RE: Why Europe is so Contrary

From: Steve Drew (sd014a6399@blueyonder.co.uk)
Date: Mon 09 Dec 2002 - 23:58:32 GMT

  • Next message: joedees@bellsouth.net: "RE: Toward a new US-World dialogue"

    > Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2002 12:45:52 -0600
    > From: joedees@bellsouth.net
    > Subject: RE: Why Europe is so Contrary
    >
    >> Joe said:
    >>> Yep, pollution (including ozone layer depletion and global warming),
    >>> natural resource depletion (including deforestation) and species
    >>> diversity loss all have as their common denominator human
    >>> overpopulation. Until this root cause is responsibly addressed, we
    >>> will be stuck with its disastrous effects.
    >>>>
    >> I disagree Joe. The so-called developed nations are not too badly
    >> overpopulated but they are the most harmful. IMO it is greed that is
    >> the cause of depletion and pollution. Jeremy
    >>
    > No, our pushing the environment to make so much more food and allow
    > populations to increase beyond their land's natural starvation/famine
    > limit, and our ability to thwart disease epidemics (the animal equivalents
    > of periodic forest fires), has caused many areas to be overpopulated to
    > levels many times their human load in all of recorded history, and still
    > the breeding continues. When the new, greater limits are themselves
    > breached (as Malthus assures us they always will be), the results
    > appear even more disastrous, because there are many more living to
    > die.

    I agree. Today's Guardian (UK paper) illustrated a story about Bangladesh. Well meaning folk drilled millions (their figure) of wells to alleviate the fact that their was not enough potable water for people or crops in this over populated land (if it was not overpopulated there would be enough) The net result is that: A) they are draining non renewable aquifers and that B) they were tainted by arsenic anyway due to the geology of the region and so caused an even bigger problem.

    We are increasingly living on techno fix to sort our problems, but they only work if you have the cash and the technology. I am not saying, however, that technology is not the answer (or at least one of them) but the reality to me is that there are too many people, finite resources, and an expanding population.

    We have nearly reached the limits of our present ecological niche and must expand it (techno) change it (space etc) or live within it, and a few diseases that are becoming anti biotic resistant may help us.

    Regards, on a not too cheery note,

    Steve

    =============================================================== This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing) see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit

    This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Tue 10 Dec 2002 - 00:02:32 GMT