, today, 35 years since the passage of the Clean Water Act, we find ourselves are teetering on the edge of a global crisis that is being exacerbated by climate change, which is shrinking glaciers and raising sea levels.
We are faced with thoughtless development that paves flood plains and destroys wetlands; dams that displace native people and scar watersheds; unchecked industrial growth that pollutes water sources; and rising rates of consumption that nature can't match. Increasingly, we are also threatened by the wave of privatization that is sweeping across the world, turning water from a precious public resource into a commodity for economic gain.
The problems extend from the global north to the south and are as pervasive as water itself. Equally encompassing are the politics of water. Discussions about our water crisis include issues like poverty, trade, community and privatization. In talking about water, we must also talk about indigenous rights, environmental justice, education, corporate accountability, and democracy. In this mix of terms are not only the causes of our crisis but also the solutions.
What's gone wrong?
As our world heats up, as pollution increases, as population grows and as our globe's resources of fresh water are tapped, we are faced with an environmental and humanitarian problem of mammoth proportions.
Demand for water is doubling every 20 years, outpacing population growth twice as fast. Currently 1.3 billion people don't have access to clean water and 2.5 billion lack proper sewage and sanitation. In less than 20 years, it is estimated that demand for fresh water will exceed the world's supply by over 50 percent.
The biggest drain on our water sources is agriculture, which accounts for 70 percent of the water used worldwide -- much of which is subsidized in the industrial world, providing little incentive for agribusiness to use conservation measures or less water-intensive crops.
This number is also likely to increase as we struggle to feed a growing world. Population is expected to rise from 6 billion to 8 billion by 2050.
Water scarcity is not just an issue of the developing world. "Twenty-one percent of irrigation in the United States is achieved by pumping groundwater at rates that exceed the water's ability to recharge," wrote water experts Tony Clarke of the Polaris Institute and Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians in their landmark water book Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water.
The Ogallala aquifer -- the largest in the North America and a major source for agriculture stretching from Texas to South Dakota -- is currently being pumped at a rate 14 times greater than it can be replenished, they wrote. And, across the country, "California's Department of Water Resources predicts that, by 2020, if more supplies are not found, the state will face a shortfall of fresh water nearly as great as the amount that all of its cities and towns together are consuming today," add Clarke and Barlow.
Demand is outstripping supply from the rainy Seattle area to desert cities like Tucson and Albuquerque. And from Midwest farming regions to East Coast cities.
The crisis is also worldwide, most noticeable in Mexico, the Middle East, China and Africa.
As population growth, development, consumption and pollution take its toll on our water resources, the ability to fight this problem has been further complicated by the spread of neoliberalism. The same ideas that have resulted in the booty of private contracts being doled out in Iraq also have contributed greatly to our water crisis. Neoliberalism is the belief in "economic liberalism," which espoused that government control over the economy was bad. It opened up the commons to commodification and let corporations privatize what once belonged to the public.
In 2000 Fortune magazine printed this telling statement: "Water promises to be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th century; the precious commodity that determines the wealth of nations."
It has oft been expressed that the next resource wars will not be over oil -- or energy at all -- but over water. As the idea of neoliberalism, proliferated by institutions like the World Bank and the IMF, spread, the public sector has become dangerously privatized. And it may not be the wealth of nations on the line -- but the wealth of corporations.
A senior executive at a subsidiary of Vivendi, the world's largest water controller summed it up, "Water is a critical and necessary ingredient to the daily life of every human being, and it is an equally powerful ingredient for profitable manufacturing companies."
But when private companies control water resources, people's needs for survival are pushed aside in place of the bottom line. In Africa, an estimated 5 million people die each year for lack of safe drinking water. And yet Africa, with its many cash-strapped countries, is targeted by multinationals that force governments to turn over their public water systems in exchange for promises of debt relief.
When corporations control water, rates go up, services go down, and those who can't afford to pay are forced to drink unsafe water, risking their lives. This has happened across the world -- in South Africa, in Bolivia, in the United States.
