We're dommed, why humanity won't exist in the 22nd century...
We all know about Global Warming, not much point really going into a description that we've all heard millions of times and it's certainly playing a huge effect on all of us and is certainly a problem which is going to have a lot of nasty consequences, although having said that there was one good thing to come out of it and that was kicking Howard out, PWND!
Seriously though, even despite the immense evidence all for this, there are definitely doubters on this who wish to continue their current life and show no care at all towards the environment as if Global Warming is simply just the next Millenium bug and our climate crisis has more in common with time periods such as the Ice Age. However it's simple scientific proof that more gases in the atmosphere simply will make it harder for heat to leave the atmosphere burning up the world, causing all sorts of diasterous problems such as higher temperatures, rising sea leavels, more frequent and much more aggressive storms, overpopulation, less land available and so on, it's going to be fucked.
The scary thing is that if we survive all this or you don't believe this will happen, we've got 3 fucking huge problems that most people don't really know about or consider much of a problem but my god this shit will wipe out our civilisation insanely. We're running out of oil, food and water. Quite simply we don't have unlimited resources even in these things that we need to live with and even though most of us know this, we presume that they will be around for a while, sadly estimates of some of these things are predicted as early as 2020, we're very unlikely to make it past 2100 at this rate, sadly.
The worlds oil is going to run out at some stage in the future and while some people say it might be a long time in the future in the past few decades we've reached a stage of what is known as "Peak Oil". Basically peak oil is when the amount of oil that can be found and produced has basically peak and in subsequent years we've been finding less and less oil. The reason why this is such a huge concern is that even though we find less and less oil, humans require more oil every year.
The oil price is constantly going up and up and it's a lot greater then the current inflation levels. Simple economics show that this is because there is a great demand and a much lower supply. Problems are heavily existing already, Americans are constantly having to import the majority of their oil which they never did 50 years ago, *cough* Iraq War *cough*. There are more cars on the road then ever before and for some bizarre reason we're refusing to drive electric cars and instead we choose to drive the cars with shitty fuel economy like SUV's and for some sick reason, Hummer's are being promoted insanely now.
The estimates for Oil to run out are somewhere in between 2020 to people believing it won't happen. However despite how horrid this situation will be this could prove to be an easy situation to solve with the various green technologies that exist. Quite simply oil is popular due to it's cheap price, however it's quite likely the oil will simply constantly go up and up, to the point where it won't be the cheapest option and also the environmentally friendly options will be the cheapest as well.
Believe or not, we are going to run out of food sometime in the near future, the population is increasing and we're struggling to keep up with demands. The other huge problem is that the main areas where the population is increasing in the developing countries such as India and China consume a lot more then they used too and are eating a lot more, plus hell, look @ the American obesity epidemic for crying out loud too.
FEARING for a future famine is Swinefleet Common farmer John Gossop.
John (62), who has farmed vegetables and wheat for 40 years, believes that by 2025 the western world will face a severe food shortage as it becomes more dependent on oil and gas.
And such is his worry that he has put his thoughts on paper and penned a book entitled Famine In The West.
John told the Courier: “I became concerned that the farming system was dependant on oil and gas which themselves are becoming more unreliable in the last five to six years. If we were without oil and gas then we would be without food.
“Climate change is causing droughts and floods, the population is increasing and all this will eventually cause tremendous food shortages.”
He said: “In the book I’ve used 2025 as an example of when we really might see the problems - by then we will have a population of eight billion compared to six billion now. We could be looking at considerable shortages by then.
“When we come to next year’s harvest the carry over stocks will be lower than ever before and if we have droughts caused by climate change, such as in America, we could be in trouble straight away.”
The book, which took four to five months to put together, aims to raise awareness about the problems so solutions can be found.
“One way would be the introduction of a heavy carbon tax instead of income tax to try and drive innovation so people find ways of using less oil and gas,” he added.
Water shortages are adversely effecting food production in many parts of the world, and are going to get much worse. Two examples have been reported on this week. In Fortune magazine, Daniel Pepper reports from India about falling water levels due to over extraction.
Ground water has been depleted to such an extent that it is devastating the country. A soil and water expert estimates that the energy used to subsidize rice production in the Punjab region costs $381 million a year. He and other experts warn warns that, if unchecked, future drilling will bleed state budgets, parch aquifers, and run farmers out of business.
Meanwhile, Reuters says that the Saudi government has decided to stop all subsidies to agriculture, and aims to rely entirely on imports by 2016.
