Sobering up for a moment.

Something I always wonder about when stagnating *growth rates* are reported as disasters.

A decline in growth rate doesn't mean a decline per se, it just means it grows slower. When you run and you slow down, you don't stop or move backwards, you're still moving forward, just slower. And the longer the distance, the slower they go... a sprinter goes 100 meters, a marathon runner 42,195 meters. So the longer you want your resources to last, the slower you have to go.
Except when you're chased by a lion, of course, then you go as fast as you can and hope your resources last longer than the lion's. But: In a global perspective, we chase each other, using the same source of resources - our planet, essentially competing for who gets to use the last drop of oil and water, the last piece of coal and ore, the last fish and the last tree.

(I think Marx sorta predicted it more than 120 years ago, but you risk being clubbed over the head just mentioning his name.)

"Author Boyé Lafayette De Mente says that the “continuous growth syndrome” that drives the economies of the world is a form of cultural insanity and could destroy civilization as it is known."

And then this report in the news today:

"Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World"

"The report predicts that, the recent economic downturn aside, 'unprecedented global economic growth' will mean that the demand for basic resources such as food, water and oil 'will outstrip easily available supplies' over the next decade.

"As an estimated 1.2 billion people are added to the world population over the next 20 years, the demand for food will rise by 50 percent, the report projects.

"The lack of access to stable water supplies will also worsen due to rapid global urbanization, it says.

"At the moment, 'all current technologies are inadequate for replacing' traditional energy sources 'on the scale needed,' it says."

The Story of Stuff - some facts about our current economic system.

"Shortly after the World War 2, these guys were figuring out how to ramp up the [U.S.] economy. Retailing analyst Victor Lebow articulated the solution that has become the norm for the whole system. He said: “Our enormously productive economy . . . demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption . . . we need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate.”

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I think all these depressing thoughts and facts perfectly justify my crack addiction.

But in the end, all I really need for happiness is some sunshine in my cardboard box. XD