Population

[Dusty Rhodes]

Addendum-----I believe the population explosion is proof that man can not come up with anything more fun to do than have sex.

[goldengrain]

Originally Posted by Dusty Rhodes

Addendum-----I believe the population explosion is proof that man can not come up with anything more fun to do than have sex.

The wealthy and more educated have more amusements from which to choose and manage to limit family size. It is usually the poor who have little satisfaction or creative outlets in their lives who have large families. They also cannot so readily afford abortions and tend to be among the populations who have religious taboos against such things. This keeps them in poverty, often servants to those who are better off financially.

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by goldengrain

I don't see any technological breakthroughs happening to alleviate our dependence on fossil fuels..

That's normal. Few of us can forsee the future. But the US is the biggest energy waster there is. Surely, we could get 20% to 50% more energy efficient over time without hurting our standard of living.

Originally Posted by goldengrain

Since every credible scientific org. is agreeing that man is contributing to global warming.

Yet another scam. The media are complicit in only reporting the pro-global warming side of the agenda. Scientists who don't go along with human caused global warming are ignored by the media and/or black listed. There's lots of politics in science, too, 'ya know.

Originally Posted by goldengrain

, and since these resources are becoming scarce, do we sit idly by watching prices rise and rise, catering to these powerful corporate interests, or do we sink money into research that will pull us out of the mess and also invest in an inferstructure that is not dependent on these fuels, the way other civilized countries are doing?.

As much as I think global warming is a scam, I actually agree with you on this point. We do need to focus on making our homes & cars more energy efficient and work on developing alternatives. It's doable. We just haven't made much effort, although that is starting to change.

Originally Posted by goldengrain

Saying other times have complained about overpopulation and no crisis happened to them, so we should do the same is not sensible..

Sure it is. It proves the sky just might not be falling after all. As I said, I do think better energy efficiency and alternative uses is smart for lots of reasons. But this idea that we're running out of resources, blah, blah, blah....it's a product of very limited thinking and ignored the reality of human innovation. Problem is...innovation is a b*tch. And humans are (unfortunately) crisis oriented. So they wait until there's a crisis before they innovate. I do worry, however, that in many different realms (energy efficiency/use of resources being one small aspect of it) we're looking at many crises in the near future that we're not facing...so in a more general sense we agree...although I suspect we differ on many details.

Originally Posted by goldengrain

This is not a matter of having faith in some mysterious God who will always back the decisions of humanity. It is a matter of using the brains that we have to help ourselves.

No disagreemente here. I believe God helps those who help themselves. FYI, not all believers believe in the kind of God you described. Many of us believe God is much more practical than some of the loud mouthed religious nuts you see on CD forums.