Canary Sing To Me - part the third

If you look around widely enough, and often enough, you can spot the next Canary in the coal mine.

It's been widely believed that economic growth is a product of reproduction of humans. The tribe that begets the most wins. For decades, likely from the start, it's been an article of faith amongst Israel's right-wing tribe. Today's NYT reports

Sluggish birthrates among secular Israelis, coupled with high rates among the religious, who tend to lean right, have also gradually tipped the balance of voter demographics.

What in the USofA equates to: the great unwashed in the empty places out-breed the educated city dwellers. The Israeli problem has been documented for decades. No solution has been identified.

Oddly, or not, within the same pages is a report that the Jordan river is nearly dry.

Population growth, diminished water supplies and climate change have all taken their toll, while damaged and inefficient infrastructure and the considerable challenges posed by Jordan's geography and topography have only made things worse. The resulting shortages serve as a warning of what the future might hold for the region and the world beyond it.

Gee?? Ya think. In a moment of unpleasant serendipity, this week carried the obit of an anti-growth (population growth) economist.

And, of course, there were recent reports (I didn't follow past the headlines) that 'foreign' owned farms are harvesting water from our desertifying Southwest and shipping it back home. Where's MAGA when you really need it?

Out screwing your neighbor/enemy was a valid technique to win wars. More bodies, more boys, more soldiers, more wins. 2,000 and 3,000 years ago, that plan didn't run up against limited resources the way we have it today. At 2,000 years ago ~170 million all told. At 3,000 years ago ~40 million. Admittedly, 'resources' back then didn't encompass, for instance, petrochemical fertilizers and diesel powered tractors or Abrams tanks. Still, out fucking your enemy could be effective.

About time we figured out how to survive a depleting Mother Earth. We've only got the one, and there's not another one within the distance of chemical rockets. May be none anywhere. "The Martian" was a movie, not a plan.