Rebecca and I had a great three-week vacation. We spent many hours chatting in the car, and several times I talked at length about what where I think the world is heading. It isn't pretty.
When I arrived back home, my thoughts jelled after reading this article <https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2016-08-03/ending-endless-war> by Andrew Bracevich in Foreign Affairs. Highly recommended. Bracevich is a well-respected commentator, and I agree with what he says. Alas, he is talking to the wind. There is no real constituency for what he is saying in the military-industrial-congressional complex. His reasonable ideas will almost certainly be ignored. Instead, we will have the usual absurd discussion about how much of GDP to spend on "Defense", as if that could replace discussions about what a military is for. It's an frustrating situation. I feel like screaming. It gets worse. I expect CO2 emissions to continue their straight-line upward course, despite new clean technologies and heaps of international agreements. Yes, increasing amounts of clean (or cleaner) energy will be generated, but that does not mean that CO2 emissions will decline. Think about that for a moment. The results are likely to end civilization as we know it within a few decades. Global warming will destroy agricultural capacity. There will be no getting it back. The consequence will be unbearable pressure on our societies. The number of failed states is increasing. I expect to see more and more. Our political system is already on the brink of failure. And it gets even worse. I expect the ongoing sixth mass extinction to continue, possibly even at a greater pace, given our increasing population. At some uncertain point, this will destroy our ability to live on this planet. That is, the human race will go extinct. We are truly living on the brink. The world is full of people who understand the danger, but offer preposterously inadequate remedies. Instead, I prefer Elizabeth Kolbert's <http://www.newyorker.com/contributors/elizabeth-kolbert> approach: refrain from comforting nonsense of the "10 things you can do to save the world" variety. There appears to be no way to alter how billions of people are organized. As a result, millions of people may see the ongoing and oncoming disaster, but we are all helpless. This is the world that I see. I would love to be wrong, but I see little contrary evidence. And I see no way to make any real difference about either global warming or mass extinction. Me talking to the wind has no chance. As a result, in spite of my feelings that Leo is an utterly insignificant piece of the big picture, working on Leo seems like the best that I can do in the circumstances. I'll be focusing on new directions for Leo in the coming months. These will be projects that can be done in a year or less. Most will involve closer cooperation between Leo and other tools. Your comments, please, Amigos. Edward -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "leo-editor" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/leo-editor. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
