I think the deviancy lies in having the hubris to think we can actually take the helm, when until now we have only learned how to drill holes in the boat.
You have probably been watching Fox News haven't you?
Yes, like in the US there is lots of open space. Its just that much of it is at high altitude or desert, with very little water to support life.
One can never ceased to be amazed by how little Biology the average slashdotter knows. They have no idea what would happen if they turned ever square inch of the planet into a factory or a farm. Humans would be extinct in short order from the consequences.
The good thing is that as long as people don't mind the cold, the heat, or the gravitation or the immense difficult in growing their own food, they should have no problem moving to other worlds. Based on the prices of current airlines tickets, no doubt a trip to the uninhabited moons of Jupiter will be well within everyone's budget.
"invest in the resources and knowledge to be able to produce your own food,"
But what happens when we have burned enough fossil fuels and tar sand extracts that global temperatures become too high to permit much soil moisture and most plants simply won't grow because of the heat? A number of current climate models suggest, for example that places like Kansas City could see a hundred days a year with temperatures over a hundred degrees F within 100 to 200 years and perhaps less?
Sounds like your plan may well let your immediate or second or third generation progeny being among the last humans living in caves, but its not really much of a long term solution.
At least we can look on the bright side as it would seem as if we will have a lot of low budget home movies, where future citizens of earth roam the deserts, attacking one another for the last few drops of water until the tires melt on their vehicles to entertain ourselves with.
You need water to grow cellulose and even that will become in short supply as far too few plants are able to tolerate the heat that can be expected on the planetary surface in a few hundreds years time at the current rate of global warming, ignoring the tremendous boost to temperatures that gas fracking and tar sand oil production will generate as these fuels are burned and the carbon dioxide is dumped into the atmosphere.
"A general issue is that while problems can grow exponentially, so can solutions."
The Modern Pangloss returns to Slashdot.
The only problem of course is that given only a finite amount of time to solve the problem of over-population and over-consumption and rising carbon dioxide levels, far too few of the exponentially growing problems will actually be solved in sufficient time to raise crop production enough to keep even a few people alive given the dramatic drops in yields that can be expected as global temperatures rise above 120 degrees F on a sustained basis. With a planet of ten billion, all clamoring to live like Americans, you can give the human race perhaps 100-200 years. After that they will be intently studying designs for space craft that can tolerate extreme heat. Humans will probably have to move into permanent caves and pipe in specially cooled sunlight and then in time evolve into naked mole rat cultures.
The problem with over population is that everyone wants to live like Americans and when you have 10,000,000,000 that means that the probability of human extinction rises to 1.
I suggest that you continue to spend lots of time in southeastern Utah, where you will find that there are so few people because there is so little water that things just don't grow so well there, except for a few hardly indians and mormons. If you think Utah is to wet, try the Atacama Desert. Not a lot of people there either for obvious reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with politics. You don't have to believe me. You can move there and see for yourself. Heck, I won't even complain if you take your conspiracy theories with you.
"There is a "well known" racial difference of malaria susceptibility vs sickle cell anemia"
There is a relationship between malaria and susceptibility to sickle cell anemia because having the sickle cell trait is beneficial in the presence of high concentrations of malarial mosquitoes. It is the condition, which is a heterozygous trait, is benefitcial to those in areas of high incidence of malaria. It results from by a single base pair difference leading to a single base amino acid substitution in a haemoglobin subunit and is associated with partial collapse of the erythrocyte wall giving the phenomenon its name. Unfortunately, for homozygotes the condition can be fatal.
However, the relationship is not racial, except in the sense that the frequency of the haplotype varies among people of different races that live in different areas where there is a high presence of malaria.
"and the US specifically, has been a stabilizing force in world "
I wouldn't wander down the streets of Bhagdad, Serbia, or Mogadishu saying that, if I were you. The notion that we have been a source of their population boom could get you killed.
Perhaps not, but we don't seem to mind missing that many traffic fatalities or heart attacks or people through starvation or malaria, etc. Just all income to the mortuary business, save those eaten by sharks, lost in the woods, etc.
