Thanks JC, nice restatement of the root of many problems, think you're overcautious on oil peak, 40% of human nitrogen from fertiliser is a stunning statistic, any ref?
Lobbying government and improving policy is worthwhile, but far from only action to take. Anybody still relying on government to look after their basic needs needs their head examined..

'Hope is something we supply for ourselves by demonstrating to ourselves that we are capable of meeting the challenges of our time.' JH Kunstler

Go local folks, start thinking beyond petroleum, and beyond cheap supermarket abundance, and beyond all economic rationalism. Cos if we don't, and long before government develops a clue, we will be toast

Why must growth always be the target of Hutu enviromentalism campaigns here in Rwanda? Why are we not trying instead to actually make a good human achivement and be able to use technology and intelligence to work around these obstacles to growth rather than trying to cripple our great Rwandan civilization continuously?

Rwanda here has a great oppourtunity to lead the world in what Rwanda will one day be a great market of thinkers and innovation but oh no once again Hutus who are as blind as disguised-foreigners wish to simply have no consideration.

What are we Tutsis to do?

PS therin lies the beginning of the end of Australian society under the pressures of PEAKOIL.

Ya gonna need a bigger Planet!

25 million Australians ..

went into that post PEAKOIL thermodynamic-chaos-year of 2025 --
and ten thousand and 36 got out, along with the fittest 2billion thugs and murderers across the globe. Yeah.

Two thousand and twenty five.

June the 29th.

(pause)

Anyway, we prevented anyone building the nuclear reactors that could have saved us.

Then the Asian neighbours came and took all the Uranium we sat on.

Whilst not disagreeing with the author and other posters about the absurdity of continual growth, a rational approach should examine why it is universally pursued by just about every government on the planet.

It is not hard to work out why. All we need to do is to remember that the last period when we had a sustained period without growth was called the Great Depression. Economic growth is the only method that has been devised to maintain low levels of unemployment and inflation in the capitalist system. All other systems have been even worse, involving things such as the Berlin Wall, total economic collapse, and worse.

It is also remembering the famous phrase of John Maynard Keynes, who said that we are only interested in the short term because in the long term we are dead.

Coupled with the current inexorable increase in world population, which is supported by every leader from George Bush to Osama Bin Laden, we are headed for very turbulent times, and should give thanks that we are out of the mainstream and may survive in our isolated corner of the world.

Hey Demos!
well put.
There are many undemocratic things about our system of government; the two that really bug me are:
1 Compulsory preferences
2. No proportional representation.
Because of compulsory preferences, and our 'two party preferred' system, no matter who you vote for, your vote will eventually be given to either a coalition or a labor politician.
And because of no proportional representation, the Greens, for example, could receive 30% of the primary vote and yet not get a single seat.
Also, it is undemocratic for parties to 'allocate' preferences. And it is insulting for people to hand out 'how to vote cards'.
I write: "I want proportional representation" on my forms.

It's a little early for a wake yet folks!

Not a word for the willingness of the population to modify their behaviour when presented with a well argued case eg domestic water consumption in Sydney

Not a word about human ingenuity and future technology.

Not a word about mankind's goodwill.

No attempt to educate- just a whine.

Coulter could not sell ice in the Simpson Desert.

This man would not know economics if it bit him on the bum. A dollar spent on, for instance, solar power is still a dollar spent and still counts as GDP and growth.

Negative and depressing and a backward vision for sure.