Petey's
Pipeline E-zine
Issue #18
October 31, 2005
Contents
Business
First Editorial
Random Ramblings and Miscellaneous Musings
The Dynamics of Unsustainable Growth
Write Thinking Using Banalities
and Trite Expressions
Business
First (Editorial)
Warning!
If anyone who claims to be a representative of VISA or MasterCard
calls and asks you to supply all or part of a credit card number
for verification purposes, don't give it to them. The pitch
sounds legit, but it's not. It's just the latest scam going
around, and you could find yourself on the hook for hundreds
of dollars.
• • •
Here's
another heads-up, albeit one of the opposite kind. My good friend,
Tom LeBlanc, has finally gotten his Home
Entrepreneurs Web site off the launching pad. Home Entrepreneurs
will be of particular interest (and value) to anyone that has
recently started, or is about to start, a home-based business.
Tom
has resources that will benefit all kinds of home-based businesses,
whether they operate exclusively on-line, entirely off-line,
or blend components of the two. You'll find comprehensive articles,
essential tools and technologies, links to important information
Web sites, and over-the-top ideas that will ignite your imagination
and get your creative engine running smoothly at maximum rpm.
• • •
Because
November is National
Novel Writing Month, I'm posting this issue of Petey's Pipeline
E-zine a week early. During November, I'll be focusing my efforts
on writing a 50,000-word novel. That's 50,000 words in 30 days,
or an average of 1,666.66 words per day. It's a gargantuan task,
considering my usual output.
If
Kendall Summerhawk
returns the interview questionnaire I sent her in time, there'll
be a second November issue (due out November 21). If not, Petey's
Pipeline returns on December 5th. See you later, if not sooner.
Random
Ramblings & Miscellaneous Musings
The Dynamics of Unsustainable Growth
by Phil Hanson
As
population numbers climb to unprecedented levels, their effects
are felt in myriad ways. An expanding population demands more
land, more housing, more food production, more water, more community
services, more social services, more energy, more jobs, and
more schools—more of everything people depend on for
their daily survival.
Unfortunately,
rampant population growth introduces some strange dynamics,
which produce interesting but undesirable results. A domino
effect ripples across the social infrastructure; the growing
population consumes resources at unsustainable rates and brings
unbearable pressures to bear against society's most vital underpinnings.
Because
everything is in some way connected to everything else, the
domino effect has widespread implications; it touches every
part of the economy, impacts every part of the environment,
draws down every natural resource, and strains government's
taxpayer-funded social safety net to the breaking point.
The
need for increased production, to accommodate a growing population,
results in more automation in order to keep up with growing
demand, causing a net loss of jobs relative to the total population.
At the same time, an overabundance of workers competing for
available jobs drives down wages. These are formulas that virtually
guarantee poverty for ever-larger numbers of people.
Automation
requires greater inputs of energy, driving up demand; increased
demand causes spot shortages and drives up energy prices. New
housing to meet the needs of a growing population, more cars,
more energy-consuming devices—all these things serve to
raise energy prices by placing more demand on available energy
resources. Of course, as energy prices go up, the costs of manufacturing
and delivering consumer goods to the marketplace go up, too,
causing a corresponding rise in wholesale and retail prices.
Energy
companies build more dams for hydroelectric power, burn more
fossil fuels to generate electricity, design and construct new
nuclear facilities, and threaten to disrupt a pristine environment
for a negligible amount of oil, all for the sake of satisfying
society's insatiable hunger for energy. The build more, produce
more, consume more mentality puts at risk things of real value—native
salmon, air quality, arctic wildlife, the environment, the well
being of all living things—for the sake of money, which
declines in value with every round of inflation.
• • •
To
meet the housing needs of a larger population, growth boundaries
expand outward from city centers, consuming vast quantities
of productive farmland, forcing farmers onto marginal, less
productive ground. At a time when farmers need to be producing
more to feed the growing population, they're only able to produce
less. They resort to unsustainable growing practices to make
up for the shortfall.
