'We'll need 2 planets by 2030'

Lino

Lino

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Cape Town - The recent downturn in the global economy is a stark reminder of the consequences of living beyond our means. But the possibility of financial recession pales in comparison to the looming ecological credit crunch.

"If we continue with business as usual, we will need two planets by 2030 to keep up with humanity's demand for goods and services," cautions Dr Morné du Plessis, CEO of WWF South Africa, speaking at the launch of the Living Planet Report 2008.

The report, published every two years since 1998, has become widely accepted as an accurate statement of Earth's ability to retain its functional integrity as a "living planet".

The Ecological Footprint analysis shows that while global biocapacity - the area available to produce our resources and capture our emissions - is 2.1 global hectares per person, the average individual footprint worldwide is 2.7 global ha.

Thus, we are exceeding the Earth's carrying capacity by about 30% on average.

The report finds that the USA and China have the largest national footprints, each in total about 21% of global biocapacity (the productive area of the earth), but US citizens each require an average of 9.4 global ha (or nearly 4.5 Planet Earths if the global population had US consumption patterns), while Chinese citizens use on average 2.1 global ha per person.

Biocapacity is unevenly distributed, with eight nations - the United States, Brazil, Russia, China, India, Canada, Argentina and Australia - containing more than half the world total.

Population and consumption patterns make three of these countries ecological debtors, with footprints greater than their national biocapacity - the United States (footprint 1.8 times national biocapacity), China (2.3 times) and India ( 2.2 times).
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http://www.news24.com/News24/Technology/News/0,,2-13-1443_2417789,00.html
 
If no one minds I am moving to Mars
 
Lets go back to living in craves then
 
BigAl-sa said:
Interesting misspelling:
caves as in cavemen
graves as in deadmen

:D
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Exactly. I was hoping somebody would pick up on that. Honest

:D

StrongTurd said:
May I predict that you'll see exactly that happen in your lifetime except that your numbers are probably on the conservative side.
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If only there was a way to put a wager on that
 
More scare talk. This planet can easily hold 60 Billion people, never mind 6 Billion. When the tree-huggers get their groove on they start throwing out stats like this to scare the weak minded... into what I don't know.

Yes, by all means, let's look after our planet. Let's live clean and plant more trees. Let's look for clean energy and etc.

But all you have to do is drive down to Durban and see vast open tracts of land sitting there idle. It's like that all over the world. We've got the space people. Just needs a bit of logistical planning and we'll be fine.
 
Garyvdh said:
More scare talk. This planet can easily hold 60 Billion people, never mind 6 Billion. When the tree-huggers get their groove on they start throwing out stats like this to scare the weak minded... into what I don't know.
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Unfortunately, we need the trees in order to be able to breathe...
 
Garyvdh said:
More scare talk. This planet can easily hold 60 Billion people, never mind 6 Billion. When the tree-huggers get their groove on they start throwing out stats like this to scare the weak minded... into what I don't know.

Yes, by all means, let's look after our planet. Let's live clean and plant more trees. Let's look for clean energy and etc.

But all you have to do is drive down to Durban and see vast open tracts of land sitting there idle. It's like that all over the world. We've got the space people. Just needs a bit of logistical planning and we'll be fine.
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The really scary thing is that the vast majority of people think like you do. Probably 95% of people don't have a clue.

60 billion? LOL!
 
phenom said:
Petroleum is the major factor in this equation. After that, most of the CO2 could be taken care of, by Algae at the factories/refineries or coal power stations.
All of the other problems of over population could be solved by high education (ie. University) and creativity.

If we have enough smart people to counter challenges like these, we could go over 100 billion.

Same was said when we reached 1 billion, people paniced that the current technology at the time could not help, but new technology was developed, and allowed the population to grow.

We have to lower the birth rates of those who don't contribute ideas, and heighten those who do.

Our problem is not over-population, our problem is that those who don't contribute are growing faster in number than those who do.
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Holy cow! 100 billion?!! Please tell me which part of this picture don't you understand:

http://wilderdom.com/images/WorldPopulationGraph.jpg
 
StrongTurd said:
The really scary thing is that the vast majority of people think like you do. Probably 95% of people don't have a clue.

60 billion? LOL!
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Ja, it's that 95% of people who go to work every day to feed people and keep the planet moving forward. We don't all have time to sit out in the veld and feel the zephyrs drifting across our cheeks.

I wish these stupid nutjobs would get a real job.
 
Garyvdh said:
Yes, that's why I said let's plant more trees. :rolleyes:
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Sorry did miss that :o

phenom said:
It's said that the entire world's population could fit into Texas, with still land to spare. Land is not an issue, it is how people find smart solutions to use the land that is the problem.
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It's difficult enough living with noisy neighbours in our current situation, can you imagine having thousands living in the same square metre as you? :sick:
 
BigAl-sa said:
Sorry did miss that :o

It's difficult enough living with noisy neighbours in our current situation, can you imagine having thousands living in the same square metre as you? :sick:
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I was actually thinking about this last night. I think in the future you are going to see mega city blocks spaced well apart from each other with grass and trees planted over the top and self-contained. Each one having their own mall and working offices.

kinda like this...

071003_brill_intro_day_1p.300w.jpg


New%20York%20City%20greenroof.jpg


vertical%20farm_0.jpg


0aaknlobernahg.jpg


Ambasz_fukuoka_green_roof.jpg
 
The problem is that everybody is aware of the potential dangers that are facing us, but not enough governments will do enough to actually make a difference, because in doing so would not benefit them.
 
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