I lava good geology pun.
the inconvenient truth about climate change is that its caused by too many people as much as what we do.
they are trying to make it rain in India because the pollution is so bad, its shaving 10 years off your life. they are making it rain by pumping chemicals into the air.
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Population is definitely the elephant in the room, not just re climate change either
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I am in Vietnam where population has gone from about 25 million to 95 million since 1960, in spite of a war. 330,000 sq kms land area
Australia has gone from about 10 million to 25 million in the same period. 7.7 million sq kms land area
And we reckon we are crowded.
Technically, H2O is a chemical
I think the following is trueā¦it struck me when I first heard it.
In 1985, Ethiopia was in the midst of a severe famine, and Live Aid was singing to raise funds for the issueā¦but look at a graph of the historical Ethiopian population, and you can barely make out the famineā¦it flattens briefly, but then it returns immediately to exponential growth.
Ethiopia had ~40m population at the time of that famine, and >100m today.
I just raise this as an example of the human raceās tendency towards population growth in even the most extreme circumstancesā¦
Japan comes to mind as one of the few countries to halt population growth, but then the media coverage will only report it as a ādemographic crisisā and politicians/economists panic about what to do without ever-rising-demand and the associated inflation.
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I looked into the numbers on global CO2 emissions a liitle over 10 years ago, and I just came to the conclusion that the situation is futile.
The numbers are something like:
- To keep the temperature rise to ~2 degrees C, we need to keep the atmospheric CO2e concentration to <450ppm.
- To do that, we need to get the global CO2e emissions down to ~10Gt/annum (from ~50Gt/annum).
- Now say the global population grows to 8 billion (it will probably shoot past this).
- So the global carbon budget will be ~10Gt/8 billionā¦~1.25t CO2e/person/annumā¦and look up how much this is, and itās less than a person living in India.
Basically, the only way the planet avoids major climate change, is if we return to the stone age. Itās not going to happen.
Iām just going to crank up my air conditioner until I dieā¦and then Iāll probably go to an even hotter hell.
Itās not futile. We just need the globe to go carbon neutral quicker than we are.
Thatās to say, the only futility is in getting the world to do that, not that it canāt be done.
Carbon neutrality is unachievable in practiceā¦for example, I think weād need to give up:
- Metal production (eg. steel)
- Beef? Pretty sure those cows burp out a lot of methane.
Thatās just off the top of my headā¦I expect there are many other activities in our modern life that generate greenhouse gases as a byproduct, but the general person on the street is unawareā¦
Iād prefer us to try and fail for ourselves than just sayāā ā ā ā itā and set the planet on a course of runaway greenhouse effect. Itās the only place we know of with complex life. At least give it a shot at resetting.
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True. Although to be fair there is a ā ā ā ā load of Australia which is uninhabitable.
And with that many peopleā¦ Well humans are technically committing genocide for lack of a better term on bucket loads of different species.
Personally I think the last thing society should be doing is rewarding having more children.
Especially when we are going into a second major wave of automation anyway.
Stop breeding willy nilly, stop factory farming. Neither will happen.
Answer, all meat eating humans must eat their own offspring or give themselves to the bbq upon reaching 50. By 60 thereās too much gristle.
Gas is a finite resource so itās a good thing that Labor under Daniel Andrews hasnāt banned the fracking or the exploration for it in Victoria.
Oh wait!
Without comment:
h/t CFACT ā Legoland has demonstrated their commitment to reducing the global burden of waste plastic, with a token ban of plastic drinking straws.
Good thing Australia is the biggest LNG producer in the world. Victoria doesnāt need fracking to supply gas plantsā¦
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But frackers deserve BMWās too!
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I think weāre probably giving away enough of our natural resources at the moment.
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Iām not sure what your point is. I am sure that you know that some environments can support more people than others, but leaving that aside, is a population density of 276/sq.km a good thing? Itās interesting that Vietnamās neighbour, Laos, has a pop density one tenth of that despite a similar environment and war history.
What is a sustainable global population? How should it be distributed? How much of the earthās natural environment are we willing to sacrifice? We are a long way off answering those questions, partly because the prevailing economic system relies on perpetual growth.
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Never seen so many pregnant ladies ever than I am seeing here in Hoi An. More per sq m than Wendouree Shoppping Centre.
Stopping reproduction is probably impossible, so knocking everyone off at 50 or 60 makes more sense, except for Bomber supporters who would be exempted under the @Reboot Survival Rule. Could be a good membership drive.
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