Major Flooding in Britain, Fires in California

As England struggles with it's largest amount of June rainfall ever recorded, lake Tahoe in northern California is struggling with some of the worst fires in that area's history.

World Running Out of Oil

According to this report, we only have 4 years left until the world hits its peak production of oil. After that, its all downhill. Of course, BP says we have 40 years left. My guess is that the truth is somewhere in the middle. But either way, oil depletion will wreak havoc with the world economy.

Large Earthquake Rocks Guatemala

As far as earthquakes go, this is a pretty big one.

6.8

Worst Drought in a Generation

This is something that has gone largely unnoticed in the media. The entire western half of North America is in the grips of a crippling drought.

"America is facing its worst summer drought since the Dust Bowl years of the Great Depression. Or perhaps worse still.

From the mountains and desert of the West, now into an eighth consecutive dry year, to the wheat farms of Alabama, where crops are failing because of rainfall levels 12 inches lower than usual, to the vast soupy expanse of Lake Okeechobee in southern Florida, which has become so dry it actually caught fire a couple of weeks ago, a continent is crying out for water.

In the south-east, usually a lush, humid region, it is the driest few months since records began in 1895. California and Nevada, where burgeoning population centres co-exist with an often harsh, barren landscape, have seen less rain over the past year than at any time since 1924. The Sierra Nevada range, which straddles the two states, received only 27 per cent of its usual snowfall in winter, with immediate knock-on effects on water supplies for the populations of Las Vegas and Los Angeles."

Nuclear Rhetoric Heats up

Putin has put Europe on notice by saying he'll aim his nuclear missiles at the Old Continent in response to the US wanting to install a missile defense shield. I haven't heard threats like this since the Cold War. And now NATO is getting involved.

It would appear that Russia, and Putin in particular, it trying to restore the old superpower's clout in the world. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union would threaten Europe (directly and indirectly) as a means to assert it's authority in the region. Having Putin start this game again is something an unstable world cannot afford at this time.