Dec 14
What do overpopulation, global warming, and James Hansen have in common? Apparently nothing if we are to read James Hansen’s excerpts in Newsweek from his new book, Storms of My Grandchildren.
Credits and Appreciation for James Hansen
Everyone should have the greatest respect for anyone warning of the dangers of global warming, but here are some quotations from Mr. Hansen whose credentials include: one of the first to publicize the possible cataclysmic results of global warming, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, adjunct professor at Columbia University and Columbia’s Earth Institute, and director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
- I believe the biggest obstacle to solving global warming is the role of money in politics, the undue sway of special interests
- But let me tell you: President Obama does not get it. He and his key advisers are subject to heavy pressures, and so far the approach has been “Let’s compromise”
- So far, the effects of climate change have been limited because of climate-system inertia, but inertia is not a true friend. As amplifying feedbacks begin to drive the climate toward tipping points, that inertia makes it harder to reverse direction
- Continued growth of greenhouse gases in the near term will make that result (global chaos) practically inevitable, out of our children’s and grandchildren’s control
- The problem with governments is not scientific ability. . . Instead, the government’s problem is politics – politics as usual
- You can recognize right away that our government is not taking a strategic approach to solve the climate problem
- Our planet, with its remarkable array of life, is in imminent danger of crashing. Yet our politicians are not dashing forward. They hesitate; they hang back
- This will be the most urgent fight of our lives
All of the Above Has Merit But
With all due respect, Mr. Hansen, the biggest obstacle to global warming is not money in politics, but influential scientists such as yourself refusing to acknowledge one of the seminal causes of global warming, which is overpopulation and the tremendous rate of increases we see in the world each day – 227,000 people.
That is the ultimate force to be reckoned with!
So blaming President Obama for not “getting it”, when in fact you fail to get it also, and in so doing compromise both logic and common sense, does not help the cause of global warming.
And while climate-system inertia certainly plays a pivotal role, no role is more critical than the inertia of overpopulation, driving this planet even faster towards climate change tipping points, which will only accelerate that which will soon be irreversible.
A More Inclusive Strategy
And please, do not criticize others for their lack of strategic approach, when you yourself lack the vision and foresight to include overpopulation as one of the main causes of climate change. Without that acknowledgement, you have substantially diminished the strategic approach you advocate.
Finally, climate change is most urgent and we are in imminent danger, and because of that threat we need all the tools at our disposal to free ourselves from the path of self-destruction.
When you, in your own words, fail to “dash forward” or ” hesitate and hang back” by not including the problem of overpopulation in any discussion of global warming, you do the cause, yourself, the United States and the rest of the world a great disservice.
Environment Geo-Engineering
Dec 04
I’ve never seen a problem that wouldn’t be easier to solve with fewer people, or harder, and ultimately impossible, with more.
Richard Attenborough
Less People More Potential Solutions
- What is so difficult to understand about solving problems with less variables than more
- Do we really need to populate this country and the world to the point where it is so complex and inundated with greed, corruption and calamity that there will ultimately will be no real solutions available to us
- Are we so blind or unfeeling to the misery and poverty that populates fifty percent of the world, including substantial populations in our own country, that we simply refuse to acknowledge it
- Or do we justify it by refusing to take responsibility and relinquishing it to some uncaring deity
- Are we so caught up in our own self-indulgent consumerism that we really believe that we have the right to plunder both resources and the environment, and leave the rest of the starving and war-torn world to pick through the scraps
- Do we really believe that our privileged status is justifiably earned on the backs of others, while we go on procreating, adding even more while compounding the problems we refuse to take responsibility for
The Fine Line Between Catastrophe and Concessions
Have we really reached the tipping point where we know nothing of sacrifice and common sense?
Issues may be resolved, but only if less is more.
Society
Dec 03
That was f**king Iraqi Freedom. Rip through this bitch shooting anything that moves from your window. That’s what I call freedom.
All religious stuff aside . . . the fact is people who can’t kill will be subject to those who can.
The f**ked thing . . . is the men we’ve been fighting probably came here for the same reasons we did, to test themselves, to feel what war is like. In my view it doesn’t matter if you oppose or support war. The machine goes on.
Generation Kill
The Machine
Unfortunately, the “machine” does go on and on.
- It is unbridled momentum that fuels the great economies and pits great and lesser states in a parade of military actions
- It ultimately always seeks to protect the more privileged and better armed
- It has always been a never-ending need for more and more resources
- Those resources are finite, and no matter how much technology expands it will not satiate the ongoing demand by larger and larger populations
- Those larger populations will always be pushing their momentum along the path of war and destruction to gather and control what they feel is rightfully theirs
The Many Facets of Freedom
Freedom can only be determined and defined by the circumstances in which you find yourself.
The major powers are sure that their view of freedom will prevail, and they have the devastating military might to show more humble powers the errors of their viewpoints.
Most feel powerless to resist that which is unstoppable.
Confused and fearful, those able to kill do so recklessly and without restraint, while we all shun the inevitable truth that individually we have lost control of our own humanity.
Society Anger, Government, Violence, War
Dec 02
What overpopulation has done - and might very well do!
James Hopkins, in his essay Human Population Crisis, gives a lucid and compelling argument explaining the principle of exponential growth combined with the difference between quantity and quality.
How much have we contributed toward humanely contolling our number and preserving the environment? Nature is a balance of existence. In order to coincide with nature, we must balance the saving and extending of lives with the number of lives which we produce. We mustn’t use resources any faster than they can be reproduced. We need to respect ourselves by learning to respect the environment which we rely upon for our own existence. If not, we will cease to exist.
James Hopkins
But not until the coda appears does the reader truly understand the depth of our dilemma.
In the end it all comes down to, You Reap What You Sow!
Environment Images
Dec 01
Overpopulation is with us every minute of our lives!
Whatever event, large or small, that is happening in the United States or the world, one thing will always be occurring right along with everything else in our lives – overpopulation.
It never ceases, never takes a break, carries on no matter what.
Because of it’s relentless momentum it is subtle, steadily and incrementally making our lives, communities and culture more complex, dibilitating and less personal.
So we are continually fighting the numbers thing.
Mainstream Meaningful Statistics
Recently, while stuffed into a packed airplane, I was perusing USA TODAY and I happened to catch their Snapshots piece on the front page.
Much to my amazement I found a telling summary of what this country and the rest of the world faces on a daily basis.
For you doubters of numbers and statistics the source is the Population Reference Bureau from August 2009. Read on.
World Population Changes Per Day
- More – Developed Nations: (United States and Europe) Births: + 39,340
- Deaths: – 33,636
- Net Result: + 5,704
- Less – Developed Nations: (The rest of the world) Births: + 341,343
- Deaths: – 120,019
- Net Result: + 221,324
A Staggering Grand Total of 227,000 Additional People Per Day
And I leave you with this, that Grand Total will increase tomorrow, and the next day, and the next and on into the future.
Society Statistics