This same philosophy of corporate control drives the construction of dams, which have displaced an estimated 80 million people worldwide. In India alone, over 4,000 dams have submerged 37,500 square kilometers of land and forced 42 million people from their homes.
Multinationals looking to cash in on the water business have also made giant inroads in selling bottled water in richer countries. Expensive marketing campaigns convince people that their tap water is unsafe to drink. Then, companies like Coke and Pepsi bottle municipal tap water and others like Nestle pilfer spring water from rural communities and resell it at huge profits.
The water crisis may be growing, but so is resistance to privatization as communities are fighting back against the corporate control of the world's most vital resource.
con't...
By Tara Lohan, AlterNet
Posted on October 11, 2007, Printed on October 11, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/64948/
Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, the Hungarian biochemist and Nobel Prize winner for medicine once said, "Water is life's matter and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water."
We depend on water for survival. It circulates through our bodies and the land, replenishing nutrients and carrying away waste. It is passed down like stories over generations -- from ice-capped mountains to rivers to oceans.
Historically water has been a facet of ritual, a place of gathering and the backbone of community.
But times have changed. "In an age when man has forgotten his origins and is blind even to his most essential needs for survival, water has become the victim of his indifference," Rachel Carson wrote.
As a result, today, 35 years since the passage of the Clean Water Act, we find ourselves are teetering on the edge of a global crisis that is being exacerbated by climate change, which is shrinking glaciers and raising sea levels.
We are faced with thoughtless development that paves flood plains and destroys wetlands; dams that displace native people and scar watersheds; unchecked industrial growth that pollutes water sources; and rising rates of consumption that nature can't match. Increasingly, we are also threatened by the wave of privatization that is sweeping across the world, turning water from a precious public resource into a commodity for economic gain.
The problems extend from the global north to the south and are as pervasive as water itself. Equally encompassing are the politics of water. Discussions about our water crisis include issues like poverty, trade, community and privatization. In talking about water, we must also talk about indigenous rights, environmental justice, education, corporate accountability, and democracy. In this mix of terms are not only the causes of our crisis but also the solutions.
What's gone wrong?
As our world heats up, as pollution increases, as population grows and as our globe's resources of fresh water are tapped, we are faced with an environmental and humanitarian problem of mammoth proportions.
Demand for water is doubling every 20 years, outpacing population growth twice as fast. Currently 1.3 billion people don't have access to clean water and 2.5 billion lack proper sewage and sanitation. In less than 20 years, it is estimated that demand for fresh water will exceed the world's supply by over 50 percent.
The biggest drain on our water sources is agriculture, which accounts for 70 percent of the water used worldwide -- much of which is subsidized in the industrial world, providing little incentive for agribusiness to use conservation measures or less water-intensive crops.
This number is also likely to increase as we struggle to feed a growing world. Population is expected to rise from 6 billion to 8 billion by 2050.
Water scarcity is not just an issue of the developing world. "Twenty-one percent of irrigation in the United States is achieved by pumping groundwater at rates that exceed the water's ability to recharge," wrote water experts Tony Clarke of the Polaris Institute and Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians in their landmark water book Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water.
The Ogallala aquifer -- the largest in the North America and a major source for agriculture stretching from Texas to South Dakota -- is currently being pumped at a rate 14 times greater than it can be replenished, they wrote. And, across the country, "California's Department of Water Resources predicts that, by 2020, if more supplies are not found, the state will face a shortfall of fresh water nearly as great as the amount that all of its cities and towns together are consuming today," add Clarke and Barlow.
Demand is outstripping supply from the rainy Seattle area to desert cities like Tucson and Albuquerque. And from Midwest farming regions to East Coast cities.
The crisis is also worldwide, most noticeable in Mexico, the Middle East, China and Africa.
As population growth, development, consumption and pollution take its toll on our water resources, the ability to fight this problem has been further complicated by the spread of neoliberalism. The same ideas that have resulted in the booty of private contracts being doled out in Iraq also have contributed greatly to our water crisis. Neoliberalism is the belief in "economic liberalism," which espoused that government control over the economy was bad. It opened up the commons to commodification and let corporations privatize what once belonged to the public.
