It has been a little longer than it should.

 My last post was back in early March.  It is now half way through April and I am getting around to this blog.  Blame it on the wonderful North Texas spring weather.  It has been a fine 6 weeks to be outside.  Weather has been mostly dry and 70's.  Definitely better than freezing February and 100 degree July and August.  As I said it is mid April and rain has begun and a cold front has dropped temperatures into the 50's and 60's.  So a good time to write.  I guess you could say I am a foul weather writer.

The major issue was last week when temperatures hit the mid 80's and our power company warned of rolling blackouts.  Really it is only mid 80's how are we going to handle the triple digits in the actual summer.  The reason given for the near outage was that a number of plants were offline for maintenance.  Apparently this is the time of year they are required to do maintenance.  Good thing we were able to get power from Mexico or we would have had rolling blackouts.  It only rose above 80 for a few hours in the afternoon.  Was air conditioning really that necessary?  Why not take the opportunity to get used to the upcoming heat of the summer.

I guess that is where many of my thoughts about what to write about come from.  Our desires, our needs and our wants.  I guess then it is an age old question in the market place.  Does it all start with our need for something and the market fills that need, or does the market create the desire and fulfill it?  I am sure both are true.  At this point in time we need vaccines and so the need is being fulfilled.  Governments gave companies hundreds of millions of dollars to develop vaccines at breakneck speeds so the an important need could be addressed.

Previous blog detailed what I am looking for.  A way to understand how my economic choices affect the world.  I think the 3 operative words would be fair, equitable and sustainable.  The last one is the first one I will look at.  Doing a quick google search here is a list of resources that could possibly disappear in the next 100 years (or so)

1.) Water (fresh drinkable water) we may only have a few years left)

2.) Oil from proven reserves 30 - 40 years

3.) Natural gas 50 - 60 years

4.) Phosphorus (used in fertilizer) 100 years

5.) Coal 150 years

6.) Rare earth elements mostly controlled by China

These do come from an older article https://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2011/oct/31/six-natural-resources-population

In spite of the age of the article there is no denying that one day the oil will be used up. Then what will our vehicles run on?  I guess coal fired electrical plants will be with us for a little longer but eventually that will run out as well.  There is no real way to fully prove these numbers.  So the time frame is debatable.  but in my own little way I would like to leave a little something for my grandchildren.