I should preface the following post with the warning that I'm not feeling terribly good about the state of the world, lately. I mean, I've been concerned about this planet and the creatures on it for quite some time, so this is kind of nothing new. But between Bioneers, and the good dose of reading I've been doing lately, I'm nearing overload. I mean, to the point where I've started thinking that I can't bring myself to have children, because I really don't think there's going to be a livable world for them to grow up in. I reserve the right to change my mind on that (since my biological mothering instinct runs pretty deep and it might win out in the end), but let's not kid ourselves: we are facing some serious challenges here on our precious planet, and there's reason to suspect that we might not get our shit together in time to turn things around.

So on that cheery note, may I invite you to check out Jim Kunstler, author of The Long Emergency and one of the foremost thinkers in the whole "Peak Oil" discussion. His blog is called "Clusterfuck Nation", and its full of thoughtful commentary on the pickle we're in. If you haven't started considering what happens when and while we run out of oil... go have a read. Be warned – it ain't cheery.

One good highlight below, from Winners and Losers:

We've done a lousy job of preparing ourselves to live differently. In fact, the whole thrust of American politics along the whole spectrum has been to keep the current racket going. This is why the only broad discussion now occurring over our energy problems is focused to the point of neurotic obsession with keeping the cars running by other means at all costs. This is true on left as well as the right. The left is lost in raptures of driving around in cars fueled by used french-fry oil. The right is lost in raptures of executive pay packages for retiring oil company executives. We are putting no thought, meanwhile, into how we will grow our food in an energy-scarce future, how we will conduct manufacturing and trade, or how we will heat all the McHouses.

(Note: Now that I'm hooked up with NetNewsWire, I think my stalking of RSS feeds is going to increase dramatically – for better or for worse! – and probably my blog posting frequency along with it. I've spent a good chunk of this cross country flight (thankfully on a much roomier plane than last time) reading through feeds that I have been subscribed to for ages in Bloglines, but *never* got around to reading online.)