climate change etc (part one?)
I thought it was time to put some of my thoughts "on paper" to see what everyone else has so say. The world is in quite a mess, and the way we're thinking about it is too.
The question is, what do we need to do to survive as a happy, healthy species into the future? Regardless of why it's happening, we ARE experiencing rapid climate change and if we do nothing we WILL probably all suffer a great deal and a lot of people will die. I don't think I need to convince anyone of this anymore, we all know it's true. This is no longer the territory of fanatical greenies - when even the ultimate head-in-the-sand man John Howard is acknowledging the problem, we know something has to be done. But is it realistic to expect to reverse climate change? The Earth has seen a lot of climate change in the past, from ice-ages in Europe to world-wide floods and droughts, and to think that we are going to prevent this from ever happening again, I believe, is just arrogant. What we need to do is explore ways to change our lifestyles and culture so that we can live WITH our ever-changing world.
I'm now going to say a few things that are harsh. Things that probably sound very unethical but I'm going to say them anyway because they represent my desperation. First on the agenda is population control. It has been estimated that in less than 70 years the world's population will have doubled (that's over 12 billion people for anyone who can't add up). I don't know about anyone else, but i find it extremely hard to even contemplate that sort of number. Apparently most people know in some way or another, about a thousand people. So think of all the people you have ever known and multiply that by about 12 million and you'll get an idea of how many people there really are.
Where the hell are we going to put them all?
Even if we managed to reverse climate change, I sincerely doubt that the Earth has the capacity to sustain those sort of numbers. And with the sea-level rising, we're going to have even less space for them all. If there were less of us, that is, a LOT less of us, I truly believe that climate change would not pose such an overwhelming problem. We could simply move to the places that are most habitable in the future and make use of what would be relatively abundant natural resources.
This is going to happen naturally if we don't do anything. The first to go will be the poor and disadvantaged. People living in the tropics will flee their homes, seek refuge in already struggling countries who will probably deny their needs because they themselves are too desperate to think about others. There will be wars, there will be famines, and there will be chaos. Governments will collapse. New diseases will plague the people, livestock will die and crops will never grow. Eventually, millions upon millions of people will die of starvation, disease and other medical problems that won't get treated simply because there won't be enough doctors to go around.
Do I need to go on? Some of the people reading this will probably dismiss what I'm saying as fanatical and crazed. All I can say to that is, God help us if there are too many people who do that. SOMEONE needs to listen...
But back to the issue. If we all agree to NOT reproduce, to sacrifice our economic growth for once (god forbid!), we can handle this in a realistic way. We can slowly but steadily reduce our population to a reasonable level that will be able to cope with the ensuing changes.
We won't though. Of course we won't.
Another thing, I'm going to stop trying to convince people to stop using so much petrol and energy, because nobody will believe it's an issue until it's too late. I'll just have to wait until all the coal and the oil is gone, till our electricity plants can't cope with demand (hell, it's already happening...), and then people might get the idea - "oops, I'm going to have to walk to work now aren't I?"
One more thing. Meat. Quick change of subject hey? Oh well, it's all connected in the end. I'm going to go vegetarian. Not because I've got problems with cruelty to animals or anything, but because it isn't environmentally sustainable. Did you know it takes about five litres of water to produce one litre of cows' milk? Why not just drink water? We have to grow grain to feed the animals we want to eat, so why not grow more grains and pulses instead? We need huge amounts of land to keep livestock, and we're not going to be able to sacrifice what little land we have forever. Whatsmore, we have to spend huge amounts of time and money on keeping animals healthy. Just like people, they need vaccinations, health check-ups etc etc, and all that is expensive. God, I wouldn't want to be a sheep farmer right now.
Wheat isn't a lot better though. With the drought going the way it is, and grain prices already surging, Australians need to find foods that will grow in our ever harsher environment. For god's sake people, stop trying to grow rice! Wonder where all our water goes? Into growing things like rice and feeding dairy cows!
Basically, I have two things to say. The first is simply that I would have thought that after so many billions of years of life on Earth, a species would have evolved that could keep idiots like us humans under control. If we're the best God has to offer, I think he's failing badly. As a friend said to me, "this is why I don't believe in intelligent design. It's so damn stupid!"
And secondly, we need to start thinking. I know I'm going to try to start up some sort of group which can discuss these things outside of a political or corporate perspective, not because I'm a particularly great person, but because I want to retire comfortably, not in the middle of a war/famine/political upheaval/plague/economic crisis/...