But what if 100% total successful means having the world's single largest collection of rhinoceros horns, automobiles,... in order to outclass the republican next door or Keeping up with the Joneses?
The probability of there being oil on the moon is vanishingly small. Most computers probably don't have enough bits to quantify it accurately.
It would seem this one particular oil-rich grape is the only one we have.
The problem we face is how to create a global economy of 7-10 billion people that can be sustained in the near future without burning any oil lest we quickly make our planet uninhabitable to all but a few species of thermophillic bacteria in just a few centuries.
Rich folks don't need so many because each has a much higher probability of successful reproduction that will the children of virtually all poor. Of course, being the same species their is intermixing of these two evolutionary strategies for survival. One really does have to wonder, however about these guys whose sperm donations have created hundreds of children all effectively without fathers, merely their sperm. Perhaps the probability of success for such children is not high, as growing up without a father is known to lead to a shorter life span on average.
All changes to cumulative distributions appear to be linear if looked at over a small enough time scale or over several different segments of the curve, but population growth that best characterizes the idea that you are trying to convey is the logistic distribution, which is a smooth, infinitely differentiable function.
With world population set to rise to 10 billion, the addition of oil and gas expected to be recovered and burned from tar sands and fracking, at the current rate of carbon burn per individual accounting for the differential rate of carbon burning and assuming that the balance of present growth trends will not widely deviate from their present geographical distribution, the planet will be to warm to support life in as little as 350 years, except for the most thermophilic bacteria.
that you presume that you will be on the top of the food chain. That guy Ghadaffi thought the same thing, along with a history book full of others.
As the realities of Darwinian evolution close in on humanity, one has to wonder what species are we related to and does their fate tell us something about our own? Remember we are not really talking about other species but very much components of ourselves, especially when those who starve are human.
Slashdot Mirror
I think the deviancy lies in having the hubris to think we can actually take the helm, when until now we have only learned how to drill holes in the boat.
You do realize of course that one of every four or five children in the United States now lives in poverty don't you?
You have probably been watching Fox News haven't you?
Yes, like in the US there is lots of open space. Its just that much of it is at high altitude or desert, with very little water to support life.
One can never ceased to be amazed by how little Biology the average slashdotter knows. They have no idea what would happen if they turned ever square inch of the planet into a factory or a farm. Humans would be extinct in short order from the consequences.
that there aren't nearly enough of them to constrain the greed and gluttony of the average anti-environmental conservative.
After you.
as Captain America.
The good thing is that as long as people don't mind the cold, the heat, or the gravitation or the immense difficult in growing their own food, they should have no problem moving to other worlds. Based on the prices of current airlines tickets, no doubt a trip to the uninhabited moons of Jupiter will be well within everyone's budget.
"invest in the resources and knowledge to be able to produce your own food,"
But what happens when we have burned enough fossil fuels and tar sand extracts that global temperatures become too high to permit much soil moisture and most plants simply won't grow because of the heat? A number of current climate models suggest, for example that places like Kansas City could see a hundred days a year with temperatures over a hundred degrees F within 100 to 200 years and perhaps less?
Sounds like your plan may well let your immediate or second or third generation progeny being among the last humans living in caves, but its not really much of a long term solution.
At least we can look on the bright side as it would seem as if we will have a lot of low budget home movies, where future citizens of earth roam the deserts, attacking one another for the last few drops of water until the tires melt on their vehicles to entertain ourselves with.
You need water to grow cellulose and even that will become in short supply as far too few plants are able to tolerate the heat that can be expected on the planetary surface in a few hundreds years time at the current rate of global warming, ignoring the tremendous boost to temperatures that gas fracking and tar sand oil production will generate as these fuels are burned and the carbon dioxide is dumped into the atmosphere.
Looks as if we are right on schedule.
"A general issue is that while problems can grow exponentially, so can solutions."
The Modern Pangloss returns to Slashdot.
