THIS is the end. Peak Earth. Easter Island #2

KevO · Expert Joined: May 24, 2005 Posts: 2338

The saddest news I've heard in years.
We are truly f**** as a species and a planet. At least our kids and grandkids, if they survive, will hate us eternally for not only being a part of it but for allowing this holocaust to happen.

Forests to fall for food and fuel

DefiledEngine · Heavy Crude Joined: Aug 19, 2004 Posts: 272

Maybe this time, we can actually ask the guy cutting down the last standing tree what he is thinking?

Seriously, this shouldn't come as any surprise, people want better lives just like what most of the people on this board have, so cutting down a few trees won't stop them. It's gonna be interesting in a few years to see forest degradation pick up speed, which I think it will. Interesting times, indeed.
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"Life is merely an orderly decay of energy states, and survival requires the continual discovery of new energy to pump into the system. He who controls the sources of energy controls the means of survival. "

DoomWarrior · Heavy Crude Joined: May 06, 2008 Posts: 224

DefiledEngine · Heavy Crude Joined: Aug 19, 2004 Posts: 272

AS they should, that how we evolved, our ancestors would be proud, and they know how it was to fight through numerous global changes like global warming.
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"Life is merely an orderly decay of energy states, and survival requires the continual discovery of new energy to pump into the system. He who controls the sources of energy controls the means of survival. "

ohanian · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Oct 17, 2004 Posts: 1065

Relax, if the people of Easter Island can survive by
(1) Killing their enemies
(2) Eating Human flesh

Then so can we.
(1) We should kill our enemies and take their resourses

(2) We should eat our enemies and take their flesh

Anyone for Soylent Green? Soylent Green is a 1973 dystopian science fiction movie depicting a bleak future in which overpopulation, pollution, and the resulting severe damage to the environment have led to widespread unemployment and poverty. Real fruit, vegetables, and meat are rare, commodities are expensive, and much of the population survives on processed food rations, including "soylent green" wafers.

I know because I stand on Zanzibar

The author John Brunner remarked that the 7 billion people whom he projected would be alive in 2010 would need to stand on Zanzibar (area 1554 km²).

EnergyUnlimited · Fission Joined: May 15, 2006 Posts: 2989

Ayame

Once again the age old question of 'are humans smarter than yeast?' is answered with a resounding no.

TheDude

Soylent Green was the film version of Harry Harrison's novel Make Room! Make Room! They cooked up the cannabilism for the Hollywood version. There's a scene early in the book where a mob riots and breaks a store window, one of the characters manages to grab a few boxes of tofu steaks or something; when he gets away from the crowd he deliriously gobbles three of them them down, relishing in the delight of having a full stomach, something he's almost never known in his young life. Very powerful bit of writing.

Courtesy of Beach Boy from the 12th Drumbeat at TOD:

Specop_007 · Expert Joined: Aug 12, 2004 Posts: 6102

Revi · Fusion Joined: Apr 25, 2005 Posts: 3112 Location: Maine

We live in the most forested state in the nation. They are talking about using cellulosic ethanol to keep cars going. They are using more than the regeneration now with the biomass. I went up to the areas that are being cut up north, and saw biomass stacked up next to the road for five miles. The topwood that used to sit in the woods, rot and regenerate the soil is all being skidded out now. How many more years of that before we start to see rocky areas that won't support regeneration at all?

I agree, we are going down a similar path to Easter Island.

And the reason for the cellulosic ethanol? To drive cars around. Why are we wrecking our children's future to feed something that is made of metal and has a life shorter than that of a cat? Our Moaii are cars. We move heaven and earth to make them go.

Why?

We just built one that gets around and uses about 1/10th of the energy of a typical car. It will get you around town with a friend and hundreds of pounds of whatever you need to move around for a penny a mile. It even recharges in the sun. What's the problem?

www.sunnev.com
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Deep in the mud and slime of things, even there, something sings.

shortonoil · Fission Joined: Dec 02, 2004 Posts: 2540 Location: VA USA

KevO said:

lorenzo · Fission Joined: Jan 01, 2005 Posts: 2092

I'd kindly like to call serious BS on this.

Scientists (that is: not ideologues), have found that:

-by 2050, when population stands at 9 billion
-we can produce enough food, fodder, fiber and forest products
-to meet demand
-while having enough land left to grow biomass for the production of 1500 Exajoules worth of energy (that is: 4 times as much energy as we consume on the planet today)
-without cutting a single tree (a strict no-deforestation scenario), and while keeping 10% of all land on the planet as conservation areas

Of course, this is a scenario in which land is used optimally, and in which all farmers in the developing world use efficient farming techniques. (Yields in sub-Saharan Africa are currently only 20% of what they could be with only marginal inputs.)

The scenario also foresees a universal distribution of efficient animal production systems (that is: no more grazing).

On the other hand, it doesn't take into account possible effects of climate change on crop production, because these are hard to predict. Some regions will have a higher production capacity because of global warming, others will see theirs decline.

Finally, the scenario does not take into account the development of new crops and biotechnology.

In any case, the potential for agricultural production without deforestation is very, very large.

Moreover, country-specific projections show that, for example, a country like the DRC has the agro-ecological potential to produce and yield food for 2 to 3 billion people, without cutting a single tree. A single country like the DRC can feed all new people that will be born on the planet between today and 2050. All it needs is the investment in infrastructures and inputs.

The RRI study does not make sense. It's another crappy piece of non-science based panic-mongering.

Sorry, I stick to science.

The scenario I refer to - made by the Copernicus Institute - is now the official backbone of the FAO's projection models on food, fiber, fodder and fuel potential.
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The Beginning is Near!

No-Oil · Heavy Crude Joined: Dec 31, 2004 Posts: 243 Location: UK

I think you will find that the Easter Islanders survived because some bloke called Cook turned up in a space ship, well a Naval Ship & rescued them.

If the human race is expecting an alien or a god to intervene when the whole planet reaches the same stage as Easter Island, then we are all doomed Sad

Not greed or short sightedness this time, just pure stupidity just like the Easter Islanders ! remember knowledge does NOT equal inteligence, which is something most people don't comprehend including most learn'ed people I know ! And that will be our undoing Sad

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The roller coaster is still climbing, but it's near the top now !
Where there's a WAR there's a WAY Sad

shortonoil · Fission Joined: Dec 02, 2004 Posts: 2540 Location: VA USA

lorenzo said:

lorenzo · Fission Joined: Jan 01, 2005 Posts: 2092