In 2000 Fortune magazine printed this telling statement: "Water promises to be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th century; the precious commodity that determines the wealth of nations."
It has oft been expressed that the next resource wars will not be over oil -- or energy at all -- but over water. As the idea of neoliberalism, proliferated by institutions like the World Bank and the IMF, spread, the public sector has become dangerously privatized. And it may not be the wealth of nations on the line -- but the wealth of corporations.
A senior executive at a subsidiary of Vivendi, the world's largest water controller summed it up, "Water is a critical and necessary ingredient to the daily life of every human being, and it is an equally powerful ingredient for profitable manufacturing companies."
But when private companies control water resources, people's needs for survival are pushed aside in place of the bottom line. In Africa, an estimated 5 million people die each year for lack of safe drinking water. And yet Africa, with its many cash-strapped countries, is targeted by multinationals that force governments to turn over their public water systems in exchange for promises of debt relief.
When corporations control water, rates go up, services go down, and those who can't afford to pay are forced to drink unsafe water, risking their lives. This has happened across the world -- in South Africa, in Bolivia, in the United States.
This same philosophy of corporate control drives the construction of dams, which have displaced an estimated 80 million people worldwide. In India alone, over 4,000 dams have submerged 37,500 square kilometers of land and forced 42 million people from their homes.
Multinationals looking to cash in on the water business have also made giant inroads in selling bottled water in richer countries. Expensive marketing campaigns convince people that their tap water is unsafe to drink. Then, companies like Coke and Pepsi bottle municipal tap water and others like Nestle pilfer spring water from rural communities and resell it at huge profits.
The water crisis may be growing, but so is resistance to privatization as communities are fighting back against the corporate control of the world's most vital resource.
con't...
"Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States, Barack Obama."
"Obama's main opponent in this election on November 4th (was) not John McCain, it (was) ignorance."~Michael Moore
"i'm feeling kinda righteous right now. with my badass motherfuckin' ukulele!"
~ed, 8/7
"Obama's main opponent in this election on November 4th (was) not John McCain, it (was) ignorance."~Michael Moore
"i'm feeling kinda righteous right now. with my badass motherfuckin' ukulele!"
~ed, 8/7
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
We need water to survive, not just as individuals, but as communities. Author John Thorson put it perfectly when he said, "Water links us to our neighbor in a way more profound and complex than any other."
Just ask the people of the Klamath Basin of Southern Oregon and Northern California. They've experienced water wars for the last hundred years that have pitted neighbor against neighbor and tribal member against farmer.
Native American tribes in the region -- the Klamath, Hoopa, Karuk, and Yaruk -- with priority rights to water, have struggled with farmers over limited water resources. Nature has been unable to deliver as much water as the government has promised to farmers and tribal members, as well as downstream fishermen. With not enough water in the river, either crops have failed or fish have died, creating community strife and economic hardship.
But in the last year, things have begun to change. These groups have formed a coalition to save the river they all depend on for survival. They are sitting at the same table and finally beginning to hear from each other about the needs of farmers, the value of subsistence economies, the history of families on the river, the ceremony that comes with the salmon runs, the rights of nature.
Together, this unlikely alliance is taking on PacifiCorp, one of the largest multinational power companies, whose out-of-date dams are threatening the ecosystem and the economy of the region.
And just over the peak of Mount Shasta another community and tribe are battling to save their spring water from Nestle, which hopes to tap the community's greatest asset for its own wealth.
The people of the small town of McCloud and the Winnemem Wintu tribe are fighting back, and they are not alone. Across the country a backlash to the bottled-water business is gaining steam. Fancy restaurants like California's Chez Panisse, Incanto, and Poggio and New York's Del Posto have gotten on board. San Francisco has also led the way among municipalities that are beginning to cancel their bottled water contracts, understanding the great harm the industry does to the environment and communities.
It is not just bottled water that has posed a problem, but private companies buying out municipal water systems and then raising rates and lowering services. One the best examples is Stockton, Calif., which went private in the largest "public-private partnership" in the West. Since 2001 the people of Stockton have been fighting for control of their water against a multinational consortium.
