anton bonnier wrote:Chumly said...
"By "rational change" I would argue dramatic reduction in population, thereby alleviating the severe environmental pressures that are apt to have dangerous consequences."
That day will have to come, the population rate of increase will continue to overtaking the means of sustainability... humans became locusts eons ago
I read not all that long ago that the entire population of the world would fit into the State of Texas with a population density no higher than that of San Francisco. Even allowing for increased population since that time, it should be safe to assume that the population would fit within the combined states of Texas and New Mexico and still have a livable population density.
If you check out that area on your desk globe, you will see that there is an awfully lot of 'world' left over. And the USA alone, with resources properly managed and efficiently distributed, can probably still feed all of those people.
You only have to drive from Socorro NM to Reserve NM, or from Springer to Clayton or from Clines Corners to Roswell to get an impression of how immense are the open spaces still left.
I think the problem is not population but rather inefficient and/or ineffective management of resources or the greed and ambition of corrupt people who have seized power for themselves. Some of the poorest people on the planet live in places with some of the world's most plentiful natural resources. The population isn't the problem but rather those who would exploit and oppress those people and neither permit nor encourage them to join the rest of the prosperous world.
And pertinent to the whole AGW discussion, some of the policies being advocated by the AGW would likely condemn those poorest of the poor to more generations of abject poverty by denying them the same means to pull themselves out of poverty that the rest of us have utilized.
It is no coincidence that the weathiest people on the planet are also those with the luxury and ability to protect and preserve our planet and who demand clean water, clean air, adequate energy, etc. When everybody has that luxury, I think we will also have the technology and ability to keep it intact.
