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Outside Asylum Take a walk, smell the roses. Any topic is fine, save people bashing. |
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Outside Asylum Take a walk, smell the roses. Any topic is fine, save people bashing. |
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In Reply to: Re: So why do these problems exist even in non-captialist countries? posted by Bruce from DC on January 9, 2007 at 09:30:04:
"If the problem is population growth, the answer is industrialization." While the theory of Demographic Transition has some merit, where the hell are the resources going to come from to make this a global "solution"? Do we have enough copper, aluminum, tin, zinc, arable land, fresh water, oil and gas left to make it possible? The world's resource base isn't going to suddenly grow just because some economist shakes his magic can opener at it.
- The copper ore being mined today has 1/6 the concentration of the ore mined 100 years ago.
- About half the world's endowment of crude oil has already been turned into CO2.
- The world is losing 130,000 sq km of forest every year.
- Over a billion people in 110 countries are now affected by desertification.
- Big-fish stocks have fallen 90% since 1950. 90% of all fish species could collapse before 2050
- Soil fertility on the Great Plains is half what it was a a hundred years ago.
- The Ogallala aquifer is being drained at 100 times the replacement rate.
- The world has eaten more grain than it has consumed in six of the last seven years. Global grain reserves have fallen from 130 days in 1986 to 57 days today.
- Species are going extinct at 1000 times the expected natural rate.
Is this the picture of a planet with the resources needed to lift over half its population from an income of $4/day to the lifestyle of, say, Portugal?For your information, as of a year ago Britain is a net importer of oil. The North Sea fields are in decline, some depleting by as much as 50% per year. Norway is still a net exporter, but its exports are declining - its fields are in the same shape as Britain's. Canada's exports depend on us fucking up the landscape turning bitumen into syncrude. Oh, and Mexico's biggest field, Cantarell, is confirmed by PEMEX to be declining by at least 15% and perhaps as much as 40% per year. The picture is not pretty.
"The solution to a problem created by growth is more growth." Only an economist could possibly swallow that logical construct without having his head explode.
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Follow Ups
- The mind reels. - GliderGuider 01/9/0709:59:44 01/9/07 (0)
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