NationStates Jolt Archive

if the delusions of economics are collapsing, why not bypass that way of looking at things, which is only self-serving anyway, entirely?

people are just hypnotized and deceiving themselves, to imagine this is any kind of end of the world.

now ENVIRONMENTAL collapse, that IS the end of the world, so to speak, but THAT, if its not too late, we CAN prevent. we can prevent THAT by converting to means of generating energy and propelling transportation that don't involve burning anything and by lowering human fertility across the board.

we need to reduce the rate of deforestation too, but the three above are really the biggest ones. all entirely within existing capabilities, well the first two anyway, and number three, if made a research priority we could get there too.

now ENVIRONMENTAL collapse, that IS the end of the world, so to speak, but THAT, if its not too late, we CAN prevent. we can prevent THAT by converting to means of generating energy and propelling transportation that don't involve burning anything and by lowering human fertility across the board.


Nuclear power plants near large cities, and without any lead casing! It solves both problem at once! And Nuclear-powered cars! Lowering the fertility rate, AND efficient energy that causes far fewer environmental problem than Fossil Fuels!:p

Science and technology can be used to repair and restore environmental damage and increase the carrying capacity of the Earth to an indefinite level. I have to agree that placing them as top priorities for research and investment is a good idea.

Deforestation is a curious case...in and of itself, it isn't a problem (indeed, the rate of reforestation is rapidly exceeding clearance), but the problem is that new forest lacks the biodiversity of the old and might not ever attain it or at least not attain it in a human timeframe. We need to stop clear-cutting of primordial forest and instead move towards using regrowth and tree farms. Either that or find a way to repopulate these new forests with their old ecosystem, but given that some organisms have a habitat consisting of only a few square miles (if not smaller), that's pretty difficult.

Lowering human fertility is bad, though. Unless we've got a way to replace workers, we're going to need a steady supply of new people as the economy expands. That is, of course, unless you want a zero-growth economy, and the consequences of that are far more deadly than those of our current situation. If you think competition, greed, and exploitation are bad now, just wait until the economic pie is no longer growing and anything you've got comes at the expense of somebody else.

If the economies collapse I have some guns and several round of ammunition. It will be a good while before I die.

Yahbut it's not going to collapse like Somalia. It's gonna be more like early 1950s Britain: "Is jam off the ration yet mummy???"

Unless you have money like $5m+. In which case it will be like now, except harder to get fancy cars and not as many restaurants.

Yahbut it's not going to collapse like Somalia. It's gonna be more like early 1950s Britain: "Is jam off the ration yet mummy???"
I predict more like the 1970s/80s "well this is just pure pish" etc.