Compounding effects of human beings on nature

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Geriatrix

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http://www.chrismartenson.com/dr_albert_bartlett

I wasn't able to find a part to quote that would sum up this transcript of a talk by Dr. Albert Barlett.

But it basically describes how the compounding effect of human population growth, economical growth, energy usage growth and limited space for food production would effect our lives in the years to come.

And also how a general misunderstaning by the people in charge of our lives of this compounding effect leads to inaccurate planning for the future and a general underemphasis of the problems we'll face in the future.
 
Very, very interesting article Geri.

Perhaps it will prove illuminating to a certain poster in this thread:

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=136150

From your article:

Bacteria grow by doubling. One bacterium divides to become two, the two divide to become 4, the 4 become 8, 16 and so on. Suppose we had bacteria that doubled in number this way every minute. Suppose we put one of these bacteria into an empty bottle at 11:00 in the morning, and then observe that the bottle is full at 12:00 noon. There's our case of just ordinary steady growth: it has a doubling time of one minute, it’s in the finite environment of one bottle.

I want to ask you three questions. Number one: at what time was the bottle half full? Well, would you believe 11:59, one minute before 12:00? Because they double in number every minute.

And the second question: if you were an average bacterium in that bottle, at what time would you first realize you were running of space? Well, let’s just look at the last minutes in the bottle. At 12:00 noon, it’s full; one minute before, it’s half full; 2 minutes before, it’s a quarter full; then an 1?8th; then a 1?16th. Let me ask you, at 5 minutes before 12:00, when the bottle is only 3% full and is 97% open space just yearning for development, how many of you would realize there’s a problem?
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Here's a great quote of Isaac Asimov's from the article:

Bill Moyers interviewed Isaac Asimov. He asked Asimov, “What happens to the idea of the dignity of the human species if this population growth continues?” and Asimov says, “It’ll be completely destroyed. I like to use what I call my bathroom metaphor. If two people live in an apartment, and there are two bathrooms, then they both have freedom of the bathroom. You can go to the bathroom anytime you want, stay as long as you want, for whatever you need. And everyone believes in freedom of the bathroom. It should be right there in the constitution. But if you have twenty people in the apartment and two bathrooms, then no matter how much every person believes in freedom of the bathroom, there’s no such thing. You have to set up times for each person, you have to bang on the door, ‘Aren't you through yet?’ and so on.” And Asimov concluded with one of the most profound observations I've seen in years. He said, “In the same way, democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive overpopulation. Convenience and decency cannot survive overpopulation. As you put more and more people into the world, the value of life not only declines, it disappears. It doesn’t matter if someone dies, the more people there are, the less one individual matters.”
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Here's an update from a more mainstreams source.
http://www.newscientist.com/channel...op1_head_How our economy is killing the Earth

THE graphs climbing across these pages (see graph, right, or explore in more detail) are a stark reminder of the crisis facing our planet. Consumption of resources is rising rapidly, biodiversity is plummeting and just about every measure shows humans affecting Earth on a vast scale. Most of us accept the need for a more sustainable way to live, by reducing carbon emissions, developing renewable technology and increasing energy efficiency.

But are these efforts to save the planet doomed? A growing band of experts are looking at figures like these and arguing that personal carbon virtue and collective environmentalism are futile as long as our economic system is built on the assumption of growth. The science tells us that if we are serious about saving Earth, we must reshape our economy...
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I'm actually amazed at the lack of interest shown in this topic, considering it's arguably the most important problem facing the the planet right now.
 
You should see the compounded effects nature has on nature. 100 times worse than what humans do. Nature and the earth have these terrible ozone killers called "volcanoes" .. and when the earth really gets pissed off it has this thing called an "earth quake"

The compounded effects of these two natural events (that happen all the time) are so much worse than what humans do.

So I say.. ban volcanoes and earthquakes .. and nude animals!
 
w1z4rd said:
You should see the compounded effects nature has on nature. 100 times worse than what humans do. Nature and the earth have these terrible ozone killers called "volcanoes" .. and when the earth really gets pissed off it has this thing called an "earth quake"

The compounded effects of these two natural events (that happen all the time) are so much worse than what humans do.

