The price of food is well up, with some staples becoming scarce and increasingly controlled by a handful of companies. The continual oil price rises of late hardly even register with many folks now; there's just grim acceptance.

Crude prices are linked to price rises in just about everything, from food, to plastics and many other common chemicals.

Access to fresh water is becoming an increasing challenge and biodiversity on our planet has greatly reduced in the last 30 years - to the point we're now considered to be witnessing the 6th great extinction.

Whatever the reasons for all of the above; and the reasons are varied; the convergence of these issues points to an Age of Scarcity not too far away according to Business Week. We're just at the beginning of it, so it's going to be a lot easier on those who realize it now as they'll have more time to adapt, unlike those poor souls in countries where disaster after disaster is occurring already. No sooner do they get back up on their feet, then nature (or man) hits again from another direction.

While this all sounds very grim, greening your life is a step towards preparing for the bumpy road ahead. Whether it's starting your own heirloom seed based vegetable garden or worm farm, weaning yourself off  thegrid with solar power; saving gas or making your own environmentally friendly cleaning products, it's a step away from independence on Big Oil and Big Agriculture and a step towards getting back in touch with nature and being able to better weather much of what the future sends our way.

It's just about getting more hands on and making do (and being happier) with less, but that doesn't mean to say settling for second best. It can be daunting or exciting; it just depends on how you view things; I'm opting for the latter.