Higher
fuel costs and expensive petrochemical fertilizers drive up
food prices, so Americans have come to rely on vast quantities
of cheaper imported food. But imported foods need to be transported
greater distances, further pushing up the demand for transportation
fuels. America's dependence on foreign oil and imported food
threatens America's access to both energy and food.
Building
new houses to satisfy demand forces housing costs up. Land prices
rise, building materials costs go up, new homes cost more, used
homes cost more, and the American dream of owning a home becomes
a nightmare of frustration for the growing number of working
Americans who are left behind. For many people, living in the
communities where they work is a financial impossibility. Nor
is it economically feasible for them to commute longer distances
between home and work due to higher gas prices.
With
real wages stagnant or declining and the fringe benefits that
often accompanied them on the verge of extinction, the working
class now finds itself caught up in a race to the bottom. While
the wealthy agonize over whether to buy a new Hummer or a Dodge
Viper (or, maybe, one of each), the marginalized—the disenfranchised—agonize
over more practical matters; pay the rent or pay the utilities,
pay the car insurance or buy gas for the car, pay for the kids'
dental care or buy groceries so the kids can eat.
A
growing population needs more of everything. More often than
not, human wants trump human needs. Don't need that second home,
want that second home. Don't need that SUV, want
that SUV. Don't need to take that trip, want to take
that trip. The more wasteful and destructive something is, the
more those who can afford it feel entitled to buy it.
Growing
communities need more water, more electricity, more firefighters,
more police, more healthcare facilities, more schools, more
social services, more government. The costs for these things
climb inexorably higher while the tax base that supports them
continues to erode.
Until
we're ready to get serious about addressing the root cause of
society's problems, all of the problems that arise from it will
continue unabated. Unless the global community acts, soon, to
voluntarily control world population growth, forces beyond anyone's
control will do that job for us. We'll see more global climate
changes, more natural disasters, more hunger and deprivation,
more homeless people, more nations going to war to secure their
"fair share" of whatever vital natural resources remain.
Reversing
population growth doesn't have to be a painful, frightening
ordeal. There are ways to achieve that goal without resorting
to violence and mass murder. But a failure of governments, organizations
and individuals to take immediate steps to halt the explosive
growth of human population on this planet, through peaceful
means, can only result in a global catastrophe of unimaginable
intensity and destruction.
Environmental
damage and global climate changes create feedback loops where
each contributes to the severity of the other. Changing weather
patterns cause too much rain in some areas, not enough in others,
leading to flooding or droughts, landslides, wind and water
erosion, and failed crops. Wildlife migration patterns change.
Glacial ice packs melt, causing ocean levels to rise, which
in turn magnify the intensity of storm surges and seismic sea
waves caused by offshore earthquakes.
When
you add factors like famines, severe water shortages, global
pandemics, collapsing social support systems, the likelihood
of global war and an intensifying climate of fear together,
you have a very real potential for global disaster.
For
damned sure, before you can avert a disaster, you have to be
willing to admit that the potential for disaster exists. If
you wait until disaster strikes, it's too late.
Copyright
© 2005 by Phil Hanson
All rights reserved.
Write
Thinking
Using
Banalities and Trite Expressions
If
you must use banalities—those trite-but-ever-convenient
expressions that substitute for imagination—please have
the decency to get them right. Just because you're not the brightest
bulb on the marquee doesn't mean you have to advertise it.
Below
are some of the more common errors that are making their way
around the Web.
Wrong:
" . . . tow the line . . . "
Right: " . . . toe the line . . . "
Wrong:
" . . . peak your interest . . . "
Right: " . . . pique your interest . . . "
Wrong:
" . . . sewing wild oats . . . "
Right: " . . . sowing wild oats . . . "
Wrong:
" . . . piece of mind . . . "
Right: " . . . peace of mind . . . "
Wrong:
" . . . a peace of my mind . . . "
Right: " . . . a piece of my mind . . . "
There!
I've given you a piece of my mind. Peace!
Copyright
© 2005 by Phil Hanson
All rights reserved.
