> For example, in some areas of the American Southwest, farmers have irrigated their crops for years by pumping out subterranean water from the Ogallala Aquifer, which they viewed as a quick, cheap resource. Now, however, the water table is being depleted ten times faster than it can replenish itself from rainfall. The soil above the aquifer is compacting and losing its ability to absorb rainwater, further slowing the replenishment of the aquifer and gradually drying out the farmland in the region. It has been estimated that within forty years, the farmland from Kansas to Texas will be largely wasteland as a result.

Which is itself idicative of the cyclic nature of life and of the world. The same thing (roughly) caused the fall of the ancient Babylonian empire - they clear-cut the forests to use as building materials for their ever-growing civilization, and, as a result, the area, which was once a verdant grasssland/forest, is a desert to this day.
Just thought you might want to know.

Brandon S. (I won't use my initials, 'cause they spell B.S., and that's not what I'm after...)