… Signed, Earth.
As we await the next military strike against ANY enemy on the planet we can’t help but think of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. Remember that makeshift excuse for going to war in Vietnam? What horse pucky! Now, because the so-called War in Venezuela is taking a bit too long to germinate……well, looks like going to war with Iran seems a nice transition….eh? How long can these stupid Trumpster voters not watch anything on Netflix? We have a planet that is exploding with population…going to maximum overload in 2030 when we hit over 10 Billion and we run out of potable water, run out of time and run out of air. The world is funny, as we watch Africa self-destruct. As we watch India fall into a black hole…..as we watch the rest of the world panic and steam toward self-destruct.
The truth of all of this is that the United States of America has reached its limit on Bullying! It was funny when we could blame everything on Drug Lords and Communists! Now that we know that those people just don’t buy Raytheon or General Electric War Machines…… well, we have to come to the conclusion that Money Talks and Bullshit Walks! Honestly, would you have any of your family members join the US Military in 2020? Just wondering! Those days are “so over”. Killing folks for no reason is probably not the best course for humanity. Of course those in charge want to kill about three billion humanoids so we get an additional 20 years of life on this planet….up to 2050!
We know this sounds all too alarmist and crazy. The truth is…..it is the truth! When most planets expire it is based on a very standard procedure. First the CO2 productions exceeds the Oxygen replacement values. Second, the Oceans turn toxic and kills all sea creatures and fish….because there is no oxygen going into the water. When the Oceans turn toxic and into a methane based mixture……the air is greatly affected and then the air turns toxic. Those that survive wear breathing apparatus with oxygen. Eventually, many areas of the planet become Dead Zones where no life is possible. Methane and Acid Rain kill everything on the ground. There are many Planetiods around even our Solar System which can be pointed out as examples. Lots of moons of Saturn and Jupiter for instance.
So, what are the solutions: (1) Stop the use of Fossil Fuel immediately! (2) Stop reproducing babies at the current rate. Limit every family to two children. (3) Stop Poverty on the Planet! (4) Stop illness and disease on the Planet! (5) Create incentives to make our planet better. Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it? You think we are crazy alarmists? You think we haven’t a clue to how much resilience this planet has? You think we are just freaking out because we have nothing else to do?
Here are are the facts: Earth Day 1970 – the population of the Globe was 2.2 3.7 Billion people! Earth day 2019 – the population of the Globe is 7.7 Billion people! The projected sustainable population of the Globe is between 9.5 and 10 Billion people which we will exceed somewhere between 2030 and 2050! Time to make some dramatic changes folks.
It used to be our country! But the reality is that It used to be our World…..and today it isn’t!
I changed the 1970 population estimate to fit the UN Population Project’s estimate. (https://population.un.org/wpp/DataQuery/)
What we’ll probably see is increased war, disease, famine, and dehydration. But if we got our energy situation under control, among other things enough to increase the education and standard of living of females (which is the most natural and non-coercive form of birth control), we could conceivably get along without all of that.
As for your solutions:
(1) Stop the use of Fossil Fuel immediately!
I’d say phase it out promptly, but won’t be immediate and need not be complete. Reducing our amount of belching ruminant livestock (people often say “farting,” but benching is the real methane producer among cows) would help greatly, both directly and from the reduction in environmentally destructive animal ware. Electric cars and scooters are a must.
(2) Stop reproducing babies at the current rate. Limit every family to two children.
Limiting families to two children requires a huge and vicious bureaucratic state; India tried this in the latter quarter of the last century and it went badly. China’s policies have led to uncounted miseries and selfishness. Educate young women and they’ll limit their reproduction themselves — except where religion demands otherwise, addressing which creates other problems.
(3) Stop Poverty on the Planet!
You’re calling for higher taxes there, as well as for more intervention. (Poverty is good from the repressive state’s perspective in that it impedes revolutions.) But if you can convince OC, you can probably convince almost anyone!
(4) Stop illness and disease on the Planet!
This doesn’t directly reduce population, of course, but if people believe that their children will live to adulthood then they will tend to have fewer children.
(5) Create incentives to make our planet better.
The Soviet Union established “Heroes of the State” (or some such thing), where you got a dacha on the Crimea. (Or something.) This might not be a bad idea.
Anyway, your humane Malthusian turn is better than what we say from Thanos!
Dr. D., yeah…sadly the alternatives are not particularly wonderful. The Sea Change required includes changing the entire Global Banking Concept…..presenting folks with so called Digital Credits….upon birth. These credits could be used for food, housing and medicine. Gainful and creative employment would add to the mix and encourage further innovation and industry. So, those that want a more productive life would be targeted to increase their efforts. It is a long reach, but merely living day to day and making sure that your life continues seems boring at best. Human nature has a way of creating new challenges both pro and con. There will always be a need for Law Enforcement, Public Safety…like Fire Personnel and Public Administrators. Human beings need to know that there is more to life than simple survival.
“Now, because the so-called War in Venezuela is taking a bit too long to germinate……well, looks like going to war with Iran seems a nice transition….eh? “
The Navy had initially said that the aircraft carrier battle group was already heading to the Persian Gulf back in early April: Bolton trying to capitalize on that is hardly anything to worry about. B-52s, which could have flown in Vietnam, flying again to intimidate Iranians? More like Trump making sure that a few billion dollars flows to parts manufacturers servicing them and their payloads.
“The projected sustainable population of the Globe is between 9.5 and 10 Billion people”
When meat crosses $15/pound, the problem will start sorting itself. For most of history, the price of meat was nearly about as much as a day’s wages…and we don’t even need meat to get our protein now.
