[Paradox]

Originally Posted by Twig6

What good comes from escalation of panic? Don't people become more reactionary—wanting to build fences and such—not less?

I for one believe we must react --- whether out of fear, panic or duty. Gore may not have his facts straight and is obviously pushing a political agenda BUT his message should not be completely discounted. The fact is that we are probably on the verge of an irreversible spiral into climate chaos brought on by both natural and anthropogenic forcings. Observation substatiates this claim. At what point do we decide that the prospects of dodging this bullet are non-existant and 'react' accordingly? We may need a lot more fences.

I still maintain that the unalterable choice of a future dystopia is false and damaging to us. Yes, we are only human—what control do we have over nature? Absolutely none. We only have control over how we react to nature and whether we decide to keep running our societies as though we do control it, wasting resources and incurring waste. We have a choice to further ignore the climate, increase our resource debt and increase our waste surplus, or start paying it off/mitigating it now—either way it will eventually have to be paid or dealt with. By us.

Tell that to China... I am sure they will be all ears. It is hard to disagree with your statement but in the real world force will be needed. Mother nature is the only force capable, the UN has little power over the economic forces at work.

I believe climate change will be something that brings about the changes that we, as a race, have failed to realize on our own. In typical 'wait-until-the-last-minute' form we will certainly roll out new technology, high-mileage vehicles and hopefully hydrogen as a replacement for oil and gas. This will take time -- which we may not have.

The reality is that oil, coal, natural gas, uranium, and raw metal resources will all peak sometime this century (most closer to now than the end of the century). Water and soil resources will be severely depleted. Animal and plant species are dying out a rate that indicates half of them will be extinct at the end of this century. This is all without even factoring in climate change.* My (future) children and grandchildren will likely be alive when this happens. So will everyone else's.

Water is the only resource that is currently threatening global security. We have too many third world countries that cannot cope with the current trends...this will spill over into every country and validate many of the concerns regarding overpopulation. We are walking a fine line at the moment.

Going on the way we have been frankly isn't an option, no matter how many wars we fight or fences we build or how we prepare ourselves. The money we need for infrastructure is being blown on hoarding those depleted resources for a few people. It's a stupid gamble—a gamble dependent on us continuing to depend solely on those depleted resources. So, I think the rest of us just need to get on with our lives—now versus later. The people who will survive in the future are those that can adapt to the situations they find themselves in the fastest, and quit clinging to old ways that just don't work anymore.

Same as it ever was.

Well said.


~Paradox