Common sense

A report in New Scientist states that at a cost of $24 million and with the help of 1300 scientists in 95 countries, they have published the first ever global inventory, the overwhelming conclusion of which is: we are living way beyond our means.

"According to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), approximately 60 per cent of the planet's "ecosystem services" - natural products and processes that support life, such as water purification - are being degraded or used unsustainably. What is more, this degradation increases the risk of abrupt and drastic changes, such as climate shifts and the collapse of fisheries."

And they needed to spend all that money and employ the services of all those people to tell them that! Just look around and use a bit of commonsense and you come to the same conclusion for substantially less money. I think I should offer my services next time if they want to throw money away (which when you think about it only exacerbated the problem - more trees chopped down to make the notes, more deposits mined to mint the coins.)

On another note, I have withdrawn a short story that was previously accepted for an anthology. I didn't enjoy taking it out, but after what I felt was less than helpful co-operation by the editor, I decided to withdraw my submission.