>> reserving judgment even on that yes/no question. I'd like to see the >> arithmetic either way. In the end this is not a binary question. The >> sustainable mean impact is a quantitative question and an important >> one. It should be answered in a quantitative way. > > Well, if you take "ethical" as synonymous with sustainable, and use your > previous definition of sustainable, then the answer is clearly no for > the present and foreseeable future. I don't think any detailed sums are > required for that. If you want to talk about ultimate physical and > biological limitations then the answer will be yes if you are prepared > to assume enough miraculous technology. I suppose we can talk about how > much miraculous technology would be required...it seems to me that the > most immediate issue is energy, and this is also pretty fundamental to > other aspects of the problem. > > James
Perhaps a review of the 170-point Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development is in order (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/publications/publications.htm ). Briefly, the future rests on urbanization, sanitation, electrification, education, and women's emancipation. Michael's quantitative arithmetic is entirely absent - for this he is referred back to Joel Cohen's _How Many People Can the Earth Support?_. Ingredients of the now ubiquitous "ecological footprint" are to be found in Wackernagel and Rees, 1996 _Our Ecological Footprint_, or for an updated review by people who take this seriously, see the evaluation report available at http://ec.europa.eu/environment/natres/studies.htm . Caution, dubious assumptions abound: "The Carbon Footprint is the amount of forest land required to capture those carbon dioxide emissions not sequestered by the world's oceans." -dl --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Global Change ("globalchange") newsgroup. Global Change is a public, moderated venue for discussion of science, technology, economics and policy dimensions of global environmental change. Posts will be admitted to the list if and only if any moderator finds the submission to be constructive and/or interesting, on topic, and not gratuitously rude. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/globalchange -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
