To state it in grossly oversimplistic terms - follow the Chinese lead and attempt to control population growth. (Although I understand that they may be backing off a bit on that.) Without explanation, just a few of the musings I've had:
- Natural (and man-made) disasters are killing more people today than in the past because there are more people, living in denser concentrations, to be killed.
- The technologies that have allowed current population levels to be achieved, and to continue increasing, are all in one way or another energy dependent and are increasingly energy intensive.
- Energy production and consumption have detrimental side effects, many of which have been mentioned throughout this thread, as well as benefits.
- Climate change has been going on since the earth was created. Human interventions can influence the rate of change, and perhaps even the direction of change (based on previous climate change cycles, shouldn't the earth be heading towards another ice age?), but is human influence strong enough to control or overcome the natural climate cycles that are driven by other forces?
- The earth presently has a climate that is ideal for homo sapiens and the other species that exist here - homo sapiens in particular proliferating spectacularly well, aren't we? Whatever direction the climate changes in, be it the seas or ice that covers areas that are presently dry land, at some point the consequenses are going to be less than ideal and one way or another the human population will be adjusted accordingly.
Bottom line, as I see it - at some point we are going to need to develop social structures that are based on a stable, not a continuously increasing, population and bring our breeding habits under control. This won't protect us from an asteroid hit, but it can protect us from ourselves.
AndyH said:
What do you think we as a nation should be doing - targets/goals/big picture wise?
