bill, bill, bill,
I am very sympathetic to green concerns and the need
to radically alter the system to deal with them. But,
please, let's not undermine the case with nonsense data.
For years there have been hysterical forecasts made on the
basis of misunderstood data. Just to pick on one of the
points on your list, 4 years to having only half the crude
oil left? Simply ridiculous.
I have no doubt that this figure comes from an
estimate of current "proven reserves" against current
extraction rates. But "proven reserves" are a very
narrowly defined category that is almost meaningless for
such a calculation and is far under the actual amount of
crude oil out there. How do I know that? The level of
officially estimated "proven reserves" has been steadily
increasing for years.
Quite a few of the other numbers are either based on
things that are not well known such as what is the actual
number of species in the world (btw, human activities have
definitely accelerated the extinction rate and I do not
support that).
Your Old Mate, Bahhhkley
On Tue, 3 Dec 1996 01:46:11 -0800 (PST) bill mitchell
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Dear pen-l
>
> if any of you are looking for a bit of instant depression, a quick reason to
> become vegetarian, a quick reason to ransack your capitalist employer's
> capital, and more check out this site
>
> http://www.igc.apc.org/millennium/inds/
>
> it is a site of leading world indicators with back up material and graphs and
> tables etc.
>
> for example:
>
> World Population: 5,802,373,546
> Years Until Insufficient Land - Northern Diet: 9
> Years Until Insufficient Land - Southern Diet: 40
> Species Extinctions Per Day: 104
> Years Until 1/3 Of Species Are Lost: 10
> Years Until Half of Crude Oil Is Gone: 4
> Years Until 80% of Crude Oil Is Gone: 24
> Percent Antarctic Ozone Depletion: 70+
> Carbon Dioxide, Years Until Doubling: 61
> Water Availability (000 cubic meters/person/year): 10 (estimate)
>
>
> each has a link to more detailed analysis of the specific indicator.
>
> chilling really (except the link on carbon dioxide which is all about global
> warming!!)
>
> kind regards
> bill
>
>
> --
>
> #### ## William F. Mitchell
> ####### #### Head of Economics Department
> ################# University of Newcastle
> #################### New South Wales, Australia
> ###################* E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> ################### Phone: +61 49 215065
> ##### ## ### +61 49 215027
> Fax: +61 49 216919
> ## http://econ-www.newcastle.edu.au/~bill/billyhp.html
>
> "only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned
> and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money."
> (Cree Indian saying...circa 1909)
--
Rosser Jr, John Barkley
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:7697] Re: an interesting WWW site
Rosser Jr, John Barkley Tue, 3 Dec 1996 10:06:22 -0800 (PST)
