What happens when current options run out, and alternative options have been ignored? The doors close, folks.

So, while politicians in North America prattle on about freeing their nations from dependence on foreign oil, little events like this become more and more likely. Will a lack of polar ice be bad? Nobody really knows. It'll definitely be a different world from the one human beings have known for most of their history.

And, of course, that's just a minor problem. What's going to happen as the price of a non-renewable resource that everything depends on goes higher and higher? Like that nice, fresh fruit in the middle of January? Like it enough to pay ten, twenty bucks for an orange? Unless you live in citrus country, you can kiss it good-bye. But, don't worry, it won't just be tropical fruit that gets more and more expensive. Got a garden in your backyard? Got a really, really big backyard? Or any backyard at all? Think you're going to be able to grow enough food for a year? Every year? I mean, you have noticed those large trucks full of food pulling into your local grocery store two or three times a day, right?

Like your iPod? Like it enough to pay even more than its already over-inflated price? There's a lot of plastic in them thar iPods, and plastic's an oil-based product. Now, count the plastic things in your home. In your car. In your office. On the street.

Life's about to get very, very interesting. "Interesting" isn't good.

Not that I'm a pessimist or anything.

On an "up" note, go see "Mongol". Heck of a good movie. Ignore the fact that it was shot on film (an oil-based product) and just enjoy it.