We can't go on living like this

[Pharaoh]

We say we want to save the environment, and to have peace, and to eliminate poverty. And we do - but only until we see what this requires.

The fundamental cause of the big global problems threatening us now is simply over-consumption. The rate at which we in rich countries are using up resources is grossly unsustainable. It’s far beyond levels that can be kept up for long or that could be spread to all people. Yet most people totally fail to grasp the magnitude of the over-shoot.

The reductions required are so big that they cannot be achieved within a consumer-capitalist society. Huge and extremely radical change to very systems and culture are necessary.
Several lines of argument lead to this conclusion, but I’ll note only three.

Some resources are already alarmingly scarce, including water, land, fish and especially petroleum. Some geologists think petroleum supply will peak within a decade. If all the world’s people today were to consume resources at the per capita rate we in rich countries do, the annual supply rate would have to be more than six times as great as at present, and if the population of 9 billion we will have on earth soon were to do so it would have to be about ten times as great.

Second, the per capita area of productive land needed to supply one Australian with food, water, settlements and energy, is about 7-8 ha. The US figure is closer to 12 ha. But the average per capita area of productive land available on the planet is only about 1.3 ha. When the world population reaches 9 billion the per capita area of productive land available will be only 0.8 ha. In other words in a world where resources were shared equally we would all have to get by on about 10 per cent of the present average Australian footprint.

Third, the greenhouse problem is the most powerful and alarming illustration of the overshoot. The scientists are telling us that if we are to stop the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere from reaching twice the pre-industrial level we must cut global carbon emissions, and thus fossil fuel use, by 60 per cent in the short term, and more later.

If we cut it 60 per cent and shared the remaining energy among 9 billion people each Australian would have to get by on less than 5 per cent of the fossil fuel now used. And that target, a doubling of atmospheric CO2, is much too high to be safe. We’re now 30 per cent above pre-industrial levels and already seeing disturbing climatic effects.

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au:80/view.asp?article=5754

[EVDebs]

1. Plan B 2.0 available to read online now !

http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/PB2/Contents.htm

read ch 1's 'Learning from China' if you can't wade thru the entire book.

[EFerrari]

2. I posted to an LBN thread that Howard called for Australians to pray

for rain because the drought there is so severe, he's looking at cutting off water to farmers.

Prayer seems to me to be a misguided energy policy.:(

[Pharaoh]

3. People don't know

How bad the Health of our Planet has become. This will be the event which unites the world or we are fucked.......

[EFerrari]

4. I agree that this must seem unreal or very remote to most people.

:(

[partylessinOhio]

5. Population control must be the first step. The Earth cannot support

and does not need increasing numbers of humans.

[happydreams]

6. Well, at least most of us won't be able to go on living

like .

If another ice age happens it will conveniently destroy most of the industrialized world, which will give Mother Nature some...uh, breathing room...to cleanze herself. Bush and other feudalists will go to Paraquay before the deep freeze and begin anew with a world about 1/10 the population it is now.

:tinfoilhat:

[Jcrowley]

7. People cannot even imagine

the level of change that is needed in the Industrial nations. Unfortunately I think people will go kicking and scratching into this future. We are spoiled children.

Now to address this fully and honestly in the political arena is suicidal. Not only are virtually all of American politicians betrothed to corporate America but giving people who are conditioned to believe in "The American Dream" to sacrifice in ways that make what we call poverty the norm is a hard sell.

Add to this the total amount of political and social confusion and lack of any coherent and cohesive vision and I'd say we are in big trouble.

If we are serious about ending poverty, we have to be serious about ending the systems for wealth creation which create poverty by robbing the poor of their resources, livelihoods and incomes. Before we can make poverty history, we need to get the history of poverty right. It’s not about how much more we can give, so much as how much less we can take.

[porphyrian]

8. It's oversimplifying to say the cause is simply over-consumption.

A number of factors contribute to the problems, and they can be solved in a number of ways. Claiming one thing is responsible is irresponsible.

[MedleyMisty]

9. Yeah, we're pretty much screwed

I try to have hope and all that, but come on, humans suck and are stupid. I can do everything I can to change and to convince other people of the need to change, but if governments and corporations won't listen and won't change, what hope is there?

[blues90]

11. That about sums it all up .

I try to have hope but when I look around and see how people just continue to go on as if nothing is wrong and seem to have no intent of changing or getting involved then we are done .

It's fine that Gore has his movie and others are out their in the spotlight but this is just the begining of a long slow precess without enough time left to effect these drastic changes . People just don't seem to care enough to even consider change especially if it means to cut back , they instead go out shopping and spending .

I can't see people giving up their cars or cutting down most of their needless driving and we have a nation that require cars for long trips just to go to work and now with this 24/7 business world this traffic never stops moving and consuming . We should have stuck with the 5 day 40 hour work week .

[Cabcere]

10. K&R.

People need to see this.

[warren pease]

12. Recommended reading

If you haven't already, you might consider picking up "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" by Jared Diamond, the author of "Guns, Germs and Steel."

Collapse looks at past societies that have failed, and the few that succeeded. Then he looks at the modern world's failures and successes -- Rwanda on the negative side, and Iceland as a society that completely deforested the entire country centuries ago, but chose to practice sustainability instead of accepting collapse and eventually developed into one of the modern world's few success stories.

One chilling fact that Diamond deals with: If China were to achieve the US lifestyle, its environmental impact would be as if the world's population had doubled from 6.5 billion to 13 billion. And that's without adding any people at all to the numeric total, which is of course impossible.

Yup. I think we're fucked. I don't see any way to avoid the impact of global climate change. The US could lead the way, but that's clearly impossible given the current collection of kleptocrats occupying the executive branch. And even after the regime slithers away, if it ever does, I doubt there's any kind of consensus in this country that would convince political leadership to actually address the root causes.

At most, I see them ordering more studies, signing more toothless protocols and trying desperately not to offend the great uninformed majority who either don't know or don't care to know about impending planetary collapse. And it certainly doesn't help that something like 30 percent of the population are religiously insane fundies who welcome this disaster as a precursor to the rapture. Nothing like fundamentalism to turn a perfectly good religion to absolute shit.


wp

[Pharaoh]

15. Thanks for that Warren

Another good read on our predicament is "Waking up in Time" by Peter Russell
which will really make you think........

[pitohui]

13. sorry, since i earn and consume way less than average, let the rich go first

asking me or the average/below average/poor american to give up the little we have does not sit well

asking the overwhelmingly majority poor in china not to seek an improved standard of living does not sit well

ask the rich to sacrifice first, but that isn't going to happen is it? it's easier to point fingers at each other

i have driven my car once this week, to a cancer re-screen required by my doctor, i don't think i should give up the little i have

THAT is the problem, my friend, asking progressives to sacrifice when we're already sacrificing just by the reality of what it means to be poor or lower middle class and without any power and not much of a voice

go to some libertarian site where people are raking in bazillions and their biggest worry is whether their brat will inherit $2 million or only $1 million dollar and tell them to stop breeding and consuming

those who have benefited from this system should be the ones to cut back first

[DaveJ]

14. What's ironic is...

We would live happier lives too. Every new development should be aimed at making life simpler. We'd probably have more fun than we can imagine if we just slowed down the pace of our consumption.

[Pharaoh]

16. I agree.........

What's Ironic is the whole point of progress was to make our lives simpler and instead we've become enslaved by the process...........