Nova on PBS is one of the few programs on television worth watching. One episode that sticks in my mind is Rat Attack. Its about a huge bamboo forest in India that flowers en masse once every 48 years. When the bamboo fruit falls it provides a sudden but temporary spike in the available food supply for the rats that live in the forest. Their population explodes, but the food doesn't last long. Once it runs out, the area is left will millions of hungry rats that rush out of the forest looking for food. They devour any crops in the area, and when the crops run out, they starve to death.
Fossil fuels have allowed a massive increase in food production. We use them to run farm machinery, power irrigation, create pesticides, create fertilizers, transport crops to market, and more. But at some point these resources will run out, just like the bamboo fruit. The question is, are people smarter than rats?
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