The case gained international attention when it was featured in the film and book Thirst: Fighting the Corporate Theft of Our Water. The public finally won out in July, when the city council voted to get rid of the 20-year contract and send the corporation packing.
The citizen groups that have been working to defend their communities are being supported by many national and international groups pushing back against corporate control and empowering people -- groups like Tony Clarke's Polaris Institute in Canada, which has focused on public education and research around issues like the privatization of water services, bulk water exports, water security and bottled water.
In the United States, Corporate Accountability International is encouraging people to drink tap water over bottled water with their "Think Outside the Bottle Campaign." They are working to educate the public, as well as city governments and businesses, with great success.
And today, on the 35th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, Food & Water Watch, is sponsoring a National Call-In Day for action on clean water to urge representatives to support the creation of a clean water trust fund, "which is a long-term, sustainable, and reliable source of funding to upgrade and improve our public water systems." The organization has been working to protect public water systems from private takeover and to help fund municipal water so that all residents have clean, safe and affordable water.
The movement extends across the country and the world as people are also rebelling against the corporate takeover of their municipal water systems -- in California, in Ghana, in Brazil, in Canada, in France, in Indonesia -- and the list goes on.
Opposition to corporate control is rooted in the belief that water is part of the commons. Everyone should have access to clean water, regardless of their level of income or their country's international standing.
In order to ensure that all people have access to clean, affordable water, we need to make some changes.
Some see technology as the necessary fix -- or at least a step in the right direction. As the BBC reports:
New technology can help, however, especially by cleaning up pollution and so making more water useable, and in agriculture, where water use can be made far more efficient. Drought-resistant plants can also help.
Drip irrigation drastically cuts the amount of water needed, low-pressure sprinklers are an improvement, and even building simple earth walls to trap rainfall is helpful.
Some countries are now treating waste water so that it can be used -- and drunk -- several times over.
Desalinization makes sea water available, but takes huge quantities of energy and leaves vast amounts of brine.
But many warn against relying on a "techno-fix" to solve our problems.
Water experts argue that we need to reduce consumption on individual and community levels. Author Tony Clarke advises working with those closest to the problems, such as helping farmers to develop a more sustainable agriculture system. And the same goes for industry. Looking to the folks who have been on the land longest, like indigenous and traditional cultures, will also help us learn how an ecosystem works.
And experts say that we also need to start developing a comprehensive water policy that goes from the regional to international level. The World Bank and United Nations have the capability to change the designation of water from a human need to a human right, ensuring that corporations can't exploit this resource for economic gain, as Clarke and Barlow advocate for in Blue Gold.
Governments should be investing in their people, in conservation and in the infrastructure that we depend on to access clean, affordable water.
It ultimately comes down to an issue of democracy. "We came to see that the conflicts over water are really about fundamental questions of democracy itself: Who will make the decisions that affect our future, and who will be excluded?" wrote Alan Snitow, Deborah Kaufman and Michael Fox in their recent book Thirst. "And if citizens no longer control their most basic resource, their water, do they really control anything at all?"
Tara Lohan is a managing editor at AlterNet.
"Obama's main opponent in this election on November 4th (was) not John McCain, it (was) ignorance."~Michael Moore
"i'm feeling kinda righteous right now. with my badass motherfuckin' ukulele!"
~ed, 8/7
yes, the truth can be scary, but as grownups, it's our job to face facts. unless you've invented a way to survive without water. then please, do tell.
"Obama's main opponent in this election on November 4th (was) not John McCain, it (was) ignorance."~Michael Moore
"i'm feeling kinda righteous right now. with my badass motherfuckin' ukulele!"
~ed, 8/7
you worry to much. we wont be running out of water. relax.
it's that sort of ignorant complacency that has us in this mess. good plan. :rolleyes:
"Obama's main opponent in this election on November 4th (was) not John McCain, it (was) ignorance."~Michael Moore
"i'm feeling kinda righteous right now. with my badass motherfuckin' ukulele!"
