thomas malloy wrote:
Have you ever seen bugs (microorganisms) grown on a petri plate? They
overgrow the medium and die. Well the Earth is a petri plate, and
sustainability is a liberal myth.
That's ridiculous. What does it have to do with liberal or conservative? It
is simple biology. If a population is uncontrolled by predation or
contraception, of course it will consume all resources. But human
population has been limited by contraception in Europe and the U.S. since
the mid 19th century, and it is now limited worldwide. The population could
easily be stabilized or reduced by a large fraction. By 2100, it will
probably fall by about half in places like Italy and Japan. (I hope it
does; Japan would be a lot more pleasant if it were less populated.)
As for resources such as food, metals, water and so on, they can all be
renewed and recycled indefinitely, as long as energy is input into the
system. There is no shortage of energy. The Sun produces enough to vaporize
the earth in about one day, and it will continue for billions of years.
There is absolutely no reason why people cannot sustain the earth as a
green and pleasant place for the next 4 billion years, and there are enough
potential resources to give every person far more than we now consume.
Pollution could be reduced by a factor of a thousand even with present-day
technology. In the future, if we want to, we can make the air and water
cleaner than they were before our species evolved, and we can eliminate all
microorganisms that pose a danger to us, such as AIDS, polio, and SARS.
To suggest that Homo sapiens is penned in by natural limits of food, water
and other resources is to misunderstand us, and to deny the very essence of
our species. We have transcended these limitations. That is our blessing
and our curse: from now on we are responsible for our own fate. We now use
twice as much energy as all of the plants on earth convert into biomass
every year, and in the future, if we have a good reason, we might use a
hundred times more or a million times more.
The only limits are those we impose upon ourselves by stupidity, greed and
ignorance. The recent history of Ireland shows what happens when nations
overcome these limits. See:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/29/opinion/29friedman.html
Over the last 40 years, Ireland went from being the poorest basket-case of
Europe to become the richest and most dynamic nation. It may soon overcome
the U.S. in per-capita income. The reasons it accomplished this are dead
simple, and obvious to me. Any nation could do it in a generation or two.
All you have to do is:
1. Make education and the Internet free for everyone. All education, right
through graduate school. My daughter attended Trinity College in Dublin,
and she said the education and the students are superb. Because tuition is
free, admission to all universities in Ireland is based on *merit*, and
merit alone. The creme de la creme attend. The unmotivated and the
half-wits stay home. Money should play no roll in deciding which young
people are given the best opportunities to lead the nation. In the U.S., we
taxpayers give billions of dollars to universities, but instead of
selecting the best students and making the wisest use of the resources we
give them, most universities are forced to admit mainly wealthy, spoiled,
lazy, half-wits -- because they can afford to pay. Can you imagine running
a corporation or city government on this basis?!? Hire only people who will
not work?
2. Implement a genuine fair, free market, with equal opportunity for
everyone: all four sexes, all national origins. Not crony capitalism, not
capitalism for the rich, but real capitalism.
3. Speak English.
In India many people speak English. If they adopt this program, 100 years
from now they will all be as wealthy as the people of Ireland. Things like
natural resources, present day wealth and infrastructure, military power
and the like have nothing to do with it. If the people of Ireland (or any
other nation that follows their example) could be transported to the moon
or to a barren, empty rock, and given nothing but sufficient food air and
water long enough to rebuild, in a hundred years they would have all of the
resources they need. The most extreme contrast to Ireland is Saudi Arabia.
It is presently the richest nation per capita. A few years after the oil
runs out (or after it is replaced by CF) the people there will be reduced
to rags, starvation, and unspeakable third-world poverty. When people turn
their backs on science, rationality, freedom and education, they commit
national suicide.
- Jed
