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As a freshmen in college, a physics prof warned us that there was only about 40 years of oil reserves left. That was 39 years ago. My dad was a bridge design engineer with the state DOT. I went home and asked him, gee Dad, what are we going to do with all the roads and bridges when there is no oil. He shrugged.
True we have seen scientist warn for ever; mostly because they want funding to study. like always follow the money.
"Wake up!
You and I know that chaos and bedlam are consuming the entire world. UV rays are only the beginning. We have an inch of topsoil left. Sexually transmitted diseases, depletion of the gene pool. It adds up to oblivion. Governments will fall. Anarchies will reign.
Since you actually went to college, you should be able to think beyond this flawed reasoning that commoners tend to follow.
Here's a scenario to better explain what I mean.
Suppose a group of engineers and scientists, after a study, concludes that the incoming storm could cause mass floodings in the area. How would the community combat this? Well, they build a levy. The storm comes, and the levy keeps back the water, thus diverting a flood.
At this point, it is almost always true that the commoners of the population would start questioning the need for the levy in the first place. They would argue that there ain't no flooding, so the prediction must have been false and it was a waste of money to build the levy.
Try to think about that.
Decades ago, the technology at the time only allowed us to extract oil from certain places. And indeed, most of those places are depleted of oil. Why do you think we have to drill 5 miles deep in the middle of the ocean for oil these days?
Now, the same logic applies. Geologists at the time figured out that there was only so much oil from places that was only accessible at the time. So, engineers heeded the warning and developed technology to go deeper and deeper for more oil.
Regarding this report of soil degradation, it is good that they've done studies on this. Rather than be all conservative and just dismiss this warning, engineers like myself can now develop technologies and techniques that will divert a disaster. And no doubt, after the disaster has been diverted in the future, commoners will start questioning why all that money had been poured into the research in the first place.
That's what commoners do. Thank goodness bridges and buildings aren't designed and built by commoners. Thank goodness science and technology are not developed by short-sighted conservatives. We'd still be riding horses if it were up to short-sighted conservatives.
He has a reasonable point about alarmist claims though. Like the population bomb in the 1970's and a host of other predictions.
The fact that they went out of their way to try to tie global warming into the discussion makes me wonder how much they factored that into their projection "model".
not sure where you've worked as an engineer but if you've not yet experienced someone putting their thumb on the scale so to speak in order to get more attention, funding, promotion....then you've been either fortunate or isolated.
National Geographic has a wonderful issue this month touching on all things food related, it's worth the read if anyone is interested in things like that.
P.S. Most of the soil degradation issue is outside north america.
"Wake up!
You and I know that chaos and bedlam are consuming the entire world. UV rays are only the beginning. We have an inch of topsoil left. Sexually transmitted diseases, depletion of the gene pool. It adds up to oblivion. Governments will fall. Anarchies will reign.
It's a brave new world...."
Mircea
Thank gawd for petrochemical fertilizers!!!!!!
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