Hi Bruce,
Okay, I fixed that link... thanks for the heads-up!
RE
The Coming Plague - My partner's reading that right now, so I'm getting a vicarious 2nd read. Once into it, it's pretty gripping stuff. Provides a lot of subtext and background to today's headlines.
One of the darkly fascinating aspects is how each and every crisis we face has not only articulated in advance as a danger, but that solutions were to be had at the time they were largely ignored. By the time it's full blown, it's often too late. Far from crazies on the Doomer edge, those who responsibly call us to action have public voice and are easy to identify by the quality of their data and conclusions. Ignoring them individually, we face a perfect storm.
In terms of The Coming Plague, seeing deep CDC, FDA, HUD and EPA cuts in the US, and threatened withdrawal of support for WHO, especially after decades of reductions doesn't bode well for future responses. I can appreciate a desire to reduce red tape and increase efficiency, but...
RE the banner on my TEOTWAWKI blog - I started the blog several years ago, when those curves (business-as-usual model from
Limits to Growth) were just beginning to deviate from the 'cornucopian' trajectory (unlimited growth). Now, several years down the road, we are seeing excellent correspondence for top-of-the-curve plateaus, even if reporting bodies are not doctoring the numbers. Should that high correspondence continue, it appears to me we are very near a tipping-point toward downward curves. The downside was very conservatively estimated (no social disorders, disease, war, etc., factored in), and those curves may well be considerably more abrupt.
If this is so, our personal assimilation and preservation of The Knowledge for the future is a project whose time is fleeting.
Time for my frowny face!
Dave Z