GooberMcNutly wrote:

...as it hits the windshield? How lonely it is...

This has been in the back of mind since I read this earlier today. It's quite disturbing. I think we're in the process of widespread environmental collapse. First it was the bees. Now the other bugs. Obviously, the effects will cascade through the species since it's all one big interrelated chain of life.

I hope when we realize how much strain we've put on the environment from a whole host of interrelated factors (toxins, overfishing, air and water pollution, global warming, habitat destruction) that we have enough time left to avoid a complete collapse. I'm not optimistic myself.

We won't kill off life, certainly. And the planet will bounce back in some fashion -- probably very quickly; life is remarkably tenacious. But I think our "civilization" may well collapse under the strain. I think the odds of that last part are near certainly.

The scariest articles I've read over the last few years concern the people who say that they've crossed the ocean in small boats recently, and unlike in past trips, they don't see anything alive out there any longer. No birds. Few fish. Just quiet empty water.

The stock market, however, was up again today. So there's that.

-2.5% p/yr