I think this is the beginnings of an economy based on perpetual growth and fossil fuel energy running headlong into geological energy constraints. Basically I see an undulatory downward path for the rest of my life. From here out, I think any rallies in our economic condition are going to be met with spiking commodity prices that knock us right back down.
If a pond lily doubles everyday and it takes 30 days to completely cover a pond, on what day will the pond be 1/4 covered?
Answer: Day 28. Growth will be barely visible until the final few days. (On the 25th day, the lilys cover 1/32nd of the pond; on the 21st day, the lilys cover 1/512th of the pond).
1/2 covered?
Answer: Day 29.
Does the size of the pond make a difference?
Answer: No. The doubling time is still the same. Even if you could magically double the size of the pond on day 30, it would still hold only one day's worth of growth!
What kind of environmental consequences can be expected as the 30th day approaches?
Answer: The pond will become visibly more crowded each day, and this crowding will begin to exhaust the resources of the pond.
What will begin to happen at one minute past the 30th day?
Answer: The pond will be completely covered. Even though the lilys will be reproducing, there will be no more room for additional lilys, and the excess population will die off. In fact, since the resources of the pond have been exhausted, a significant proportion of the original population may die off as well.
At what point (what day) would preventative action become necessary to prevent unpleasant events?
Answer: It depends on how long it takes to implement the action and how full you want the lily pond to be. If it takes two days to complete a project to reduce lily reproductive rates, that action must be started on day 28, when the pond is only 25% full -- and that will still produce a completely full pond. Of course, if the action is started earlier, the results will be much more dramatic.
With respect to human population, what corresponding day are we at in the world? The United States?
This is a visual demonstration of the ecolgists axiom: If you can readily see the problem, it is too late to do anything about it. _________________ A Saudi saying, "My father rode a camel. I drive a car. My son flies a jet-plane. His son will ride a camel."
Live in Arizona? Check out: http://sustainablearizona.org and read my blog.
Joined: Sep 18, 2004 Posts: 58 Location: Australia
Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2004 11:08 am Post subject:
Quote:
Of course, talk is cheap for these heads of state and it must have been a great photo-op. But, have a look at the sort of paltry international aid budgets some of these countries have. They seldom match their rhetoric with action.
Badmouth the US all you want - it's certainly a popular activity. But if/when the American economy falters or fails, hundreds of millions if not billions of people around the world will suddenly wonder what happened to their "free lunch." I seriously doubt if it could be/would be replaced by other countries.
JackBob
Bah!
JackBob, their "free lunch" is carried by other nations. The US rates 19th in the world for donor economic aid per capita, last is Italy and after that not a dime.
1. Luxembourg $352.30 per person
2. Norway $307.95 per person
3. Denmark $302.72 per person
4. Netherlands $216.71 per person
5. Sweden $191.48 per person
6. Switzerland $150.30 per person
7. France $104.68 per person
8. United Kingdom $74.88 per person
9. Belgium $74.25 per person
10. Finland $73.01 per person
11. Ireland $72.11 per person
12. Japan $71.53 per person
13. Germany $67.96 per person
14. Austria $50.07 per person
15. Australia $45.30 per person
16. Canada $40.36 per person
17. Spain $33.07 per person
18. Portugal $26.82 per person
19. New Zealand $25.23 per person
20. United States $23.76 per person
21. Italy $17.24 per person
22. Lesotho $0 per person
23. Saudi Arabia $0 per person
24. Korea, South $0 per person
So no wonder the US didn't show at the UN World Hunger Summit, too busy $crewing everyone else over to stay the king pin.
A powerful and all-encompassing invisible cog wheel runs the system from afar. It often revokes democratic decisions, shrivels the sovereignty of states and imposes itself to elected governments.
No crap, and we all know what nation is that all-encompassing invisible cog. The US has squashed democratic elections and propped up dictators plenty -- regime changes.
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