Readings

"Mankind made a Faustian bargain as soon as he invented his first technologies, including the bow and arrow. It was then that human beings, instead of limiting their birth rate to keep their population in step with natural resources, decided instead to multiply unchecked. Then they increased the food supply to support this growth by manipulating those resources, inventing ever newer and more complex technologies to do so.... The end result of a totally efficient technological exploitation of Nature would be a lifeless desert: all natural capital would be exhausted, having been devoured by the mills of production, and the resulting debt to Nature would be infinite. But long before then, payback time will come for Mankind." - The Spirit of Earth Day Past talking about limits to our voracious consumptive practices to Scrooge 'Nouveau' McDuck (a postmodern Ayn Rand capitalist)

- from a book the is apt for the times - a discussion of debt titled Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth by Margaret Atwood