I got depressed reading a recent report on the BBC (which has since been edited to completely change the focus, and no longer contains the depressing quotation). I was even more depressed reading this BBC report.

The first report contained a statement that Russia feels that European gas consumption is growing too slowly. I am depressed because the world is supposedly focusing its efforts on reducing the use of fossil fuels to limit the amount of global warming. The situation is depressing because it seems that Europe's gas consumption is still growing, because of the assumption by Russia that it will continue to do so, and the fact that Russia seems happy to continue to supply any growth in consumption, irrespective of any environmental imperatives to not do so.

The second story describes the efforts to find and exploit new oil reserves in Somalia.

As I discussed in this posting, we already have more fossil fuel reserves than we can afford to burn if we are to avoid catastrophic environmental consequences, yet we continue to explore and exploit more. A few generations from now, the survivors of our species will look back on this generation and ask "how could they be so stupid and selfish?". Do you have an answer for them?