From: Philip Rhoades Date: 2009-04-19T16:23:54+09:00 Subject: Re: Goodbye Ruby - Hello Earth Jon, Why is it funny? - I mostly agree with everything he said - the only qualification is that I am skeptical that even a lot of people dropping out will have any impact on the major problems that he mentions. He is right, Malthus was right. BTW, I am a sometime biologist using Ruby to do biological simulations (population genetics), which, for me, means this discussion is ON topic and relevant. Regards, Phil. Jon A. Lambert wrote: > This is one of the funniest e-mails I've read on this list. > Thanks. > > > "Christophe Mckeon" wrote: >> Hi guys, >> >> Thanks for some of your positive responses. >> >> I made my decision not because I was unhappy doing what I was doing. I >> truly loved what I was doing. I did experience some of the health >> complaints you guys are talking about though. >> >> I made my decision because: >> >> 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, during disasters, like eruptions of super-volcanoes and >> meteor impacts. Ecological diversity is of course what keeps us alive. >> >> 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. >> >> Petro-collapse or peak oil, which is not on too many people's radar >> right now, but it will be very soon. Over 30 towns in England have >> become 'Transition Towns' in order to build resilience against both >> petrocollapse and cimate change. Agriculture is entirely dependent on >> petrochemicals. 10 calories of petroleum are now being used to produce >> 1 calorie of food, compared with the 1 to 1 ratio of the 1930s. If you >> don't know what peak oil is you are very dangerously in the dark. >> >> 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. >> >> 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. >> >> But... I found permaculture which was designed by scientists >> (ecologists 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. I think it would be very attractive to software people, >> especially open source types, as it is all about design and small >> scale local interactions. It even uses design patterns. >> >> When I saw that there was hope, I had a sort of spiritual awakening, a >> crumbling of the walls of denial, and a grieving for the planet we are >> about to destroy, that's why I'm leaving, 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 as the forces described >> above start to become plainly obvious in not so nice ways. >> >> So you see, it is not about back pain, or if my lamp is bad for me. >> I'm sorry, I know it's a downer, but it's time for people to start >> talking to each other about this stuff, especially smart people like >> yourselves. 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. >> >> Good Luck. > > -- Philip Rhoades GPO Box 3411 Sydney NSW 2001 Australia E-mail: phil@pricom.com.au