“We have a planet that is exploding with population…going to maximum overload in 2030 when we hit over 10 Billion and we run out of potable water, run out of time and run out of air.”
Potable water is odd; like food, we can make as much of it as we want, and run short of it whether we have a population in the millions or tens of billions. It’s all a question of priorities. Same with air: it never ‘runs out’ – just changes form. We change it. We can change it back (at a cost).
“The world is funny, as we watch Africa self-destruct.”
The last genocidaire was just deposed in Africa – most of the rest of the continent is undergoing an odd, subtle boom – one that could prove as far-reaching as that ‘negligible’ little boom in Southeast Asia in the early ’80s…or be reversed. Hard to say. Those toy cars the Japanese were making, so easily mocked…proved more powerful than most anticipated.
“But the reality is that It used to be our World…..and today it isn’t!”
It was never ‘our’ world – we just borrowed it from our children.
Hey, want to write some posts for us?
Perhaps. I’m still digesting Anaheim’s latest, and working on some other projects that are best kept off of blogs for now.
Well, keep commenting as here, anyways. This is good stuff.
As for your solutions:
(1) Stop the use of Fossil Fuel immediately!
Why not just refrain from subsidizing it? And bear in mind, the subsidies include everything from city zoning through regulatory structures to commercial structures and housing structures. We can do better.
“(2) Stop reproducing babies at the current rate. Limit every family to two children.”
Greg said it already. But as a supplement, how quickly is the population growing in most of Europe? Indeed, the terror driving Brexit is that ‘foreigners are replacing’ Brits faster than Brits replace themselves. Look too to Italy, Japan, Germany, and most of the rest: the only economies still growing in the world are those taking in migrants (in China, migrants from the countryside…).
“(5) Create incentives to make our planet better.”
They’re in place – as are incentives to make it worse. Balancing incentives and thinking through which we wish to expand upon, which we wish to retire, is tricky: folks who’ve benefited from incentives have no interest in their alteration.
*Here is another thought balloon….since all the Artic Ice is melting and opening up sea lanes for commerce….it is mitigating the emerging Methane Ocean phenomena. Of course Mar-a-Lago will be history in six or seven years….and a lot of Miami. The rising Oceans with simply take people’s minds off the Plastic Ocean and the death of all Sea Creatures. After all, who eats Shark Fin Soup anyway? You want to confuse folks….just say “Complex” in a crowed room. By the time that “Soylent Green” hits the NY Stock Exchange….it will rise faster than Facebook, Amazon and Apple on their best day!
Thanks everyone for some great incite and input!
*What do they say? Liars figure, but figures don’t lie!
“It is estimated that the world population reached one billion for the first time in 1804. It was another 123 years before it reached two billion in 1927, but it took only 33 years to reach three billion in 1960.”
re Mar-a-Lago: The very rich play the game differently: their structures emulate GE (which was ‘known’ as a light bulb company for decades, even if bulbs amounted to less than 1% of their revenue). When flooding hits, there’s a pecking order: certain insurers go bankrupt, others pay out, others get covered federally – and there’s a timing issue (certain insured folks get their money late, which puts them into financial harm that others already covered).
Ordinarily, the billionaires fleece the poor/middle – but occasionally, they’ve erected systems enabling the same practice against the millionaires (harder marks, but much more lucrative). Many of today’s millionaires try to protect themselves by declaring fealty to the billionaires: works for a time, but only if you get out before it’s too late (e.g., Mnuchin actually made money off of Madoff – where most lost fortunes).
*The Chinese Tariff issue is funny. This great strategy to create a deathnil to International Trade reminds us of the Jimmy Carter Strategy…..of giving away the Panama Canal Zone only to have George H.W. Bush invade a few years later. Brilliant tactics and strategy. Tariffs and Buggy Whips are methods of upsetting places like Taiwan or Burma or Outer Mongolia….and perhaps a few locations in Africa….like we did finally to South Africa and Rhodesia many years ago……for being totally racist. Oh well, now we are going to have to pay 50 dollars a roll for Paper Towels…….Thank you Donnie J. Also, all the prices of autos and auto parts are going to skyrocket by 30% and more as we suggested a year ago or more.
*Trump needs to pitch pennies with Xi and found out who wins! What an amazing bit of non-essential history we are going through.
*So, it goes like this: Agricultural Price Supports – Subsidies; Literally paying Farmers not to grow crops…..goes right along with The Famous Oil Depletion
Allowances given to Big Oil for NOT pumping, or FOR pumping. Tariffs and this whole concept are so outdated. The Chinese stopped buying our SOY back in 2012…..but came back later after the Obama Administration gave them further latitude in Trade Negotiations. The Trumpster is so wrong…..we can’t even begin to tell you!
The latent sexually inept in charge our government are so confused that they have no clue as to what or who they represent. The truth of the matter is that those that have lost their physical way….. and their moral way……..or their religious teaching way……or their own identity…..have succumbed to a pragmatic establishment that loves to see these folks twist in the wind. Meanwhile,people that are confused about their sexually…….have to deal with stupid idiotic thoughts of a reality that has never existed.
The truth is: Fake sex is alive and well. In truth, would anyone want to do anything to Kimberly Guillfolye? She used to be Gavin Newsomes squeeze…..but then “things change”. Now she is the Donald Trump Jr. hot squeeze. No problem, maybe she really likes Rudy Guilliani? But who is to know? And does it really matter?