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Is there hope for the planet?
- Thread starter raboner
- Start date
DubaiSpur
Jack Jull
Why would anyone follow this fellow's lead? Procrastination is the pinnacle of human endeavor.
Global warming, environmental degradation and climate change, don't work on time-scales that correspond with human attention spans. In twenty years, we will see the effects of what we've done in the past decade. And to stop or reverse that process will take another thirty years after that, if we start today.
In short, we'll be old men and women before any immediate efforts to stop this madness of turning our planet into an irradiated, rubbish-filled wasteland will show their effects. And considering that we can't remember what was on the news ten minutes ago, and cry when we have to wait a whole year for the next season of a TV show.....I don't think that is an endeavour we are willing to commit our tiny minds to.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch
It is singularly telling that there is a garbage slick thousands of miles wide floating in the Pacific, full of plastics, refuse and millions of dead and dying sea creatures, and barely anyone on the planet even knows it exists, or cares that it does.
edit; I don't want that to sound overly negative. Somewhere, deep down, humanity shares an empathy with the world we're polluting. That is perhaps the best part of us. But we're rapidly running out of time to express that empathy. The world is quite literally dying around us, and we're all retreating into our little social bubbles to escape that. We have to change.
But sometimes, I can't see where that change will come from.
Global warming, environmental degradation and climate change, don't work on time-scales that correspond with human attention spans. In twenty years, we will see the effects of what we've done in the past decade. And to stop or reverse that process will take another thirty years after that, if we start today.
In short, we'll be old men and women before any immediate efforts to stop this madness of turning our planet into an irradiated, rubbish-filled wasteland will show their effects. And considering that we can't remember what was on the news ten minutes ago, and cry when we have to wait a whole year for the next season of a TV show.....I don't think that is an endeavour we are willing to commit our tiny minds to.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch
It is singularly telling that there is a garbage slick thousands of miles wide floating in the Pacific, full of plastics, refuse and millions of dead and dying sea creatures, and barely anyone on the planet even knows it exists, or cares that it does.
edit; I don't want that to sound overly negative. Somewhere, deep down, humanity shares an empathy with the world we're polluting. That is perhaps the best part of us. But we're rapidly running out of time to express that empathy. The world is quite literally dying around us, and we're all retreating into our little social bubbles to escape that. We have to change.
But sometimes, I can't see where that change will come from.
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spursman17
Stephen Kelly
This planet has no future if we maintain our current behavior. I predict a World pandemic or majour loss of life in the form of war in the not so distant future. The recently identified decreased effectiveness of antibiotics on future infections is another possible threat.
Mother Nature always balances out. With the World population increasing at previously unseen rates, with life expectancy improving (1 in 3 children today are expected to live to 100) and the improvement of vaccines (on currently incurable diseases) and technology (improving early diagnosis) there is no way the World can maintain its current form.
Food shortages probably being the biggest concern alongside the destruction of essential forests being another. That's without including global warming and the increased demand on what we see as 'everyday essential behaviors/items' (being mobile and able to drive, fuel and energy etc).
You can call me mad but everything seems to point in this direction if not within the next 50 years then the next 200-500 or so.
Mother Nature always balances out. With the World population increasing at previously unseen rates, with life expectancy improving (1 in 3 children today are expected to live to 100) and the improvement of vaccines (on currently incurable diseases) and technology (improving early diagnosis) there is no way the World can maintain its current form.
Food shortages probably being the biggest concern alongside the destruction of essential forests being another. That's without including global warming and the increased demand on what we see as 'everyday essential behaviors/items' (being mobile and able to drive, fuel and energy etc).
You can call me mad but everything seems to point in this direction if not within the next 50 years then the next 200-500 or so.
Surely the question you meant was "Is there hope for the human race?"
I seriously doubt that something as short-lived and inconsequential as our race will bother the planet much. If you're worrying about the planet, then you really should be thinking about the Sun dying in a few billion years or the possible (depending on the actual mass of the Higgs Boson) contraction of the universe.
I seriously doubt that something as short-lived and inconsequential as our race will bother the planet much. If you're worrying about the planet, then you really should be thinking about the Sun dying in a few billion years or the possible (depending on the actual mass of the Higgs Boson) contraction of the universe.
Klinsmania
Nico Claesen
Perhaps the end of the world as we know it, but trust me the earth will survive long after all of us. It coped pretty well before we arrived and although we are assisting in the change to the environment, it will cope perfectly well without us.
Robbo
Jack Jull
chicken_badge
Gudni Bergsson
Wow this is a depressing read!! Wish I'd never ventured out of " Spurs News And Views", though some of the doom and gloom in there would be well placed in this thread!
braineclipse
Garth Crooks
Well put.
There are obviously a lot of things wrong with modern society, but what is your reference point for when everything was so much better? This time of morals, manners and compassion? When and where are you talking about?
I can never remember who said it but I love the quote "Stop complaining. In 20 years time people will look back on today as the good old days"
Are you serious? When I was a kid for a start! How old are you and are you English? Everyone always seemed much happier to help one another, this reality obsessive population didn't exist and the world was a happier place 20 years ago.
braineclipse
Garth Crooks
In my early thirties, I'm Norwegian.
"Everything was so much better when I was young" has been repeated pretty much throughout human history.
I was hoping you would be slightly older and say 30-40 years ago, would have been easier to argue against. I suppose 20 years ago women's rights were coming along nicely, racism was declining enough to where I couldn't use that as a good example of improvement since then. Gay rights have come a long way since then so for that part of the population it's been a pretty dramatic improvement I would say.
Perhaps an argument could be made that the English society was ever so slightly better 20 years ago, I too despise celebrity culture and I think that has gotten somewhat worse. For the world I don't think it's even a question that things have gotten better overall though.
"Everything was so much better when I was young" has been repeated pretty much throughout human history.
I was hoping you would be slightly older and say 30-40 years ago, would have been easier to argue against. I suppose 20 years ago women's rights were coming along nicely, racism was declining enough to where I couldn't use that as a good example of improvement since then. Gay rights have come a long way since then so for that part of the population it's been a pretty dramatic improvement I would say.
Perhaps an argument could be made that the English society was ever so slightly better 20 years ago, I too despise celebrity culture and I think that has gotten somewhat worse. For the world I don't think it's even a question that things have gotten better overall though.
The Moonlit Knight
Banned
Nothing is wrong with the planet that the planet won't fix by itself at some point!