June 18

 Good morning on what is predicted to be another 90+ day. Several herbs need to be trimmed but I am waiting for the weekend when the temperatures will be in the high 70s or low 80s to do that. I hope I don't have to water today. I will check in a couple of hours when the sun starts to rise and I have more light. The forecast predicts scattered thunderstorms for this morning. Hope they aren't as bad as the Monday night storms when I thought I heard hail and we were under a tornado watch from Monday night through Tuesday night.

Weather certainly has been newsworthy. The weather maps show much of the country in sweltering and dangerous heat. Yellow Stone Park is closed because of floods due to the melting of an unseasonal heavy snow and heavy rains. The southwest is still in a drought described as the worst in 1200 years. Then I read this in the news feeds this morning. The flooding at the Abbott plant producing baby formula will mean an extensive clean up and the baby formula shortage will be around for much longer. I don't know about anyone else but something doesn't smell right about part of the statement from the company spokesman. He said that Abbott's production actually exceeds its output before the recall and other producers have also ramped up production over their 2021 levels. He claimed that the stocks actually exceed demand. But the grocery shelves are still empty (or nearly so) and the statistics indicate 24% are out of stock.

John Michael Greer posted on the Twilight of Empire--the American Empire.

I saw this article by Paul Krugman yesterday but hadn't read it completely. It is almost impossible to think of Utah without the Great Salt Lake but that might be what we will see sooner than later. Think it can't happen? Look up the Aral Sea (mentioned in Krugman's article) which was one the fourth largest lake in the world. Kazakstan has implemented efforts to bring the lake back with some success but it won't be what it once was any time soon.

Here is an interesting article on a "demographic" problem Russia is facing. Since 1993 the population has contracted with a brief couple of years when it actually grew until COVID and the Ukrainian war reversed the process. Russia is one of several countries experiencing an actual population contraction--China and Japan among others. Statista lists here the 20 countries with the highest population growth. All but 2 are African and none are among the "advanced" economies. World Population Review lists the 20 countries with the steepest declines in population (as of 2021) all but 2 (Japan and Cuba) are European. I have seen a lot of articles over the last decade concerning the economic problems declining (or even stagnant) populations much of which involves stagnating or declining economies.