12-08-2008, 09:25 PM
cbelt3 wrote:
makk- wrong
Mac- also wrong
You have to include the manufacturing of those lovely solar panels (lots of toxic chems and rare earths) and windmills (steel mills, Aluminum mills, Yucko !)
Hence my point.
It's sort of like those uber vegans running around wearing nice leather boots. Sure, you consume less, but you don't consume nothing.
This is correct. Everything works within a system and is interlinked. I understand that my lifestyle, no matter how green I attempt to live it, is just not an option for the entirety of humanity. I don't feel particularly guilty about it, but I try to live reasonably in the context I find myself. There seems to be very little discussion about the root cause of all this, namely that the human population has exceeded the carrying capacity of the earth, at least if we all expect to live like the average citizen in a developed nation.
Paul Ehrlich (Wiki) and some of his colleagues recently did a study to make some rough estimate of an optimal world population that would be sustainable for a developed lifestyle and still allow for large cities and the high culture that goes with them. They came up with 2 billion. We're now closing in on 7 billion and at current rates will hit 12 billion or more soon after.
I'm not advocating for draconian population control methods, but the way we are going famine, war, and pestilence will continue to be the only horrible mitigating factor. Over the long run the answer is education and elevating women to equal status in society. Studies show that educated women with career opportunities, and who share power in society will do their own reasonable population control. That will take some time and none of us are likely to see it in our lifetimes.
Counter productive is the nutty fixation various religions have with human sexuality and birth control. Its foolish to think that this will all sort itself out without a major shift in our expectations. Its comforting for many to assume the US is doing fine and all we need to do is keep those pesky immigrants out of here. That would be a wrong, because we're already being degraded by the pollution coming from outside our borders. Take a look at the jet stream and see where it comes from.