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The Earth is full (Chicken Little alert)
NY Times ^ | 06/07/11 | THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Posted on 06/08/2011 8:07:50 AM PDT by Borges

You really do have to wonder whether a few years from now we’ll look back at the first decade of the 21st century — when food prices spiked, energy prices soared, world population surged, tornados plowed through cities, floods and droughts set records, populations were displaced and governments were threatened by the confluence of it all — and ask ourselves: What were we thinking? How did we not panic when the evidence was so obvious that we’d crossed some growth/climate/natural resource/population redlines all at once?

“The only answer can be denial,” argues Paul Gilding, the veteran Australian environmentalist-entrepreneur, who described this moment in a new book called “The Great Disruption: Why the Climate Crisis Will Bring On the End of Shopping and the Birth of a New World.” “When you are surrounded by something so big that requires you to change everything about the way you think and see the world, then denial is the natural response. But the longer we wait, the bigger the response required.”

Gilding cites the work of the Global Footprint Network, an alliance of scientists, which calculates how many “planet Earths” we need to sustain our current growth rates. G.F.N. measures how much land and water area we need to produce the resources we consume and absorb our waste, using prevailing technology. On the whole, says G.F.N., we are currently growing at a rate that is using up the Earth’s resources far faster than they can be sustainably replenished, so we are eating into the future. Right now, global growth is using about 1.5 Earths. “Having only one planet makes this a rather significant problem,” says Gilding.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
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1 posted on 06/08/2011 8:07:52 AM PDT by Borges
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To: Borges

Wasn’t this news back in the 70’s? I’m having a flashback here....


2 posted on 06/08/2011 8:09:16 AM PDT by NRA1995 ("In the [Mexican] border, we are asking, who are you?" President Calderon of Mexico)
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To: Borges

If the Earth is so full, then why can the entire population easily fit into Texas with room to spare?


3 posted on 06/08/2011 8:10:18 AM PDT by VanDeKoik (1 million in stimulus dollars paid for this tagline!)
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To: NRA1995

Back in the 1700’s..............Malthusians..............


4 posted on 06/08/2011 8:10:25 AM PDT by Red Badger (Nothing is a 'right' if someone has to give it to you................)
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To: VanDeKoik

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Inside


5 posted on 06/08/2011 8:11:50 AM PDT by Red Badger (Nothing is a 'right' if someone has to give it to you................)
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To: Borges

Paging Rev. Malthus. Rev. Malthus. Please pick up the red courtesy phone.


6 posted on 06/08/2011 8:12:51 AM PDT by facedown (Armed in the Heartland)
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To: Borges

The only denial is the refusal to see that a moderately warmer earth, especially with moderately more carbon dioxide, will see former permafrost lands turned into arable and easily habitable lands, and the green vegetation almost everywhere will become lusher.

If — IF we humans happen to actually significantly push climate this way, and it’s not due to natural forces that overwhelm the feeble powers of mankind.


7 posted on 06/08/2011 8:13:05 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Hawk)
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To: Borges

Go off yourselves, Death Eaters, and I’ll have another couple of children, so you’ll be replaced by fun and productive people.


8 posted on 06/08/2011 8:13:16 AM PDT by Tax-chick ("WWSP?" - What Would Sionnsar Post?)
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To: Borges

Malthus, Ehrlich, Chicken Little ..... I’ve heard all this so many times before ..... and so has everyone else. Doesn’t anyone ever learn from the mistaken creeds of the past?

Gee, I guess we’d better centralize all planning for everything in Washington, or better yet the UN and double the taxes on everything.

Sarcasm/off


9 posted on 06/08/2011 8:14:19 AM PDT by Mobties (Reduce the government footprint! Let the markets work!)
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To: Borges
Maybe Tom can free up some acres by moving out of his glamorous estate.
10 posted on 06/08/2011 8:14:23 AM PDT by Catphish
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To: Borges

How did we elect such a Far Leftist Loser?

HOW?


11 posted on 06/08/2011 8:15:16 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
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To: VanDeKoik

Hell, immigration, legal and illegal, will fill up Texas in no time.


12 posted on 06/08/2011 8:15:34 AM PDT by kabar
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To: Tax-chick

I am about to have kid number 8. I was thinking of stopping but I might have a couple more just to piss off the zero population idiots.


13 posted on 06/08/2011 8:15:44 AM PDT by pennyfarmer (Even a RINO will chew its foot off when caught in a trap.)
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To: Borges
In 1968, a biologist named Paul Ehrlich wrote The Population Bomb, in which he predicted, among other things, "...in the 1970s the world will undergo famines- hundreds of millions of people will starve to death."
14 posted on 06/08/2011 8:16:50 AM PDT by WayneS ("I hope you know this will go down on your PERMANENT record...")
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To: Borges

Once you’ve read the book’s title:

“The Great Disruption: Why the Climate Crisis Will Bring On the End of Shopping and the Birth of a New World.”

you’ve read the whole book. All the rest is just fleshing out the title.


15 posted on 06/08/2011 8:17:05 AM PDT by count-your-change (You don't have be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
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To: VanDeKoik
If the Earth is so full, then why can the entire population easily fit into Texas with room to spare?

I've done the math . . . you're absolutely right. Not only that, but if you could stand EVERYBODY in the world in the Grand Canyon next to each other (again, I've done the math), you'd still have room to spare.

It's incredible that this kind of junk science is still thought to be accurate.

16 posted on 06/08/2011 8:17:49 AM PDT by laweeks
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To: VanDeKoik
If the Earth is so full, then why can the entire population easily fit into Texas with room to spare?

As long as nobody wants to eat...

17 posted on 06/08/2011 8:18:06 AM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: Borges

More lefty propaganda.


18 posted on 06/08/2011 8:18:20 AM PDT by Freddd (NoPA ngineers.)
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To: Borges

I was furious when a local college invited Paul Ehrlich to speak on campus recently. They guy has been wrong about absolutely everything for close to four decades now.


19 posted on 06/08/2011 8:19:27 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Borges

THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN = Elitist Eugenicist

He does not practice anything he thinks.


20 posted on 06/08/2011 8:20:53 AM PDT by Sprite518
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