Many may find it odd that this essay of John’s - with which, btw, I concur entirely - doesn’t fill me with gloom; doesn’t even dent my long-term, large-scale optimism about life on Earth, and our - hom-sap’s - continued presence in it for a substantial period yet.
But that notwithstanding, anyone with a sense of their own preservation, and especially the preservation of their nearest and dearest, particularly the rising grand-children’s generation, needs to be starkly aware of these realities. Particularly right now, as the crises are coming home to roost big-time over the next few years, and a lot of people, if they remain feckless enough about urgent top-priority preparation, are going to find their lives getting seriously burned over the near future; also the lives of those younger people about whom they care, if they too remain blithely unaware of these pressing issues.
Btw, my turf-grown potatoes (no dig, ground kept good for growing food by a combination of periodic clipping back of volunteers, and mulching round the tater plants themselves) are looking very good after yesterday’s downpour: warm, damp soil, and springing haulms appearing everywhere; fair number of hash plants springing nicely too - medicine… 
