Everyone already knows about global warming. We already "know" about poverty in Africa as well. We already know about Darfur. We knew about Rwanda. But the one way to ensure inaction is to let an issue escape to the margins rather than keeping it in the front of our minds. The only way to ensure people don't forget is to keep talking.You probably already guessed what prompted this post. At best estimates, the Gulf oil
I've embedded the real-time oil ticker
I would get into a discussion about how I think we as a culture view death in way not beneficial to ourselves but I haven't entirely formulated my stance upon the topic.
It has been estimated that a total of approximately 106 billion people have been born since the dawn of the human race, making the population which is currently alive roughly 6% of all people who have ever lived on planet Earth. That is an extraordinarily high percentage considering the estimated age of humanity (200,000 years).
I have had this world population clock on my homepage for the past two years. It reminds me every day that humanity is on a collision course with complete and total disaster. Our population is skyrocketing while the arable land (land we can use to produce food) is diminishing rapidly.
On a side note this graphic about bottled water usage is appropriately depressing.
On another side note this is an extremely complex version of the national debt clock I have running next to the world population clock on my homepage.
Finally, watch this video by Hank Green of the Vlogbrothers (link also in the sidebar) about population and being green and understanding just what is going on in this crazy world of ours. It will hopefully bring you out of the depression I just forced upon you. I also hope it empowers you to ALWAYS think about the state of humanity and the state of our world. If you don't have time to watch the video (it's four minutes) go to the website he talks about in the video here.
There are dozens of other depressing things we are doing to the planet right now. The destruction of rainforests, the trash vortex in the Pacific which is the size of Texas, the list goes on. But I'll leave you with something inspiring.
This hangs above my bed and reminds me of what is at stake every day.
A'kay, two things. Number one, the other part of that poster hanging above your bed (it might have just been sold without the other bit, IDK) is some pinko anti-military bullshit. I saw it at school, actually, and got the goddamned thing taken down. Fortunately for me, Mr. Harrington was still in power. I don't think Der Führer would have taken it down... Anyway. Just so you know what the OTHER bit of that is.
ReplyDeleteNumber two, SAY HELLO TO THE WORLD SPENCER. It's not a pleasant place, and it's not going to get any prettier. That's for damn sure. See that spike in population? Yeah, well somewhere on that graph, there's a ceiling. And that spike is rising very fast. So when that fast-moving spike hits that ceiling... BOOM. It might go up a bit for a bit more, you know, go through it, but that ceiling will smash the shit out of that spike. And then the spike will fall to the ground. Dead as a doornail.
I wager that they're going to get this whole oil spill mess cleaned up when they clean up Wall Street, our national debt, the budget, and when we're not in a war anymore.
A'kay, two things. Number one, it is completely irrelevant what the other part of the poster is. I am interested in the part that I have hanging above my bed.
ReplyDeleteI just browsed the web a bit and discovered that people like GLEN BECK are disparaging the poster and claiming that people are using it to replace God with the planet. If there is ever a reason to like something more it is because Glen Beck dislikes it.
Number two, I realize the world is not a pleasant place...that's kind of the reason I wrote the post. I thought that was kind of obvious.....So....I guess we're in agreement about the second part of your post. And sort of the first...
Why the heck does your comment seem so confrontational if we agree on pretty much everything?
And number three why are all the comments double-spaced? Or is that just me?
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by. It's refreshing to see young people who actually care about what's going on in the world.
ReplyDelete1) The pledge was actually re-written to include "under God" in the 1950s as an anti-communist propaganda tool. It was meant to be a pledge to national unity, not some superior being.
2) There's nothing pinko about wanting to protect our natural resources - as they are what make our existence possible.
3) The world is what we make of it. The more apathy and complacency there is, the more difficult it is to change.
As for overpopulation, I agree completely and there are two very easy solutions to the problem.
1) Empowerment of women in developing nations: Nations that have the highest fertility rates often have the worst records for women's rights and this is no accident. The less freedom and autonomy women have, the less education they have, the less economic independence they have, the more likely they are to be relegated into baby-making machines. Access to education, life options other than motherhood, and quality birth-control (and the right to refuse marriage and sex when demanded of them) are really the keys to that problem.
2) Education and economic development in general: The more educated a society is, the lower the fertility rates. The higher educational attainment, the longer people generally wait to start having children and the fewer children they have.
Not sure how to respond to that first comment, except throw out a large and hearty: WTF? As Spencer mentioned, I’m not sure why you’re so outraged when it sounds like you both have fairly similar ideas. The name calling and insults detract from any intelligent points you may be trying to make. I’m getting a sense of outrage, passion, and self righteousness, but I honestly don’t see you contributing anything. Again, as Spencer mentioned, this reminds me a lot of the “debate tactics” of folks like Glen Beck and his fellow talking heads. To quote Shakespeare: “it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
ReplyDeleteI agree with Laura, the whole concept of “sustainability” is to maintain the natural processes that keep us alive. You wouldn’t get a brand new car, run it, never replace the oil or do any maintenance, and then replace it a year later. “Sustainability” is all about performing the maintenance and acting in a way that keeps our “car” running in the future. Sustainable practices are actually not that hard, and will become easier with advances in technology (read, flexible, cheap, high-efficiency, next gen solar panels). Sustainability is not moving everyone out to the woods and living in yurts. It’s buying Fair Trade coffee, or driving in a higher gear on level ground to save gas.
I also agree with Laura on the overpopulation problem; but both of these are cultural issues as well, and I think will be very difficult to change in some regions of the world. But they follow along the same theme. When a country is a “third world” country, lots of children are generally unavoidable, due to a lack of Women’s rights, birth control, and the utility of children in production environments (farms, factories, and etcetera). But, when a country becomes “advanced” (like most of Europe and the US and Canada) children become incredibly expensive. South Korea is actually suffering from Negative population growth because raising kids in developed nations becomes economically prohibitive (and in a third world country it is economically beneficial). In short, Overpopulation will be solved when we can raise the living standards of places like India, China, Africa, and most of Latin America.
Of course doing something like that is monstrously complicated. It relies on help from outside the nation, as well as dedication and work from within. The politicians within must overcome corruption, instability, and cultural barriers. The US kind of has been doing this in Latin America for a very long time, but has been to protect business interests in these countries, with little care for the effect on the people living there (look up the Batista government in Cuba to see what I mean). This is partly why the US has such an international reputation for being a bully and imperialist nation.
It’s a political and international relations quagmire- but it can be done. There are just a lot of variable that must be dealt with. But if we can accelerate these third world countries into developed nations, a lot of our modern problems (overpopulation, international terrorism and instability, civil wars in Africa, global pollution, and etcetera) will go away. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPt8ElTQMIg
That reply became waaay longer than I anticipated. Sorry.
Last two things, yes, everything is double spaced, and I wonder if you can modify that Spencer. And this is the first I have ever seen of these Vlogbrothers; I think I need to buy a pizza shirt.