Slashdot Mirror
Group Warns on Consumption of Resources
gollum123 writes "Humanity's reliance on fossil fuels, the spread of cities, the destruction of natural habitats for farmland and over-exploitation of the oceans are destroying Earth's ability to sustain life, the environmental group WWF warned in a new report Thursday."
...i see a quite dark feature ahead of us. The nature isnt a machine to turn it off when it starts producing bad things. No. It builds up, so even if we dont feel too much bad effects atm, it could mean that after 30 years, even if we stop ruining the environment, the effects will be severe. Perfect example is the greenhouse effect, and please dont flame me with studies "fueled" by oil companies...Im not willing to turn this planet into a dump just to let companies keep their profit up. Pollution will just result in making this planet a worse place for ourselves and our children. Its very unfortunate that most companies think short term.
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
I too think that depletion of our planet's resources is a terrible thing that ought to be avoided. However, this is a gigantic planet. There are places on this globe where Man has yet to set foot, much less look upon with the naked eye.
Where? I'd love to colonize something- it's only when you move into new territory that you have freedom.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Slashdot recently added a "Politics" section. That's where this belongs. I didn't see any science in the article at all - just unsupported claims of how large a "footprint" (a dubious metric to begin with) is appropriate.
I'm not claiming that we are using too much or too few resources or that any of the quoted groups are right or wrong. I'm only saying that when groups like the WWF issue press-releases to push their agenda and others like the The Competitive Enterprise Institute try to counter those to push a different agenda, it's politics, not science.
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"You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
Great, another libertarian who believes that market forces will be our salvation. This is a very uninformed view, given that the last fifty-odd years of economics research have been devoted to showing the very real limits on Adam Smith's "invisible hand."
One of the most basic is the "tragedy of the commons," which basically says that if an individual can profit in the short term by overusing or damaging a communal resource, the "invisible hand" will end up destroying that resource.
It's very likely that the cost of alternative energies is already significantly lower than that of conventional fossil fuels. But since many of the costs of fossil fuels can be shoved off onto future generations, our collective atmosphere, etc., these costs don't end up on the pricetag.
The government is the only mechanism by which this disparity can be fixed. They can step in and regulate pollution, or provide subsidies for alternative fuels. Government regulation can make the invisible costs visible, and thus better subject these market forces to free-market economics.
You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!