>I don't understand this anger against one particular profession. I've
>worked in economics for many years and have known quite a few economists.
>To the best of my knowledge, none of them promoted "die-off" (whatever that
I know of no economists except Herman Daly, Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, and
a few others who are opposed to economic growth.
With few exceptions, every time an economist (Marxist or otherwise) opens
his mouth it is to endorse economic growth either explicitly or implicitly.
Although I doubt that few realize it, every economist comes pre-programmed
from the factory to promote dieoff.
The formula is extremely simple: economic growth = dieoff
------------------------------------------
IT IS NOW TIME TO PANIC!!
James White, co-author of a study published in the journal Science, said
that the Antarctica ice cores show a temperature increase of about 20
degrees F within a very short time about about 12,500 years ago.
Ice cores from Greenland, near the Arctic, show that at the same time
there was a temperature increase of almost 59 degrees in the north polar
region within a 50-year period, White said. (AP, 10/1/98)
...
The National Climatic Data Center has just announced that last month was
the warmest September on record - almost a degree F above the previous
record and nearly 4 degrees F above the average. It is the 9th
consective month to break the previous all-time record
[Read again, 59 degrees in 50 years! We are now 4 degrees over average!]
... there are areas of the Earth, such as the Arctic, where the
temperature increase is 3 to 4 degrees Fahrenheit. This is enough to
melt permafrost, the permanently frozen ground that characterizes
northern tundra bogs. And melting bogs release methane, a greenhouse
gas. (UPI, 10/8/98)
...
Industry deregulation of electric utilities in the U.S. has cut utility
investment in energy saving programmes by 45 percent. (Reuters,
10/02/98)
...
U.S. government scientists said this year's “ozone hole” over Antarctica
was the largest ever observed, leaving an atmospheric depletion area
greater than the size of North America over the southern land mass.
(Nando, 10/7/98)
...
Humans have destroyed more than 30 per cent of the natural world since
1970 with serious depletion of the forest, freshwater and marine systems
on which life depends. (Guardian, 10/2/98)
...
“Age-adjusted mortality in Russia rose by almost 33% between 1990 and
1994.... Russia is not alone in experiencing drops in life expectancy;
all the nations created from the break-up of the Soviet Union have
reported a decline in life expectancy since 1990, although none has been
as large as in Russia.” (JAMA. 1998;279:793-800)
...
Africa is beginning a full-on Malthusian dieoff. See
“Worldwatch Briefing: Sixteen Dimensions of the Population Problem”
at http://www.worldwatch.org/alerts/pr98924.html and
“Life on Earth is Killing Us” at
http://www.enn.com/news/enn-stories/1998/10/100298/killingus.asp
...
“To put this in context, you must remember that estimates of the
long-term carrying capacity of Earth with relatively optimistic
assumptions about consumption, technologies, and equity (A x T), are in
the vicinity of two billion people. Today's [six billion] population
cannot be sustained on the 'interest' generated by natural ecosystems,
but is consuming its vast supply of natural capital -- especially deep,
rich agricultural soils, 'fossil' groundwater, and biodiversity --
accumulated over centuries to eons. In some places soils, which are
generated on a time scale of centimeters per century are disappearing at
rates of centimeters per year. Some aquifers are being depleted at
dozens of times their recharge rates, and we have embarked on the
greatest extinction episode in 65 million years.”
Read Ehrlich's Heineken speech at http://dieoff.com/page157.htm
This newsletter is free, send any message to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Jay -- www.dieoff.com
