Seriously now...overpopulated? on what grounds? Manhattan, L.A., New Dehli, Mexico City, Hong Kong? yes. Take a drive through Wyoming and see how long it takes you to pass a house. Wyoming is one of the least populated states in the USA, and it has nothing to do with the majority of it being inhospitable. What about Nebraska, Kansas, or any number of other places in the US alone in which it is quite possible to live 10 miles away from the nearest person. Wanna argue food and water supply? again, on what basis? how much food is thrown away every day? Do you believe that every square inch of land capable of growing crops has been used? Do you believe that the meat-bearing animals are endangered species?
Do we need to take care of our environment? sure we do! Do we need to get off fossil fuels? absolutely! I'll be the first person to agree with anyone who says that our dependency on oil is not sustainable. I believe that we need to start making fundamental changes in how we power and heat our homes, and the fuel sources we use for transportation and manufacturing. But to anyone who says that the world is overpopulated and that we need to reduce our population, I say, "Great! you first!"
Joey
James Lovelock brought forth the biological concept of Gaia three decades ago. Now at age 90 he has published what we may take as his final warning.
The average global temps may rise as much as six degrees Celsius.
The earth is carrying seven times as many humans as it can sustain. [Okay, let's number off, one...two.... And some readers recently thought I was a pessimist for mentioning overpopulation.]
The current projection curves of gradually rising global temps are wrong, expect a sudden and catastrophic flip of as much as five degrees hotter.
The remnants of humanity will end up clinging to geographical lifeboats in northern reaches of the northern hemisphere.
Yet he has some suggestions for alleviating the warming: immediately begin converting to nuclear power, then gradually to thermal solar energy. Huge oceanic engineering projects to use algae to gobble up the CO2 collecting in our atmosphere.
You can order his new book, VANISHING FACE OF GAIA. Here you can find a left-wing review. A right-wing review here. Here’s a review in The New Scientist.
Here are some of the heated discussions of the global warming debate as spurred by Lovelock’s new book.
