Rising oil prices have focused the world's attention on the depletion of oil reserves. But the depletion of underground water resources from overpumping is a far more serious issue. Excessive pumping for irrigation to satisfy food needs today almost guarantees a decline in food production tomorrow.

The foundation is being laid for the emergence of both wind and solar cells as cornerstones of the new energy economy.

We can build an economy that does not destroy its natural support systems, a global community where the basic needs of all the Earth's people are satisfied, and a world that will allow us to think of ourselves as civilized. This is entirely doable.

Our numbers expand, but Earth's natural systems do not.

The throwaway economy that has been evolving over the last half-century is an aberration, now itself headed for the junk heap of history.

No civilization has survived the ongoing destruction of its natural support systems. Nor will ours.

In the Middle East, where populations are growing fast, the world is seeing the first collision between population growth and water supply at the regional level. For the first time in history, grain production is dropping in a geographic region with nothing in sight to arrest the decline. Each day now brings 10,000 more people to feed and less irrigation water with which to feed them.