From: Jeff Schwab Date: 2009-04-10T20:05:10+09:00 Subject: Re: Goodbye Ruby - Hello Earth Christophe Mckeon wrote: > We are presently losing 200 species a day on this planet. That rate is > as high as during the greatest species die offs in the earth's natural > history, I'm not sure where you're getting your data, but 200 species/day wouldn't even be close to "the greatest species die offs." (That sounds like a new series on Fox.) To paraphrase Davy Crocket, remember the Permian! > Climate change is going to be absolutely disastrous. The scientific > community is in the vast majority in thinking that it is man made, that > it is very real and that it is very dangerous. Not just for our > children, but at this point, for ourselves. What are you going to do about it? Hide on a farm, making tie-dyes and hoping for a quick death? > Agriculture is entirely dependent on petrochemicals. For some definition of "entirely" that means something completely different from "entirely." See The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan, for a quick tour of the American food supply system. > Population overshoot. There are currently 6 billion people on the planet > and growing exponentially. You guys should all be able to guess what > happens when you have a finite resource base but an exponential growth > rate of both economies and populations. The carrying capacity of the > earth w/o constant petrolium input is estimated at between 1 and 3 > billion depending on who you ask. It doesn't work that way. We have extraordinarily abundant sources of energy available; the economic incentives just haven't been sufficient to tap them yet. As demand for energy goes up, and the oil supply goes down, we'll turn to alternative sources. (Actually, I suspect this has already started.) The problem is neither population growth, nor lack of resources, but that we're polluting our environment to the point that it's going to react violently. If you want to save the planet, help us figure out what to do about that. http://wecansolveit.org/ > I closed my eyes to all these facts for years hoping they would go away > and that somebody would 'be on it', but they didn't and they aren't. > Just a single one of those 4 forces is massive and all of them combined > are at this point probably insurmountable. The longer we wait the harder > will be the crash. So overall, Nostradamus, would you say you're cautiously optimistic? > But... I found permaculture which was designed by scientists So were the A-bomb, GMO foods, and most of those petrochemicals you've already condemned. Not to mention digital watches (shiver). > and systems theorists), and believe it has great promise and that it > could completely revolutionize agriculture. Not only that but it is > tremendously energy efficient and increases biodiversity and soil > health. i.e. it is the complete opposite of current agricultural > practices. You can have all the "tremendously energy efficient" enclaves you want, and it won't address the problem. The problem is specific to several widely-used technologies. Screaming about them won't help; the only reasonable way to stop people from using those technologies is to replace them (the technologies, not the people) with something compellingly better. Suppose everybody had Walkmen [1], but they were killing the planet. What would be the fastest way to shelve all those horrid little devices? Hint: Invent the iPod. [1] For you young'ns: Walkmen were portable cassette tape players, used by primitive western cultures for listening to music. Yes, they predated even the Compact Disc! > When I saw that there was hope, I had a sort of spiritual awakening, Oh jeez, here we go... > a crumbling of the walls of denial, and a grieving for the planet we are > about to destroy, that's why I'm leaving, Leaving what? "The planet we are about to destroy?" If we're destroying the planet, there's nowhere safe to go but space. (That's not really safe either, lacking oxygen, warmth, and broadband internet access.) > and that is why I am planning > on talking to as many people as I can. There will be more and more of us > 'dropping out' in the near future Don't drink the Kool Aid. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonestown > It's life or death now, but the problem is that humans, even the > smartest humans do not react to threats unless they are directly in > front of them in plain view. We have our own evolutionary psychology to > blame for this. > > We need all the brains of the earth on this one. So you're "leaving." Thanks.