Are we ending the world?

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Lately I've been hearing about how things like the ozone layer is being destroyed by harmful gases by us (or something like that)and how pollution is destroying other things around us that are essential to human life. Does anyone else think that we are slowly destroying the planet we live on, and ultimately causing the human race to become extinct? Please share your views on this, and what we could do to sort this out. (in case your wondering, yes, I am a little bit of a hippy )

[ January 25, 2003, 12:17: Message edited by: Morningstar ]

 

Yep, we are pretty much prepareing for our own destruction, without even realy thinking about it. But then, I think a war is more likely to kill us than our idiocy in stuffing up the environment.

 

Destroying the planet, No. Changing it ,Yes.
We might make this world into something that can no longer support human life. That does not mean that the world will no longer exsist. The Earth was around before we were, and in my beliefs will survive the loss of a race that does nothing but show it's ungratefullness.
Wars are a possible reason to stop our exsistence, so is pollution and asteriods, don't forget that the Earth herself seems to be doing her Damndest to get rid of the pests that we are.
My vote goes to Supernatural Disaster.
Besides fully comprehending the actions that we take against our fellow beings and the results of those actions, there, in my opinion, is really nothing that will be done.

 

Y'know, I don't think ending the world was meant in the sense of destroying the planet. Never know, Niberu could come in line with us again

 

The newspapers, greedy for readers by enticing them with depressing stories and "facts", say we are.

But I think we are not. We are simply putting ourselves out of existence. We'll never destroy the planet - at worst destroy most of its species.

 

I've always laughed at those 'Save the planet' people.

The Planet is fine!!!
The planet will survive, no problem!!!

The real question is of our own survival.
Ultimately I believe we might just destroy ourselves before a meteor hits the planet and does it for us. Man is a stupid, short sighted, power hungry animal.
Sure some of our kind have amazing minds, but what of the rest? We are a tribe, as good as the mediocre masses, which behave as sheep. We will destroy ourselves eventually, but I don't think it is as soon as the doomsayers would like us to believe.

 

I'm with Scarampella on this one, the world will survive, if anything will survive on it when mankind goes down is another question.

As in the matrix, mankind is a plague due to its selfishness, we destroy, transform or corrupt basicly anything we touch till we realize it's important to us, then we try to fix it, often too late.

Most likely, we'll be able to hop to other worlds and do the same all over again.

[ January 26, 2003, 11:33: Message edited by: Lokken ]

 

The beauty of it is we do have the power to stop what we are doing. There is evidence that the holes in the ozone layers are closing up and should be repaired in 10 years or so. There is enough paper and wood in the world, that if we recycled, we wouldn't have to cut down another tree.
Speaking of trees, this is slightly off topic, I hate people who are making the claim that there is more forests today in the US then there was 200 years ago. Bull. There may be more trees because replanting for logging, but not more forests. You simply can't plant a few seeds and call it a forest. Arrrgggg!
Scarampella, you're right, the planet is fine. Its the environment that is not.
We have streams and rivers where the water isn't even safe to touch.
So what can we do? Well there was a post I started a while back about being environmentally friendly.
Low emmision vehicles come to mind. So how about getting the damn oil companies out of the pockets of politicians? And the lumber companies too.
We have the technology to were we would never need to drill for oil. Why don't we? Its too expensive because the government won't fund such projects.
Get rid of SUVs. How many people actually use them to go off road? "Oh, I don't want to get dirt on my nice shiny SUV." 12 mpg? WhyTF would anyone want that?
Another thing, which I have mentioned before. Population control. I'm doing my part. My wife and I don't want kids, we have no desire, so we are not going to have any. Now, if you do have the desire, then I am not saying not too. But we are doing so much to prolong life and create life, I think we need to start doing a little bit on the other end so we don't end up reaching the carrying capacity of the planet. Which a lot of ecologist believe will be reached in the middle of this century if we don't do something. What does this mean? Carrying capacity is the amount of animal or plant life that can be supported indefinitely on available resources. If we go past that limit, we won't be able to support any more growth in the population. Of course technology can step in and we can just clone a buttload of cows to feed us. (Said with a major intonation of sarcasm)

 

That's an opptimistic view. A pessimistic one could run along the lines of "Soylent Green". I've always been a supporter for poppulation control, except for the fact that it could be taken to extreme measuers.

 

I read a topic like this and am reminded of the "Mad Max" trilogy - especially the third one, "Mad Max - Beyond Thunderdome." We may screw ourselves up, and screw ourselves up a lot, but there can always be hope.

