We face two great existential threats today... nuclear war and climate chaos. Hopefully we can keep those tiny hands off the red button, but there is no guarantee. Global warming is so problematic because of our denial combined with the rush to extract as much profit as possible from the fossil fuel industry before its inevitable collapse. Before we despair, it might be wise to reflect on the advice of the fine historian, Howard Zinn:

“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness."
"What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction."
"And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."

I stole this from the Writers Almanac e-mail from Garrison Keillor

Scarcity of freshwater is one the major crises facing human society today. Food production is the largest consumer of freshwater on the planet. One estimate indicates that farming accounts for 70% of water used today (1).

Once upon a time various bleeding hearts tried to promote the idea that prisons weren't really merely punitive, or shouldn't be at any rate, nor mere retribution. Oh no, they expounded, they should be (and some of the more deluded claimed they actually were) rehabilitative. For a while there were efforts made to actually infuse a tiny slice of rehabilitative endeavors into our jails and prisons.

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Texas country blues guitarist, cousin of Lightnin' Hopkins, Frankie Lee Sims. Enjoy!

Wow! There's a good idea. It's one proposed by Jeff Rubin, economist who wrote the book "The Carbon Bubble."

Agriculture, not Energy, Will Fuel Canada’s Economy in Coming Decades: Experts