~ed, 8/7
people haven't figured out that they are paying $1 a litre for something that used to be free ... people also do not necessarily look beyond their own sheltered lives ... so many people in the world without access to clean water ... tragic ...
yup yup
sometimes people blow me away
i believe 1 BILLION people currently do not have access to stable/clean drinking water
anyone that thinks water is not an issue, and will not be an issue... is just a flat out fool. the worlds population continues to rise and rise and rise... every resource is going to be stressed and streched... and the #1 resource that will feel this strain will be water.
besides living in a box of fear, what should we do? stop drinking water?
or maybe this technology will advance and we can start using the oceans for fresh water. I don't know
http://drake.marin.k12.ca.us/stuwork/rockwater/the%20salt%20in%20seawater/saltinseawaterpg5.html
stop will all the fear mongering
I think some people just stick their heads in the sand.
You got to spend it all
Oh man, did you read the article !?!
a. [what isn't mentioned in this article] -- the OIL cost of operating a desalination plant is counterproductive. It's like burning gold to make silver! ???
b. BRINE !?! By making SOME drinkable water for a few you are going to RUIN ALL WATER with brine for EVERYONE!
If I opened it now would you not understand?
I'm not saying that is the way to go. it was just a thought. you would think at some point in time we will figure out reverse osmosis. lot of ocean out there ya know?
I really dont understand the fear that sweet is trying to get across. water is a limited resource. I got it. should we stop drinking water?
It's not ok to just gloss over our water supply like there's no cause for concern.
Only idiots do that.
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
i think sweet-p is just trying to communicate an article found that explains a very real problem ... namely eminent water shortages ...
... you say "got it", but three posts ago you said
Combating alarmism with ignoramism isn't much of a solution.
As far as what should we do?
I dunno ... i kinda see ALL of this (the oil problem, the people problem, the food problem, the water problem) as part of one giant UNSOLVEABLE problem.
The solution ... and i am dead serious here ... given the assumption that the system is built for failure, will fight tooth and nail to keep running until it is far too late, and can NOT reverse course ... given that assumption ... the solution is to WAIT IT OUT.
What do I mean?
I mean in the next 20 years or so we are goin to see things get so bad that the whole thing will come crashing down ... like a game of JENGA!
What can you do?
You could get involved and try to help in a million different ways, doing a million different things ...
I personally recommend buying a piece of land before it's all bought up, get on the fucker and start collecting seed and grow some of your own shit.
Read about permaculture ... start planting things that help conserve water ... build swales ... get off the grid, because it won't be around much longer ...
I dunno.
What CAN you do?
Like i said there are a million things you can put your efforts towards that probably are productive ...
... at the end of the day, consumerism is on the way out ... i mean petrochemical based consumerism ... cars, mass eletctrical infrastructure, trains planes and trucks, malls, suburbs, fast food, chain restraunts, all that shit will be gone in 50 years ... TOPS ...
This is serious shit people.
You are hearing it on the news now.
They have shows called "the planet in peril" on prime time ... the signs are everywhere ... and if you've been following it since the 60's or 70's or whatever you know it's no bullshit.
I dunno.
What are we supposed to do?
Come up with your own answers, Jlew ...
but don't deny the problem(s).
It's very real. Very SCARY real!
PS -- If you are really stumped on all this, seek out a copy of
What A Way To Go - Life At The End Of Empire
[highly highly highly recommended viewing!]
But don't expect a happy fucking ending.
If I opened it now would you not understand?
Unfortunately, you are probably right. And this isn't just the problem of some poor third world child drinking water from a river filled with ox dung - it's coming to a faucet near you.
Is any one else tired of these overwhelming seemingly unsolvable problems??????
water is a limited recsourse but we are not in danger of it running out anytime soon. I asked what we are supposed to do because there is no logical answer.
WE NEED TO DRINK WATER TO LIVE, WE NEED TO WATER OUR CROPS TO EAT.
