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shrunk significantly in the last several decades. In addition, the availability of river water has steadily decreased as rivers have been tapped, diverted, and dammed by growing population regions. By the time many rivers reach the ocean there is little or no water left. Consequently, coastal communities are finding river water supplies have decreased dramatically. In the last several decades, fertilizers have been used to boost grain production. However, since 1990, statistics have shown that the increasing use of fertilizers has not increased the production of grains. In a article by Lester Brown in World Watch magazine November-December 1995, he stated: "Five years ago, we passed a little noticed but fateful turning-point in human history. Though it had worked superbly for half a century, farmers found that increasing crop yields by adding more and more fertilizer to the land is like a baker adding more and more yeast to the dough. The formula began to fail in 1990. In fact, the addition of more and more fertilizers has actually caused a decrease in the production in grain in numerous countries."!*! While the situation we've described sounds grim, in most cases the estimates are conservative. The World Health Organization admits that its statistics on HIV-infected populations may be a gross underestimate of the situation. With nearly two billion people on the verge of starvation and the threat of nuclear war by terrorists groups rising, the leaders of the world face challenges never before encountered on the geopolitical scene. While government leaders and the media try to put the best possible face on the current world scene, leaders in the private chambers of governments around the world burn the mid-night oil looking for solutions to staggering problems. There is a feeling among many that we stand at the edge of a cataclysmic disintegration of society. While most people feel a sense of gloom or despair when confronted with this information, our space brothers, through the prophets of the New Age movement, present a wholly different spin on the situation. In the last several decades, hundreds of books have been writ-ten by contactees who claim that extraterrestrials have predicted this time of Earth changes and have defined its meaning. According to our space brothers the increasing earthquakes, famine, pestilence, wars, poverty, and violence are simply the birth pangs of our Earth Mother as she attempts to usher in a new age of peace and prosperity accompanied by a global governance. 104 DISTRESS OF NATIONS, WITH PERPLEXITY THE DAWNING OF THE NEW AGE? MOTHER EARTH IN LABOR