The question is, what do we need to do to survive as a happy, healthy species into the future? Regardless of why it's happening, we ARE experiencing rapid climate change and if we do nothing we WILL probably all suffer a great deal and a lot of people will die. I don't think I need to convince anyone of this anymore, we all know it's true. This is no longer the territory of fanatical greenies - when even the ultimate head-in-the-sand man John Howard is acknowledging the problem, we know something has to be done. But is it realistic to expect to reverse climate change? The Earth has seen a lot of climate change in the past, from ice-ages in Europe to world-wide floods and droughts, and to think that we are going to prevent this from ever happening again, I believe, is just arrogant. What we need to do is explore ways to change our lifestyles and culture so that we can live WITH our ever-changing world.
I'm now going to say a few things that are harsh. Things that probably sound very unethical but I'm going to say them anyway because they represent my desperation. First on the agenda is population control. It has been estimated that in less than 70 years the world's population will have doubled (that's over 12 billion people for anyone who can't add up). I don't know about anyone else, but i find it extremely hard to even contemplate that sort of number. Apparently most people know in some way or another, about a thousand people. So think of all the people you have ever known and multiply that by about 12 million and you'll get an idea of how many people there really are.
Where the hell are we going to put them all?
Even if we managed to reverse climate change, I sincerely doubt that the Earth has the capacity to sustain those sort of numbers. And with the sea-level rising, we're going to have even less space for them all. If there were less of us, that is, a LOT less of us, I truly believe that climate change would not pose such an overwhelming problem. We could simply move to the places that are most habitable in the future and make use of what would be relatively abundant natural resources.
This is going to happen naturally if we don't do anything. The first to go will be the poor and disadvantaged. People living in the tropics will flee their homes, seek refuge in already struggling countries who will probably deny their needs because they themselves are too desperate to think about others. There will be wars, there will be famines, and there will be chaos. Governments will collapse. New diseases will plague the people, livestock will die and crops will never grow. Eventually, millions upon millions of people will die of starvation, disease and other medical problems that won't get treated simply because there won't be enough doctors to go around.
Do I need to go on? Some of the people reading this will probably dismiss what I'm saying as fanatical and crazed. All I can say to that is, God help us if there are too many people who do that. SOMEONE needs to listen...
But back to the issue. If we all agree to NOT reproduce, to sacrifice our economic growth for once (god forbid!), we can handle this in a realistic way. We can slowly but steadily reduce our population to a reasonable level that will be able to cope with the ensuing changes.
We won't though. Of course we won't.
Another thing, I'm going to stop trying to convince people to stop using so much petrol and energy, because nobody will believe it's an issue until it's too late. I'll just have to wait until all the coal and the oil is gone, till our electricity plants can't cope with demand (hell, it's already happening...), and then people might get the idea - "oops, I'm going to have to walk to work now aren't I?"
One more thing. Meat. Quick change of subject hey? Oh well, it's all connected in the end. I'm going to go vegetarian. Not because I've got problems with cruelty to animals or anything, but because it isn't environmentally sustainable. Did you know it takes about five litres of water to produce one litre of cows' milk? Why not just drink water? We have to grow grain to feed the animals we want to eat, so why not grow more grains and pulses instead? We need huge amounts of land to keep livestock, and we're not going to be able to sacrifice what little land we have forever. Whatsmore, we have to spend huge amounts of time and money on keeping animals healthy. Just like people, they need vaccinations, health check-ups etc etc, and all that is expensive. God, I wouldn't want to be a sheep farmer right now.
Wheat isn't a lot better though. With the drought going the way it is, and grain prices already surging, Australians need to find foods that will grow in our ever harsher environment. For god's sake people, stop trying to grow rice! Wonder where all our water goes? Into growing things like rice and feeding dairy cows!
Basically, I have two things to say. The first is simply that I would have thought that after so many billions of years of life on Earth, a species would have evolved that could keep idiots like us humans under control. If we're the best God has to offer, I think he's failing badly. As a friend said to me, "this is why I don't believe in intelligent design. It's so damn stupid!"
And secondly, we need to start thinking. I know I'm going to try to start up some sort of group which can discuss these things outside of a political or corporate perspective, not because I'm a particularly great person, but because I want to retire comfortably, not in the middle of a war/famine/political upheaval/plague/economic crisis/...