The only problem of course is that given only a finite amount of time to solve the problem of over-population and over-consumption and rising carbon dioxide levels, far too few of the exponentially growing problems will actually be solved in sufficient time to raise crop production enough to keep even a few people alive given the dramatic drops in yields that can be expected as global temperatures rise above 120 degrees F on a sustained basis. With a planet of ten billion, all clamoring to live like Americans, you can give the human race perhaps 100-200 years. After that they will be intently studying designs for space craft that can tolerate extreme heat. Humans will probably have to move into permanent caves and pipe in specially cooled sunlight and then in time evolve into naked mole rat cultures.
Perhaps, but at least then we could all have our self-respect.
The problem with over population is that everyone wants to live like Americans and when you have 10,000,000,000 that means that the probability of human extinction rises to 1.
I suggest that you continue to spend lots of time in southeastern Utah, where you will find that there are so few people because there is so little water that things just don't grow so well there, except for a few hardly indians and mormons. If you think Utah is to wet, try the Atacama Desert. Not a lot of people there either for obvious reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with politics. You don't have to believe me. You can move there and see for yourself. Heck, I won't even complain if you take your conspiracy theories with you.
"There is a "well known" racial difference of malaria susceptibility vs sickle cell anemia"
There is a relationship between malaria and susceptibility to sickle cell anemia because having the sickle cell trait is beneficial in the presence of high concentrations of malarial mosquitoes. It is the condition, which is a heterozygous trait, is benefitcial to those in areas of high incidence of malaria. It results from by a single base pair difference leading to a single base amino acid substitution in a haemoglobin subunit and is associated with partial collapse of the erythrocyte wall giving the phenomenon its name. Unfortunately, for homozygotes the condition can be fatal.
However, the relationship is not racial, except in the sense that the frequency of the haplotype varies among people of different races that live in different areas where there is a high presence of malaria.
Actually if the world got rid of more Americans, there would be room to pack even more in as non-Americans consume so much less than Americans.
"and the US specifically, has been a stabilizing force in world "
I wouldn't wander down the streets of Bhagdad, Serbia, or Mogadishu saying that, if I were you. The notion that we have been a source of their population boom could get you killed.
We don't misplace a quarter million people easily
Perhaps not, but we don't seem to mind missing that many traffic fatalities or heart attacks or people through starvation or malaria, etc. Just all income to the mortuary business, save those eaten by sharks, lost in the woods, etc.
I know some poor republicans with minds they don't use. I'm sure you could borrow theirs. They wouldn't miss it.
anything as long as they don't vote for Obama.
But what if 100% total successful means having the world's single largest collection of rhinoceros horns, automobiles, ... in order to outclass the republican next door or Keeping up with the Joneses?
The probability of there being oil on the moon is vanishingly small. Most computers probably don't have enough bits to quantify it accurately.
It would seem this one particular oil-rich grape is the only one we have.
The problem we face is how to create a global economy of 7-10 billion people that can be sustained in the near future without burning any oil lest we quickly make our planet uninhabitable to all but a few species of thermophillic bacteria in just a few centuries.
Rich folks don't need so many because each has a much higher probability of successful reproduction that will the children of virtually all poor. Of course, being the same species their is intermixing of these two evolutionary strategies for survival. One really does have to wonder, however about these guys whose sperm donations have created hundreds of children all effectively without fathers, merely their sperm. Perhaps the probability of success for such children is not high, as growing up without a father is known to lead to a shorter life span on average.
All changes to cumulative distributions appear to be linear if looked at over a small enough time scale or over several different segments of the curve, but population growth that best characterizes the idea that you are trying to convey is the logistic distribution, which is a smooth, infinitely differentiable function.
With world population set to rise to 10 billion, the addition of oil and gas expected to be recovered and burned from tar sands and fracking, at the current rate of carbon burn per individual accounting for the differential rate of carbon burning and assuming that the balance of present growth trends will not widely deviate from their present geographical distribution, the planet will be to warm to support life in as little as 350 years, except for the most thermophilic bacteria.
that you presume that you will be on the top of the food chain. That guy Ghadaffi thought the same thing, along with a history book full of others.
As the realities of Darwinian evolution close in on humanity, one has to wonder what species are we related to and does their fate tell us something about our own? Remember we are not really talking about other species but very much components of ourselves, especially when those who starve are human.