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You need to get out more. Have a Mars bar and a cold beer ... :-)
(Can you think what he'll be like when he finds out about Brexit)
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
Technology counteracts this by creating efficiency but this is simply a retardant force and not a solution. Ultimately we are doomed as humans show little to no capacity to change their attitude to childbirth, consumption and the value of a renewable environment.
There will be climate change and major ecological damage in the mean time - it's unstoppable now - but it may not be as serious or as irreversible as it seemed only ten years ago.
Actually you're wrong about that. Population growth is slowing markedly and the total population is likely to peak at around 11 billion. Still a lot, but probably survivable with better technology for all.
Higher standards of living encourage lower childbirth rates as well as more efficient use of resources in the long term. The important factor is high technology.
Watch this if you have an hour - it's not as depressing as you'd think.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Offset "(Emp) - a little heavy on the hyperbole."
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
For the first time in Human history we are reaching a position of a global community (not without some glaring difficulties), by this i mean we have never be so interdependant and with a will that could turn out to be the one thing that gives some hope that terminal decline may be avoided, As the shit continues to hit the fan, political will, will increase.......
The question is how shitty you're willing for it to get vs how willing you are to make it better.
I don't doubt the fact that the Earth is warming but I'm not sure we fully understand how the planet works. Forecasts have been consistently wrong - the Earth gets warmer and then cools down and nobody really knows why.
Governments should change tack - rather than bleating on with the doomsday message about global warming start tackling things that affect people everyday. For example, over 9,000 people die in London from pollution every year and pollution kills over 40,000 people in the UK every year but it gets very little press. In London diesel emissions cause a lot of deaths. Fix the causes of pollution and you'll help people and get their buy in and the planet.
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
That presents another existential dilemma - huge populations without the means of raising their living standards or incomes (local-relative) while other select elites maintain theirs. This could be a cause of considerable social and indeed global tension. Given declining trade volumes globally the theory that industrialisation and the exploitation of cost benefits in non-modernised economies will lift everyone out of poverty may be about to be disproved by technology. Then what?
US cities, despite V8s being popular have way less pollution.
As always, there's a relevant XKCD;
Bandcamp
Spotify, Apple et al
Diesel *is* more efficient than petrol in absolute carbon emission terms when an engine is running constantly at its optimum rev range - which is why it's the best fuel for train, trucks, tractors, ships etc. But for almost anything other than that it's both less efficient and produces more dangerous pollutants than an equivalent-tech petrol engine.
The idea of putting diesel engines in small cars for anything other than motorway driving is completely counterproductive - the problem is that now having sold so many, it's going to be politically difficult to reverse the policy, and even harder to discourage the use of the ones already sold by raising the price of diesel to accurately reflect the impact it has - but it should be much more expensive, because the "better mpg" from diesel is because each litre contains far more carbon than a litre of petrol.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Schwarzengger, of all people, has it spot on.
“It drives me crazy when people talk about 30 years from now, rising sea levels and so on... What about right now? Thousands of people are dying from pollution. People are living with cancer [because of air pollution]...There are people stuck in cancer wards now, tubes sticking out of them - 7 million people die a year because of pollution. We should be talking about that.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/07/arnold-schwarzenegger-climate-campaigns-need-focus-right-now-not-2050
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!