This is due to fossil aquifers becoming depleted due to the previous policy of self sufficiency when grain was produced regardless of cost. Massive circles of green apeared in the desert as centre pivot irrigation systems were installed. These systems consist of a massive gantry carrying pipes and watering jets that go slowly round in a circle, the pump and well being in the centre.
Saudi became a major food exporter but will now instead become a major importer. As other countries are also changing from exporters to importers, and as big producers such as the US use more grain for biofuel, severe shortages are bound to happen as other threats to food production mentioned in other posts, come in to play.
“The world is on the verge of a water crisis. As the global economy and the world’s population continue to expand, we are becoming a much thirstier planet. It is important to realise just how much water we need to make the various aspects of our economy work.
“Every litre of petrol requires up to 2.5 litres of water to produce it. On average, crops grown for their bio-energy need at least 1000 litres of water to make one litre of biofuel. It takes about 2700 litres of water to make one cotton T-shirt, up to 4000 litres of water to produce 1 kg of wheat and up to 16,000 litres to produce 1 kg of beef…
“…Along the Colorado, the Indus, the Murray Darling, the Mekong, the Nile or within the North China Plain, for example, do we use the scarce water for food, for fuel, for people and cities, or for industrial growth? How much of the upstream river can we really dam? How do we figure out ways for every actor in the economy to get the water they need to meet their human, economic and cultural aspirations? And can we ensure that the environment is not wrecked but can flourish in the process?
“These are tough questions. And unlike carbon reduction, there is no alternative, no substitute to promote. Nor is there a global solution to negotiate. Turning off your tap in Vancouver or Berlin will not ease the drought in Rajasthan or Australia…
“…Climate change will create this situation more quickly and make it worse. The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report says that if global average temperature rises by 3C, hundreds of millions of people will be exposed to increased water stress. It provides the wake-up call we all need to start acting on water.
“…We can see this crisis unfolding during the next few years. A perfect storm is approaching. And all this sits on top of today’s morally indefensible situation where 20 per cent of the world’s population is without access to improved water supply…”
The thing is humans are pack animals, we're all suppposed to work in a small tribe and focus on our own roles and our own responsibilities but we've expanded into a massive tribe of well over 6 billion people and growing as you read this. We simply exist for ourselves now, to consume everything, including what we do not even need, require or desire (how many times have you just blown money because it's pay day?) and created a world where what we get out we don't put back in and we've gone way beyond the limits of how much this land and planet can take and we're just putting it under tremendous amounts of stress. Quite simply, we're fucked, majorly.
Seriously though, even despite the immense evidence all for this, there are definitely doubters on this who wish to continue their current life and show no care at all towards the environment as if Global Warming is simply just the next Millenium bug and our climate crisis has more in common with time periods such as the Ice Age. However it's simple scientific proof that more gases in the atmosphere simply will make it harder for heat to leave the atmosphere burning up the world, causing all sorts of diasterous problems such as higher temperatures, rising sea leavels, more frequent and much more aggressive storms, overpopulation, less land available and so on, it's going to be fucked.
The scary thing is that if we survive all this or you don't believe this will happen, we've got 3 fucking huge problems that most people don't really know about or consider much of a problem but my god this shit will wipe out our civilisation insanely. We're running out of oil, food and water. Quite simply we don't have unlimited resources even in these things that we need to live with and even though most of us know this, we presume that they will be around for a while, sadly estimates of some of these things are predicted as early as 2020, we're very unlikely to make it past 2100 at this rate, sadly.
The worlds oil is going to run out at some stage in the future and while some people say it might be a long time in the future in the past few decades we've reached a stage of what is known as "Peak Oil". Basically peak oil is when the amount of oil that can be found and produced has basically peak and in subsequent years we've been finding less and less oil. The reason why this is such a huge concern is that even though we find less and less oil, humans require more oil every year.
The oil price is constantly going up and up and it's a lot greater then the current inflation levels. Simple economics show that this is because there is a great demand and a much lower supply. Problems are heavily existing already, Americans are constantly having to import the majority of their oil which they never did 50 years ago, *cough* Iraq War *cough*. There are more cars on the road then ever before and for some bizarre reason we're refusing to drive electric cars and instead we choose to drive the cars with shitty fuel economy like SUV's and for some sick reason, Hummer's are being promoted insanely now.
The estimates for Oil to run out are somewhere in between 2020 to people believing it won't happen. However despite how horrid this situation will be this could prove to be an easy situation to solve with the various green technologies that exist. Quite simply oil is popular due to it's cheap price, however it's quite likely the oil will simply constantly go up and up, to the point where it won't be the cheapest option and also the environmentally friendly options will be the cheapest as well.