 

I think the real question here should be, "are humans going to cause something to happen that will end society as we know it?" And the answer is, OF COURSE WE ARE! Will it be in this generation, I doubt it. Will it be in the next one? With the geometric expansion of knowledge and technology, maybe. Will it be the extinction of man? Doubt it. Will we kill off a bunch of ourselves and end up taking many steps back in our social evolution? That is one possibility. The other possibility is that we finally figure out that this planet will not suffer us forever. We cannot continue to breed like lemmings and expect the balance of the planet not to realign in a manner that may be detrimental to us. So we have 2 choices if we want to avoid a major upheaval in our future (or I should say our ancestor's future). Find a way off of this rock, or stop our growth. Earth can only support so many humans, and while we have found ways to extend that number, the law of diminishing returns will rear its ugly head some day.

Regardless, society will be something that we (this generation) would not recognize or be able to cope in within a couple of generations (just as people from 200 or 300 years ago could not imagine what we have today). I just hope we (as a species) figure it out before the planet begins to dictate its own balance to us.

 

It seems as though our own pro proliferation will be own undoing. We are doing much to keep ourselves alive, longer and longer, as someone mentioned. And now there is a much lower percentage of infants dying before they reach maturity than there was, say, a hundred years ago.

I'd say some population control is inevitable if we are to survive. Some say that the world is not overcrowded and right they may be. For now. I don't think we really need to find out, personally. If I ever have children, I won't be having more than enough to replace my mate and myself.

I propose that murder be made legal for me. Every little bit counts

 

The problem is greed. Example: a guy invents and developes a perfectly good, efficient alternative powered car (can't remember if solar or gas or what). Oil companies hear about it and offer him larger and larger amounts of money to buy the design off him so that they can stop such an invention becoming manufactured, putting them out of buisness.

What hope is there when things like this happen?

 

I think I should have named this topic "Are we destroying our world. Intentioner of the damned, an excellent point. It saddens me to think some people would prevent a cleaner world for generations to come just for money. Unfortunately, its the way we live, and I know I'd be tempted if I was offered a big wad of cash for not selling on an invention.

(Intentioner of the damned, I heard that on man with the golden gun as well )

Also, someone told me that if McDonalds donated 1p from every burger they sold, they could wipe out famine, just another case of greed.

 

Yup, we are ending the world.
No matter how hard they try to keep the nature clean and stuff the world is going straight down to hell.
But seriously, I dont care cuz I probably wont live when the earth dies.

 

Unfortunately, all of us naturalists (NOT environmentalists, mind you) out there are right - all we are doing is following the single law of nature - propogate the species (make lots of babies). The problem is not necessarily that our methods are self-destructive, but that man's only natural predator (nature's population control) does not exist. Some would argue that man is his own predator, but really, I cannot agree with that. All species that have their natural predator removed from their environment eventually overpopulate, contract some sort of disease or suffer some other negative effect of overpopulation, and then die. (Find and read Alfred R. Wallace's "On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely From the Original Type" for a more detailed explanation of this process - it is old (1858), but it still holds true)

So basically - it will all work out in the end, but there will most definitely be death involved (unless we somehow figure out a way to terraform and colonize other planets, that is).

 

Man is the only species on this planet that has the power to wipe out themselves and everyother species on earth.

 

http://www.angelfire.com/rpg2/xaelifer/writings/The_Silver_Evolution.txt

A most relevant story, I think. Perhaps worth your time. And if you are gloriously incapable of reading things beyond the length of streetsigns and magazine headings, its 'relevance' is summed up here:

"Science was born as a result of the needs to survive in a greedy world. Life needed to be
shaped right so that hungry persons could swallow instead of taste."

 

Actually a electric car has already been invented that also uses the force generated in braking to recharge it's battery. I believe they're selling quite well but they would have to be massively marketed. I agree with scarampella most are stupid and power hungry, regardless of what everyone says only a very small percentage of humans are capable of thinking outside the small confines of their box and almost none are in any position to affect the world around them, even less are capable of doing so without everyone else demanding to be involved.

 

Who knows, maybe the USA take revenge on the atmosphere for killing the Columbia by enlarging the ozon hole .... reportedly Bush is very enthusiastic about a plan developed by republican experts, even more since this could also ensure US jobs and would perhaps find a warm echo in the US .... the only country that decided not to ratify the climate convention Excerpt from a most recent press conference held by the president himself:

And as long as emerging 2nd and 3rd world countries have economical problems they will prefer wreaking havoc on the environment - their argument is that environmental protection costs money and that these costs would make them unable to compete with their un-ecological products. Though they see the need, they see the western demands for environmental protection as a 1st world approach to discriminate them further - and to drive their products off the market. However, the 1st world's leader teaches them how to do business - give the next generation a big Fu@#-you

[ February 04, 2003, 11:20: Message edited by: Ragusa ]