So Elizabeth Kolbert's recent 3-parter in The New Yorker on global warming was pretty frightening, if also a really great read (those of you who haven't read it can find the first part here). And then I started reading about Peak Oil over at Ianqui's blog, and especially at Life After the Oil Crash--and that COMPLETELY scared the shit out of me. I mean, high gas prices? Whatever. I don't have a car anyway. Severe economic depression? Worrying, to be sure, but bearable. Complete collapse of civilization, within a single generation? Hm. Now you've got my attention.

Anyway, this morning I decided to sign up for green power, by way of doing something minimally constructive, and it was easy as pie. A division of my local energy company gives consumers the option of receiving a mix of 75% hydro and 25% solar energy, rather than energy from non-renewable and carbon-dioxide-emitting sources--and for barely anything more than the regular rate (in fact, since you commit to a year-long contract, you could conceivably pay even LESS, since you wouldn't be subject to the usual monthly price fluctuations). Anyone's who's interested should check out Ianqui's much better explanation for how this works; she also has links, in both the post and the comments section, to the appropriate providers in a number of U.S. cities and regions.

So that was my good deed of the day (or who knows? maybe the month). Got up very late, as up until 2.30 a.m. forcing myself to crank out the three pages. They were kinda cheat-y pages (lots of long quotations), but I still feel okay about the progess I'm making. I'm now just shy of 30 pages, and I hope hope hope to be able to have enough matter to start revising soon.