Believe or not, we are going to run out of food sometime in the near future, the population is increasing and we're struggling to keep up with demands. The other huge problem is that the main areas where the population is increasing in the developing countries such as India and China consume a lot more then they used too and are eating a lot more, plus hell, look @ the American obesity epidemic for crying out loud too.
FEARING for a future famine is Swinefleet Common farmer John Gossop.
John (62), who has farmed vegetables and wheat for 40 years, believes that by 2025 the western world will face a severe food shortage as it becomes more dependent on oil and gas.
And such is his worry that he has put his thoughts on paper and penned a book entitled Famine In The West.
John told the Courier: “I became concerned that the farming system was dependant on oil and gas which themselves are becoming more unreliable in the last five to six years. If we were without oil and gas then we would be without food.
“Climate change is causing droughts and floods, the population is increasing and all this will eventually cause tremendous food shortages.”
He said: “In the book I’ve used 2025 as an example of when we really might see the problems - by then we will have a population of eight billion compared to six billion now. We could be looking at considerable shortages by then.
“When we come to next year’s harvest the carry over stocks will be lower than ever before and if we have droughts caused by climate change, such as in America, we could be in trouble straight away.”
The book, which took four to five months to put together, aims to raise awareness about the problems so solutions can be found.
“One way would be the introduction of a heavy carbon tax instead of income tax to try and drive innovation so people find ways of using less oil and gas,” he added.
Water shortages are adversely effecting food production in many parts of the world, and are going to get much worse. Two examples have been reported on this week. In Fortune magazine, Daniel Pepper reports from India about falling water levels due to over extraction.
Ground water has been depleted to such an extent that it is devastating the country. A soil and water expert estimates that the energy used to subsidize rice production in the Punjab region costs $381 million a year. He and other experts warn warns that, if unchecked, future drilling will bleed state budgets, parch aquifers, and run farmers out of business.
Meanwhile, Reuters says that the Saudi government has decided to stop all subsidies to agriculture, and aims to rely entirely on imports by 2016.
This is due to fossil aquifers becoming depleted due to the previous policy of self sufficiency when grain was produced regardless of cost. Massive circles of green apeared in the desert as centre pivot irrigation systems were installed. These systems consist of a massive gantry carrying pipes and watering jets that go slowly round in a circle, the pump and well being in the centre.
Saudi became a major food exporter but will now instead become a major importer. As other countries are also changing from exporters to importers, and as big producers such as the US use more grain for biofuel, severe shortages are bound to happen as other threats to food production mentioned in other posts, come in to play.
“The world is on the verge of a water crisis. As the global economy and the world’s population continue to expand, we are becoming a much thirstier planet. It is important to realise just how much water we need to make the various aspects of our economy work.
“Every litre of petrol requires up to 2.5 litres of water to produce it. On average, crops grown for their bio-energy need at least 1000 litres of water to make one litre of biofuel. It takes about 2700 litres of water to make one cotton T-shirt, up to 4000 litres of water to produce 1 kg of wheat and up to 16,000 litres to produce 1 kg of beef…
“…Along the Colorado, the Indus, the Murray Darling, the Mekong, the Nile or within the North China Plain, for example, do we use the scarce water for food, for fuel, for people and cities, or for industrial growth? How much of the upstream river can we really dam? How do we figure out ways for every actor in the economy to get the water they need to meet their human, economic and cultural aspirations? And can we ensure that the environment is not wrecked but can flourish in the process?
“These are tough questions. And unlike carbon reduction, there is no alternative, no substitute to promote. Nor is there a global solution to negotiate. Turning off your tap in Vancouver or Berlin will not ease the drought in Rajasthan or Australia…
“…Climate change will create this situation more quickly and make it worse. The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report says that if global average temperature rises by 3C, hundreds of millions of people will be exposed to increased water stress. It provides the wake-up call we all need to start acting on water.
“…We can see this crisis unfolding during the next few years. A perfect storm is approaching. And all this sits on top of today’s morally indefensible situation where 20 per cent of the world’s population is without access to improved water supply…”
The thing is humans are pack animals, we're all suppposed to work in a small tribe and focus on our own roles and our own responsibilities but we've expanded into a massive tribe of well over 6 billion people and growing as you read this. We simply exist for ourselves now, to consume everything, including what we do not even need, require or desire (how many times have you just blown money because it's pay day?) and created a world where what we get out we don't put back in and we've gone way beyond the limits of how much this land and planet can take and we're just putting it under tremendous amounts of stress. Quite simply, we're fucked, majorly.