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Forecasting Doomsday
Boccaccio writes "James Lovelock, the planetary scientist famous for his Gaia Theory, writes in today's Independent of his belief that it is already too late to divert an environmental catastrophe which will see much of human civilisation destroyed. Fearing it too late to be green, he instead suggests communities plan for survival in a Mad Max type world with limited resources ruled by violent warlords. "We have to keep in mind the awesome pace of change and realise how little time is left to act, and then each community and nation must find the best use of the resources they have to sustain civilisation for as long as they can." He suggests we should be writing a practical guidebook printed on long lasting paper containing "the basic accumulated scientific knowledge of humanity.""
> Mad Max type world with limited resources ruled by violent warlords.
Check.
Bin laden trains guys to smash planes into buildings, killing 3000 of civilians.
Bush raises the ante by dropping bombs onto Iraq (a country with no relation to Bin laden, but plenty of oil), killing 30,000 -> 100,000 civilians!
What'll happen next? Keep tuned!
Fear is the most powerful human motivator. It invokes our desire to preserve our own life. God only knows how many times I have been nearly crushed by the fear of the bad thing happening only to find that the bad thing was not nearly as painful as the fear.
Fearmongers have long known this and exploited it in order to gain power, money, and attention. This wicked priest is no different than other wicked priests of other superstitious faiths who have tried to emotionally rape you for their own personal benefit. Resist him as you do all others. Use your power of observation and your rational mind in order to make good choices for the future.
And yes, this clown is, in fact, preaching a religion. "Gaia" is the "goddess earth". It is nothing more than blatant superstitious garbage with an enviro-friendly sheen. If you want to stand up for the environment, then go knock yourself out. It doesn't justify giving this fool anything except ascerbic mockery, and it certainly doesn't justify attempting to inspire fear in other people.
I don't make the rules. I just make fun of them.
you are seriously the worst poster who constantly gets modded up. i swear you couldn't hold a cohoerent, relevant thought for an entire post if your sorry excuse for a life depended on it. just because you spew your mental masturbation for paragraphs on end doesn't mean you've said a damned thing worthy, but for some reason the morons who mod you up believe so. please stop posting forever, you insufferable twat.
I agree with you there to a point. I'd rather see no educational mandates and no laws regarding what schools should offer or shouldn't. I'd love to see an end to public education paid for by any group bigger than the town (no more state or federal funding or mandates). You want to see education get better? Force schools to compete with one another.
If I want my kid to learn intelligent design, I'll take him to church. If I want my kid to learn about sex education, I'll sit him down and talk to him about it. If I want my kid to learn about "My Two Daddies" I'll discuss it with him. School is about Reading, Riting and Rithmetic -- and about being a responsible parent and setting aside the money to fund your own childn's education.
People living on ocean cruisers? What do they eat? Food from the oceans? Fish depletion results.
Or who knows where. As we get more populated on this earth, people in every country are eating better. Look at Eritrea. Look at UAE. Look at the Phillipines. More people but with more food? How? Capitalism.
And as far as deserts-come-greenspace, tell me what happens when your irrigation dries up. Fresh water is going to become more and more valuable in this economy. Damming rivers for irrigation will take water away from those downstream. Industry in one nation can corrupt the water flowing into another. This will happen at the nation level and within nations as well.
And we're finding more and more ways to harness the sun to create more fresh water. If there is a need, and there is a profit, there is a solution.
The geophysicists in the oilfield. I work in that particular industry. I live in Calgary (Oil Capital of Canada). Most of the industry here is talking about Peak Oil.
Really? One of my best friends (for almost 20 years) is a geophysicist and a professor of geophysicists. He admits that his industry is wrong more than it is right about what goes on beneath the crust more than a few miles. They have no idea what is happening, and their theories are constantly redone to account for new "wonders" that are discovered. Forgive me if I say this in a mean way: scientists are becoming state-funded liars. Give them a chance to earn some taxpayer-funded grants, and they'll say whatever is needed to scare the populace (see: You) into paying them more to discover if they're wrong.
Two words for you: New Orleans. Dismantle our societal structures and you will find some people who will work together to rebuild. You will find others that will play the anarchy to take what they want.
