if I thought that the US was overpopulated.... and in typical knee jerk fashion - I replied no. but in retrospect I think that is the wrong answer. The earth itself - really cannot sustain indefinite human population growth - whether that be developed or developing world... does NOT Matter - both put a strain on the environment (differently - but equally important).
I know that my proposal to limit population will not work politically - HOWEVER! Nature may off us anyway. Lots of evidence (from superbugs to decline in sperm counts) to suggest that Nature is changing our future.
81 days left before Atlanta runs out of water.
Think about that. A major city with no supplies of fresh water.
Now tell me its just a political red herring.
or Coca-Cola...
Seriously though, I've been saying this for years and labeled a wack-job, but we need to start observing climate-change and adjusting our culture and lifestyles accordingly, such as when New Orleans flooded, why spend billions rebuilding that shit-hole just to have it flood out again in a few years??
Same should be applied to Atlanta, no damn billion-dollar bail out! Let "market forces" or plain old "discomfort" cause the population of that overpopulated, economically-polarized city dispand into other regions...
The changes coming to our planet over the next 10 years are going to be mind-bending, but if we deplete ourswlves as a society by buying trailer-houses for all the deadbeats that won't pick up and move on, when the REAL crisis is upon us, we'll have nothing left to respond with...
this is true not just in the US but world wide... and the resouce (fresh water) is NOT expanding.
The Ogallala Aquifer is drastically being used up... and the fear is that it will not sustain the agriculture that it now does (Central Plains of the US).
This is serious stuff.
-- Modified on 10/18/2007 10:46:39 AM
in the lights of the bigger picture of the Climate change debates.
if I thought that the US was overpopulated.... and in typical knee jerk fashion - I replied no. but in retrospect I think that is the wrong answer. The earth itself - really cannot sustain indefinite human population growth - whether that be developed or developing world... does NOT Matter - both put a strain on the environment (differently - but equally important).
I know that my proposal to limit population will not work politically - HOWEVER! Nature may off us anyway. Lots of evidence (from superbugs to decline in sperm counts) to suggest that Nature is changing our future.
Well, consider the most impoverished areas of the world, they STILL breed like rats even when they are staring to death in a dirty shack...
We continue to "help" these regions with food-aid and medicine, which keeps them just healthy enough to breed even more but not healthy enough to care for themselves... Thus the cycle of deficit-consumption of resorces expands from generation to ganeration, now EXPONENTIALLY!
the "Ogallala Aquifer" is more than capable of sustaining life, but is isn't capable of sustaining our Western-view of how "life" should be... When was it decided we needed to flush every turd with 1.3ga. of water?? Think of the trillions of gallion that would be left in the water table if we all still pinched one off in a hole or bent over a stump... Like humans did for thousands of years... And the typical two showers a day lifestyle most americans lead... Our desire to be hyper-sensitive about being "clean" is going to be the death of us... ESPECALLY as the glaciers melt...