I thought you are a realist. this is nothing more then fear mongering at its finest and you are falling right in line.
any suggestion you made are a fucking joke. all you tin hat wearin nut jobs need to relax. the world isnt coming to an end.
The way we are overproducing and overconsumming ressources is not something sustainable. It really isn't a scary thought, it's just that we will have to gradually change our ways.
Lots of things have to actually live in it....thrive in it preferably.
potential collapse of the food chain anyone?!
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
Stating the truth is NOT alarmist.
What is WRONG with you, Jlew?
Yeah, any "suggestion" i made is a "fucking joke"... did you not read the post ... i basicaly said THE CURRENT SITUATION (read: industrialized wealth) WILL COME CRASHING ON IT'S FACE ...
There IS NO SOLUTION for that.
It is out right inequity, and baring use of brute force to supress the entirety of the 2nd and 3rd world... you can NOT SUSTAIN that!
WATER, among many other things is on its way in to the shitter ... what do you want me to do?
tell you it's all fucking roses?
Jeez.
Sorry to "ALARM" you.
:(
Go watch that movie and get back to me.
If I opened it now would you not understand?
"Obama's main opponent in this election on November 4th (was) not John McCain, it (was) ignorance."~Michael Moore
"i'm feeling kinda righteous right now. with my badass motherfuckin' ukulele!"
~ed, 8/7
Desalination Plants are what need to be built
Saudi Arabia proved that salt water which is plentiful is the answer to water shortages
fear abounds everywhere on here today
maybe you should research Desalination, it is a viable option
PEARL JAM~San Antonio, TX. 4~5~03
INCUBUS~Houston, TX. 1~19~07
INCUBUS~Denver, CO. 2~8~07
Lollapalooza~Chicago, IL. 8~5~07
INCUBUS~Austin, TX. 9~3~07
Bonnaroo~Manchester, TN 6~14~08
the oil argument is not a viable argument
we could be off oil so fast it'll make your head spin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvB3PiPBozU
edit: quoted wrong post, sorry
PEARL JAM~San Antonio, TX. 4~5~03
INCUBUS~Houston, TX. 1~19~07
INCUBUS~Denver, CO. 2~8~07
Lollapalooza~Chicago, IL. 8~5~07
INCUBUS~Austin, TX. 9~3~07
Bonnaroo~Manchester, TN 6~14~08
oceans evaporate -> fresh water rain
is covered by this post
***********************
"We've laid the groundwork. It's like planting the seeds. And next year, it's spring." - Nader
***********************
Prepare for tending to your garden, America.
Problem is that we are using/destroying it faster than it can be replaced.
Consumption is a huge problem. I'm not just talking about watering lawns and taking long showers. A tremendous amount of water is used in manufacturing just about anything.
Pollution - We are allowing farmers and industry to pollute the water we do have for our use to the point of being unusable.
Overpopulation - there are too many of us on this planet to be supported by its resources, especially when more people of the world are buying into the consumer lifestyle.
Water privatization - we are (or at least running the risk of) letting companies turn the faucets on and off as their profits demand.
What do I propose we do to fix something so seemingly out of our hands? We do our part little by little.
Have a yard? Please plant a garden or landscape it without water dependent materials - rockeries etc.
Stop buying bottled water, use your tap, with filter if needed.
Take short showers, do FULL loads of laundry and dishes. I know there are ways to reuse gray water from showers, etc. I don't know how that all works, but for those of you with homes, that might be feasible. I hope you can take the time to look into it.
Keep your consumption in check (reduce, reuse, recycle) and buy simple products with minimal packaging. Almost everything manufactured requires water in the process.
Stop eating meat or at least have fewer meat centric meals. We water crops to feed animals for us to later eat. Cut out the middle animal and go straight to the source.
Stop reproducing. If you are at all on the fence about having your own biological child, please consider not having children at all or adopting a child. Fewer people = less consumption.
Thanks!
Edit: Great link from the other thread on the subject: http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?t=272513
***********************
"We've laid the groundwork. It's like planting the seeds. And next year, it's spring." - Nader
***********************
Prepare for tending to your garden, America.
overpopulation is the real problem.