So the Sahara desert is being heavily irrigated (more) to allow farming. There are actually large aquifers under the desert, but with rainfall of less than an inch a year, it's taken thousands of years to build them up. Which means that escalating irrigation projects will eventually end with a catastrophic drought — the water pumped out of deep aquifers like this doesn't just flow back down, it evaporates and is blown out over the ocean, and does not return.
Simultaneously, as the temperature of the planet rises, rainfall increases along the southern border of the Sahara, causing the Sahara to green as well. Now, don't go thinking this is a good thing — the dust storms that blow across the Sahara pick up nutrient rich soil and dump it in and over the Western Atlantic (more). This has a two part effect. First, it buffers and stabilizes the atmosphere over the ocean, slowing down storm formation, and second, it feeds the plankton. So in simple terms, things slowly get better for a couple decades, and then collapse catastrophically over a couple years. Once we get to that tipping point there is no turning back. I've written about this in detail in previous entries, but plankton absorbs CO2, reducing global warming and keeping our atmosphere breathable.
The ocean is dying.
Plankton has dropped 25% in the last twenty years. Coral has declined 80%. It goes on and on. Read The Starving Ocean for good updates and information on this subject. Not that the land isn't dying as well (more), but ocean is what ultimately keeps this planet alive.
Let's distract ourselves with asinine behavior now.
Of course, back in America we've got Bush fighting hard to legalize “extraordinary rendition” or, in simple terms, torture (more). Thanks to Bush's brilliant “abstinence first” sex education policies, abortion rates are way up over the past four years, ending a ten year decline (more). Remember, a vote for Bush is a vote for more abortions. Alternately, if Bush gets his way and bans abortion, a vote for Bush is a vote for child abuse as America is flooded with unwanted babies.
Back in Iraq, the war has now spread to Syria as well (more), attacks on US troops continue in the “green zone” (more), to say nothing of the slightly less green areas like Falluja, currently being blasted by US warplanes (more) and US soldiers keep dying daily (more). You know what, this is stupid and this is wrong. Everything I've written about in this entry is inexcusable, and unless you're one of the 0.1% that's actually profiting from it, supporting it is insanity. But still, the world population blindly follows their wealthy rulers down these paths.
Of course, the simple fact that basically no one reading this even wants to bother becoming a vegan — the single easiest way you can make a significant positive impact on the enviornment (more) and much more — suggests to me that very few people care enough about their own lives to fix them, as long as they get to eat a Big Mac while their souls and their future are being washed down the drain.