So I say.. ban volcanoes and earthquakes .. and nude animals!
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Now now w1z - I expected a better response than that from you. Did you read the article in the OP?
 
w1z4rd said:
You should see the compounded effects nature has on nature. 100 times worse than what humans do. Nature and the earth have these terrible ozone killers called "volcanoes" .. and when the earth really gets pissed off it has this thing called an "earth quake"

The compounded effects of these two natural events (that happen all the time) are so much worse than what humans do.

So I say.. ban volcanoes and earthquakes .. and nude animals!
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Oh yes and we all know volcanoes and earthquakes increase exponentially every few years...
Seriously, you flip out when people don't depate by trying to refute things with facts but here you come and act like old Cosmos.
 
Thread resurrection due to the importance of the subject matter in the OP article. New forumites - read that link!
 
BCO said:
Yeah I read that too. It only served to confirm what has been (anecdotally) evident right here on the forum. Still, the article you posted in this thread was a huge influence on me - thanks for that. :D
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No prob. :D
I share what I find interesting.
 
It's an interesting article for sure but perhaps nobody is taking an interest because you haven't asked a question, given an opinion or explained the point of your posting it.
What are you trying to say exactly?
That if we don't start to live sustainably we will run out of resources?
We know this already.
Are you pointing out that we don't have as much time left as we might think?
I agree based on the article, but what are we supposed to do about it?
 
joelus said:
It's an interesting article for sure but perhaps nobody is taking an interest because you haven't asked a question, given an opinion or explained the point of your posting it.
What are you trying to say exactly?
That if we don't start to live sustainably we will run out of resources?
We know this already.
Are you pointing out that we don't have as much time left as we might think?
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I post what I find interesting.
As to what we can do about it, imho not much. Its pointless.
Its like going to your local branch of the SAPD and seeing that they still fill in reports with pen and paper like in the 70's and knowing that it should be done on PC's with a nationwide network to instantly share information(and also preventing dockets from "disappearing") but also knowing that it would never happen or work in reality. There's just not enough interest, know-how or motivation to do so by those with the power to do so. So you can just shrug, tolerate the insanity and help the officer spell words like "person" or "vehicle".

Unless you can somehow convince the millions of people striving for the modern western lifestyle not to do so, and convince politicians and world leaders to make the decisions that would save the planet and *gasp* tell people to hokaai with the baby making *gasp* you're just pushing against the wall by getting all militant about it.

I agree based on the article, but what are we supposed to do about it?
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You can think about it for yourself. I just share what I find interesting. :)
 
That's why I say, pharmaceutical contraseptives mandatory for everyone.
 
joelus said:
It's an interesting article for sure but perhaps nobody is taking an interest because you haven't asked a question, given an opinion or explained the point of your posting it.
What are you trying to say exactly?
That if we don't start to live sustainably we will run out of resources?
We know this already.
Are you pointing out that we don't have as much time left as we might think?
I agree based on the article, but what are we supposed to do about it?
Click to expand...

What we are supposed to do about it is discourage wanton breeding of humans. It's not alright to have 3 or more kids., but right now it's very un-pc to say that. The notion of overpopulation has become a taboo subject, yet it's probably the most critical issue facing humanity.
 
Geriatrix said:
I post what I find interesting.

You can think about it for yourself. I just share what I find interesting. :)
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Thanks for posting it, it was an interesting read. I was just trying to figure out the lack of response BCO pointed out!
 
joelus said:
Thanks for posting it, it was an interesting read. I was just trying to figure out the lack of response BCO pointed out!
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Most people read it and then their minds just shut down because it indicates that we'd need to change how society as a whole and our lifestyles would need to drastically change. And do it quickly too. And that sounds like so much effort and cooperation. And deep down they realize that that won't happen. So they just ignore it and close the thread.
 
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