Anarchy is not "take what you want" that is chaotic nihilism. Anarchy just means no government. New Orleans is no example. I traveled to NO at least 3-4 times a year to eat, and the majority of the people I saw down there are there for handouts and to live on the taxpayer. I have no desire to help anyone who can't help themselves, and I will never give a dollar to anyone who lives to receive handouts. New Orleans will be rebuilt as the biggest government welfare program in all of history, and it will fail again in less than 20 years. Mark my words, print them out, stick them on your wall, and you'll see that I am correct.
Government doesn't help anyone, it harms the many to pretend to help the poor but instead help the cronies. Gas prices could drop 50% in the US if we deregulated the refinery industry and got rid of the boutique fuels. Pollution? Look at public transportation for one of the world polluters in the country. For every $1 paid by a public rider, $10 is requird to keep the beauracracy in place. That $10 also funds people who are polluting. Give me my car, it'll cost less per ride, meaning it will pollute less.
Democracy to me does not mean freedom -- democracy means insanity of the masses to agree to perform a basic action against the will of another mass or individual.
When soldiers go to war and the citizens of the same nation of those soldiers accept it, to me this is demoracy is action. I don't believe democracy must vote using the ballot box -- allowing catastrophes to happen without speaking out against them is no different.
Hitler, Stalin, Caeser, all of them had people who didn't care. Just the same as in the US when only a small percentage votes and the rest go along, we call it democracy. The same is true of fascism and any expansion of empire where the people go along with it because they feel they'll be better off than speaking out against it.
Voting comes with more than ballots -- spending your money is a form of a vote. Doing nothing when someone is killing others in your name is also a form of a vote.
Ah, good. So you won't mind, then, when I drain my septic tank onto your property. After all, you don't want to interfere with my livelihood.
Let's revisit what I wrote:
"(ecosystems have inherent value that the livliehood of humans must not interfere with) is repugnant to me."
I am arguing against the notion of ecosystems having inherent value; however, I would never infringe in your life, liberty, or property out of disdain for the notion of ecosystems having inherent value.
In other words, yes I would mind if you drained your septic tank into my property. In fact, I would take you to court and made sure you paid adequately for it.
I don't make the rules. I just make fun of them.
No, I'm not saying that I am going to do anything to scare anyone. But, on the other hand, yes I am saying that I don't mind Lovelock (or you, for that matter) scaring people.
:)
So you're stating that you have no ethical problem with frightening people, but that you're too lazy to do it yourself?
And yes I do have contempt for the sort of cowardice that is endemic in America today. I am totally appalled that anyone in this country could be afraid of terrorism, for example; terrorism hardly ever kills anyone compared to things like automobiles, alcoholism, heart disease, bad hygiene, or any number of other things.
That will probably change in a few years. I think the mujahedeen are working hard to obtain a nuclear or biological weapon. Once they unleash it in a major western city it will give the Bush-haters lots of opportunity to say that "Bush ignored the signals". No, I don't like Bush. I do fear the mujahedeen, as there are 1.2 billion of them and only 1 billion Westerners, half of which are compliant and completely pussified. Cowards, if you will.
Hell, there are probably dozens of US corporations that kill more people than terrorists every year.
Probably because you simply define corporations as "evil" and take pleasure in thinking of them as mindless machiavellian monsters who would gladly grind baby bones into bone meal if it would make them money. If only you would apply the same degree of skepticism to governments' actions...
If someone living in America today is so afraid of the world ending that their health is suffering, then yes they do suck. The answer is not to denounce anything that might scare poor little precious, the answer is for society to stop coddling cowards and for precious to get a fscking grip!
Interesting. It's not okay to "coddle" fearful people but it is okay to create fearful people? It sounds like you want to do hurtful actions, and if people are hurt by your actions, then they "deserve it". Am I correct?
Re-read our posts, starting with yours. I think you've described us both rather well... except you left out "self-rightous".
I definately agree that you are a snot-nosed, arrogant little shit (not to mention abusive and possibly undeserving of living in society), but I take exception to being characterized as such. What did I say that made you think I was "self-righteous"?
I don't make the rules. I just make fun of them.