vetusfirma wrote:Old saying: “If rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it“. Oil depletion is inevitable. If you start using any finite resource, it will be depleted. So relax and enjoy it. Won’t matter what you do, won’t matter what thousands do, won’t matter what millions do, save or waste, it won’t matter. OIL WILL BE DEPELETED. It is not a punishment, it is not a crime, it just IS.
Pops wrote:Not gonna happen Mr. Bill as you well know.
My best offering is:
Disassociate business from government.
gnm wrote:Not gonna happen Pops as you well know....
Dreamtwister wrote:Unfortunately, the only viable solution is so repugnant that even the hardest of hardcore among us would have trouble sleeping at night:
Let. Them. Starve.
Pretorian wrote:wow to hear something like that from an old member... with 1800+ posts.. Where you've been all this time? Board Kiosk?
However, the wood stove, for example. As pstarr is apt to point out such solutions work for the individual, but they are not scalable, and they are certainly not without their negative side effects.
MrBill wrote:Dave, I am not criticizing you or your suggestion. Just pointing out that there are very few simple solutions that are scalable and portable.
davep wrote:MrBill wrote:Dave, I am not criticizing you or your suggestion. Just pointing out that there are very few simple solutions that are scalable and portable.
No problem. I probably came across a bit terse, as I had only had one coffee at that point.
However, I do think that my suggestion could be part of a bigger solution set. There is no single elegant simple solution, but a myriad of interconnected solutions (IMO).
It powered the Green Revolution and helped save millions from starvation, but now one of the most important tools on the farm is being priced out of reach for many of the world's growers.
With food prices soaring and stocks thinning, the world is in need of bumper harvests but once one of most bountiful of commodities, fertilizer, is becoming scarce and expensive.
It's estimated that one third of the protein consumed by humans is a result of fertilizer. So high prices and spot shortages are yet another stress on the world's ailing food system.
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The rising price is a burden on rich and poor farmers alike as they represent a big investment upfront, despite high world prices for crops. If all goes well, a farmer can earn $3 for every $1 invested in fertilizer.
-- Pakistan's first civilian government since a 1999 army coup may expand food and power subsidies as the fastest inflation in at least 25 years erodes growth.
Increased government spending on populist measures may blow out the budget deficit to as much as 7.5 percent of gross domestic product, the widest in Asia, said Zainab Jabbar, an analyst at IGI Securities in Karachi. Finance minister Naveed Qamar, appointed less than five weeks ago, is due to present the 2008-09 budget in Islamabad on June 11.
``All indications are that political considerations will dominate fiscal policy,'' Jabbar said. ``Confusion over dates and retractions of announcements are redolent of instability within the political and fiscal framework.''
Pakistan's coalition government has changed the date for its budget two times in the past six days, giving no reasons for the delays. Confusion over who is managing the $146 billion economy may deter much-needed foreign investment, which has already fallen this fiscal year for the first time since at least 2004.
Moody's Investors Service on May 21 cut Pakistan's credit rating for the first time in nine years, citing ``growing economic imbalances and renewed political difficulties.'' Standard & Poor's also reduced its rating on May 15, making it more costly for Pakistan to finance its budget gap.
In a year when global harvests need to be excellent to ease the threat of pervasive food shortages, evidence is mounting that they will be average at best. Some farmers are starting to fear disaster.
American corn and soybean farmers are suffering from too much rain, while Australian wheat farmers have been plagued by drought.
"The planting has gotten off to a poor start," said Bill Nelson, a Wachovia grains analyst. "The anxiety level is increasing."
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Last winter, as the full scope of the global food crisis became clear, commodity prices doubled or tripled, provoking grumbling in America, riots in two dozen countries and the specter of greatly increased malnutrition.
As the world clamors for more corn, wheat, soybeans and rice, farmers are trying to meet the challenge. Millions of acres are coming back into production in Europe. In Asia, planting two or three crops in a single year is becoming more common.
(continued)
The world wheat harvest is forecast to rise more than 8 percent this year, thanks to better weather and more acreage under cultivation. But even this bright spot is tentative. Australia was expected to emerge from a two-year drought, but that prediction is looking somewhat doubtful.
With the exception of southwestern Australia and a small corner of southeastern Australia, little rain has fallen in recent months. Many wheat farmers have been unable to plant at all, said Bob Iffla, the chairman of the country's Wheat Growers Association.
As a result, the harvest is likely to be below average: 5 million to 15 million tons of wheat available for export, compared with 17 million or 18 million tons in an average year.
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