Waiting for the lights to go out

Waiting for the lights to go out - Sunday Times Online

This incredibly bleak and disturbing article by Bryan Appleyard says that our 200 year long streak of progress and prosperity is coming to an end.

"The greatest getting-and-spending spree in the history of the world is about to end. The 200-year boom that gave citizens of the industrial world levels of wealth, health and longevity beyond anything previously known to humanity is threatened on every side. Oil is running out; the climate is changing at a potentially catastrophic rate; wars over scarce resources are brewing; finally, most shocking of all, we don't seem to be having enough ideas about how to fix any of these things.

It's been said before, of course: people are always saying the world will end and it never does. Maybe it won't this time, either. But, frankly, it's not looking good. Almost daily, new evidence is emerging that progress can no longer be taken for granted, that a new Dark Age is lying in wait for ourselves and our children."

He goes on to make a disturbingly convincing case for this view. I'll be posting some more optomistic views later, so don't do anything rash.