The Outlook is Bright

The outlook is bright

• Drought will become more prevalent globally.
• At least 36 U.S. states expect to face water shortages within five years.
• Water conditions worldwide are predicted to become worse.
• By the 2020’s up to 250 million people in Africa may lose access to clean water.
• Twenty to thirty percent of the world’s plant and animal species are on the brink of extinction.
• There has been a four-fold increase in the number of forest fires.
• There has been a six-fold expansion of acres burned in the United States by fire.
• Insect infestations have killed millions of acres of forests in North America.
• Flooding by rising sea levels may put hundreds of millions of people at risk.
• Melting arctic ice could release enough methane to create a runaway greenhouse effect.
• Financially, during 2008 global stock markets have lost half their value.
• Every major asset class – stocks, real estate, commodities, even high-yield bonds – has suffered double digit percentage losses.
• Over $30 trillion of paper wealth has been destroyed worldwide.
• Net worth of Americans declined by $2.8 trillion, or 4.7%, in the third quarter of 2008.

It would be easy to list more points - unemployment, foreclosures, etc. In short, the world is in pain.



Specialists talk in terms of economic cycles – of how long this recession will last and the fear that it may become a depression.

Psychically, it is already a depression. The world is a depressing place. Either people are suffering in the most tangible ways, or they are using the buffer of wealth and privilege to sedate themselves away from reality.

And reality is becoming increasingly evident. Coming into stark relief is a human culture not only self-destructive, but so insane as to make its own environment unlivable. Humanity is like a sick person who vomits and defecates in his bed.

But the outlook is bright. When pain becomes unbearable, there is more motivation to change.