Having taken a short break to pursue other forums to rant and rave in, here I am back after only one year. From the number of comments I get, I am probably ranting almost exclusively to myself but hey, beats banging your head against the wall (although the music isn't as good).
It is my contention that the world is now up against a set of problems which democratically elected governments don't have a snowball's chance in hell of solving; the Earth and humanity are doomed and we are all gonna die, taking a goodly portion of Life on Earth with us. Sound crazy, over the top, demented? I think so too but unfortunately I can't see any real hope of avoidance. This set of problems, which I will call the Kapoofoo Syndrome is dominated in the public conscience by "Global Warming" or "Climate Change" but it goes far beyond that. To clarify the name, it is from the mythical Kapoofoo Bird which, having one wing shorter that the other, flies around in a decreasing spiral until it goes "KAPOOFOO", up its own butt. This gives the bird a non-existent vision of the future, or anything else.
Problems which comprise the syndrome are, in no particular order:
- population growth
- personal and corporate greed for both money and power
- lack of stewardship
- lack of leadership
- the end of cheap energy
- denial
- inequality of opportunity
- loss of civility
Why is democracy so ill-equipped to cope? Because almost all of the solutions which might have a meaningful effect in turning around the runaway degradation of our one-and-only home would require pain and suffering of the rich on a par with that currently endured by the poor. No personal transportation, no accumulation of wealth, greatly reduced variety and quality of food, greatly reduced use of water, land and all other natural resources and almost complete loss of individual rights and freedoms. If that's not enough, how about forced sterilization of half of all male infants and all other males after the siring of one child. This might be avoided if enough pandemics arose to reduce the world population by at least one half. If you do the math you will find the discrepancies I have built in to allow for, at best, 50% compliance with even the most totalitarian and heavy-handed governance.
So what politician is going to run on that platform? If one did, what chance would he/she have of being elected? If one was elected on false promises and then attempted to introduce the necessary measures, would he/she even manage to survive? We still have people bitching about laws to reduce exposure to second hand smoke, one pub owner was quoted in today's paper as saying her business will be destroyed because her customers will buy booze and drink it at home. So could allowing them to gather in one place, expose themselves and each other to smoke while getting pissed enough to drive home be part of the solution to over-population? Probably no more acceptable than sterilizing them at birth.
Of course the irony is that left unchecked, humanity will bring down even worse calamities on itself through drought, flooding, storms, pandemics, eradication of food sources and other un-natural disasters. Many populations are already dependent on non-sustainable resources for existence. Typically, a newly found fisheries resource is reduced to worthless in less than 10 years. Subsistence farming destroys rainforest and causes desertification of previously productive land in many parts of the world. In the so-called developed world, water tables are being lowered, aquifers are being polluted by agricultural waste and arable land is still being built over and now used to produce fuel instead of food. Water is being pumped down oil wells and used to extract oil from the Canadian tarsands.
I have decided to take a break (not another year, just a day or two) and continue with The Kapoofoo Syndrome, Part 2 ........
PS: The short break did turn into a year after all but maybe I'll get back to the Kapoofoo Syndrome yet. In the meantime , I have a few other things I want to persue.
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Showing posts with label climate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label climate. Show all posts
Monday, March 31, 2008
Friday, February 2, 2007
The 6.5 Billion Horsemen of the Apocalypse
It has taken a very long time for politicians to accept the obvious with respect to climate change. We must remember that, in our democratic system, politicians are elected by all of us to represent us and this is probably the main reason why they will never tackle any problem which requires a solution that creates even a small hardship for the majority of us. They fear, rightly so, that they will fail to be re-elected.
There are several of these unpopular issues which are pushing our world towards the point of not being able to sustain human life. These are 'Growth' factors, most of which are paradoxically looked at as increasing our quality and enjoyment of life. Population, economy, consumerism, jobs, wealth, all these have been looked at as being able to grow continuously and without end. Believing this is obviously even more ridiculous than denying the effects of climate change.
During my lifetime, world population has tripled from just over 2 billion to 6.5 billion. During that time, the earth has not become any bigger and, in fact, the basic resources which sustain life, arable land, drinkable water, oxygen producing plants, have all been decreasing. It seems obvious that we have already passed the point of sustainability and that only 2 strategies will help: population reduction, preferably by reducing the birth rate to below the death rate for the foreseeable future, or, reducing the world standard of living to subsistence level while holding the population steady and apportioning the existing resources evenly amongst all people.
Although this may sound like a 'socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing countries', I see it as a last ditch effort to produce a soft landing to the end of the capitalist dominated world order. Those of us fortunate enough to live in the 'wealth-producing countries' will probably feel the results of non-action even more that those who are currently at an economic disadvantage.
One of the most likely mechanisms for uncontrolled population reduction would be a massive pandemic and pandemics would be felt much more quickly by the travelers from the developed world than by nomads or villagers. In any case, such massive and uncontrolled depopulation would cause a complete breakdown of order and infrastructure throughout the world so no one would escape the chaos, anarchy and destruction.
Perhaps we should be looking for politicians who are touting 'population shrinkage', 'economic decline' or 'wealth redistribution'. Get out on the street now and campaign before governments start to rebuild the mental health institutions they closed to save your money. While they have now found that there is no where to put so many of the homeless and addicted who have mental health problems, there is also no where for them to put you, so you just might be able to get your message out without disappearing. Lots of luck.
There are several of these unpopular issues which are pushing our world towards the point of not being able to sustain human life. These are 'Growth' factors, most of which are paradoxically looked at as increasing our quality and enjoyment of life. Population, economy, consumerism, jobs, wealth, all these have been looked at as being able to grow continuously and without end. Believing this is obviously even more ridiculous than denying the effects of climate change.
During my lifetime, world population has tripled from just over 2 billion to 6.5 billion. During that time, the earth has not become any bigger and, in fact, the basic resources which sustain life, arable land, drinkable water, oxygen producing plants, have all been decreasing. It seems obvious that we have already passed the point of sustainability and that only 2 strategies will help: population reduction, preferably by reducing the birth rate to below the death rate for the foreseeable future, or, reducing the world standard of living to subsistence level while holding the population steady and apportioning the existing resources evenly amongst all people.
Although this may sound like a 'socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing countries', I see it as a last ditch effort to produce a soft landing to the end of the capitalist dominated world order. Those of us fortunate enough to live in the 'wealth-producing countries' will probably feel the results of non-action even more that those who are currently at an economic disadvantage.
One of the most likely mechanisms for uncontrolled population reduction would be a massive pandemic and pandemics would be felt much more quickly by the travelers from the developed world than by nomads or villagers. In any case, such massive and uncontrolled depopulation would cause a complete breakdown of order and infrastructure throughout the world so no one would escape the chaos, anarchy and destruction.
Perhaps we should be looking for politicians who are touting 'population shrinkage', 'economic decline' or 'wealth redistribution'. Get out on the street now and campaign before governments start to rebuild the mental health institutions they closed to save your money. While they have now found that there is no where to put so many of the homeless and addicted who have mental health problems, there is also no where for them to put you, so you just might be able to get your message out without disappearing. Lots of luck.
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