Natural cycles

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It is becoming increasingly apparent that natural cycles can be ignored only temporarily.

Their disruption bears consequences that can be postponed by a series of technical fixes
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But they can never permanently denied.
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Deserts can be made to bloom
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But only at an increasing cost 
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And they can never be made to bloom forever.
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Someday they will return to their natural state.
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Moreover, the consequences of the disruption of natural cycles intensify the longer they are sustained.
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The present accelerating desertification of the world's agricultural areas testifies to the impossibility of forestalling natural processes forever
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And to the severity of the consequences of trying.
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It is as if the desert cannot be denied.
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Since the beginning of man's agricultural efforts land has been valued according to its productive function 
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And its perceived value in that context
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Human beings were also then classified by  function—farmer, soldier, metalsmith, builder, priest, king—in a way they never had been before.

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In agricultural societies people came to be defined more and more according to generic functional classifications.
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And this happened because agriculture allowed vast increases in the population
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A population that is growing to this day
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One that will reach seven billion by October 2011
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Much of this increase depends on ignoring natural cycles
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One cannot ignore nature
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Nor her cycles
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We do so at our peril