That Other Budget Deficit

We're killing ourselves, and we couldn't care less.

The human race is living beyond its means. A report backed by 1,360 scientists from 95 countries -- some of them world leaders in their fields -- Wednesday warns that the almost two-thirds of the natural machinery that supports life on Earth is being degraded by human pressure.
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Because of human demand for food, fresh water, timber, fiber and fuel, more land has been claimed for agriculture in the last 60 years than in the 18th and 19th centuries combined.

An estimated 24 percent of the Earth's land surface is now cultivated.

Water withdrawals from lakes and rivers have doubled in the last 40 years. Humans now use between 40 percent and 50 percent of all available freshwater running off the land.

At least a quarter of all fish stocks are overharvested. In some areas, the catch is now less than a hundredth of that before industrial fishing.

Since 1980, about 35 percent of mangroves have been lost, 20 percent of the world's coral reefs have been destroyed and another 20 percent badly degraded.

Deforestation and other changes could increase the risks of malaria and cholera, and open the way for new and so far unknown diseases to emerge.

In 1997, a team of biologists and economists tried to put a value on the "business services" provided by nature - the free pollination of crops, the air conditioning provided by wild plants, the recycling of nutrients by the oceans. They came up with an estimate of $33 trillion, almost twice the global gross national product for that year. But after what Wednesday's report, "Millennium Ecosystem Assessment," calls "an unprecedented period of spending Earth's natural bounty," it is time to check the accounts.
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Flow from rivers has been reduced dramatically. For parts of the year, the Yellow River in China, the Nile in Africa and the Colorado in North America dry up before they reach the ocean. An estimated 90 percent of the total weight of the ocean's large predators -- tuna, swordfish and sharks -- has disappeared in recent years. An estimated 12 percent of bird species, 25 percent of mammals and more than 30 percent of all amphibians are threatened with extinction within the next century. Some of them are threatened by invaders.

The Baltic Sea is now home to 100 creatures from other parts of the world, a third of them native to the Great Lakes of America. Conversely, a third of the 170 alien species in the Great Lakes are originally from the Baltic. Invaders can make dramatic changes: The arrival of the American comb jellyfish in the Black Sea led to the destruction of 26 commercially important stocks of fish. Global warming and climate change could make it increasingly difficult for surviving species to adapt.

It's just a matter of time, folks. Even the Pentagon agrees. But, go ahead, get yourself another Hummer. You've had a rough year. Vote for your senator who supports subsidies for agribusiness, as long as he's keeping those faggots outta your face. Fuck the next generation - those lazy nogoodniks...