In The News.......

It's the middle of summer and your daughter comes up to you while you're blogging and pulls on your sleeve, "Daddy, why are the leaves falling off the trees?" Irritated, you get up to go look with her and explain the life cycle of leaves, only you stare in shock as the BROWN, dying leaves rain upon your browning lawn, which was perfectly green the day before. You are witnessing a rain of ultra-violent radiation killing your plant life as a major hole in the ozone layer passes over your area. You and your family will notice the sunburn later.

People are lining up on the banks of the river to witness the amazing fluorescent green thing it has become. The river-keeper has been complaining about fertilizer run off from river front properties for years now, and warned that last years' algae bloom was merely a harbinger of worse things to come. You and the other citizens of the River City believe him now, only now this river is dead save a bright green slime that is thriving on the overload of nitrogen. The lawns look nice tho, don't they?

The local business community is up in arms because their employees are having to choose between showing up at work or paying their bills. They have tried car-pools, tried to get the local transit authority to provide realistic transportation alternatives to people who can't afford the $5 a gallon gas prices, but government has been slow to respond. Disneyland is in danger of having to close down altogether; it costs far more to get there than it does to get in. And suddenly Walmart can't seem to offer low, low prices thanks to shipping costs. Exxon and every other Oil company in the world now have more money in the bank than the U.S. Mint.

Development of Southern states in Hurricane Alley has come to a virtual standstill. Not one new housing loan has been approved in the last two years. Politicians keep making noises about the need for affordable wind damage insurance, but all those insurance companies pulled out of these states. Failure of homeowners insurance companies to offer renewals prompted a huge increase in foreclosures until mortgage companies realized that NOBODY could get coverage and backed off till they could figure out how to protect themselves. In the meantime property values have plummeted, and homeowners have begun to think of their homes as HOMES rather than investments.

Using the common sense approach preached by proponents of free market forces but never practiced, the Solar Car company of Methuselah, Tennessee begins mass marketing of a truly practical electric car at prices no higher than your average economy car. Sales are booming as people flock to these dealerships to find a way to get to work that doesn't involve gasoline. By years' end, sheer volume of sales actually brings the company a profit in it's first year of production. Sales by the big three AND foreign juggernauts plummet.

Streets are flooded in major sea-side metropolitan areas as the promised rise in sea level brought on by global warming begins to make it's presence known. The Army Corp of Engineers is overwhelmed by demands by Congress to throw up seawalls to hold back the water. Immigrant Venetians rise to the occasion by having water-taxi service ready to go as the depth of flooding on fifth avenue averages three feet.

You don't have to be psychic to predict that these are the stories you'll be reading in the paper in ten, hell, maybe even five years. I hope you'll come back in ten years to tell me how wrong I was. I really do.