How Engineering the Human Body Could Combat Climate Change (Obama's America)

The Atlantic ^ | Monday, March 12, 2012 | Ross Anderson

[kristinn]

Liao: Well one of the things that we noticed is that human ecological footprints are partly correlated with size. Each kilogram of body mass requires a certain amount of food and nutrients and so, other things being equal, the larger person is the more food and energy they are going to soak up over the course of a lifetime. There are also other, less obvious ways in which larger people consume more energy than smaller people---for example a car uses more fuel per mile to carry a heavier person, more fabric is needed to clothe larger people, and heavier people wear out shoes, carpets and furniture at a quicker rate than lighter people, and so on.

And so size reduction could be one way to reduce a person's ecological footprint. For instance if you reduce the average U.S. height by just 15cm, you could reduce body mass by 21% for men and 25% for women, with a corresponding reduction in metabolic rates by some 15% to 18%, because less tissue means lower energy and nutrient needs.

SNIP

Liao: That's right. It's been suggested that, given the seriousness of climate change, we ought to adopt something like China's one child policy. There was a group of doctors in Britain who recently advocated a two-child maximum. But at the end of the day those are crude prescriptions---what we really care about is some kind of fixed allocation of greenhouse gas emissions per family. If that's the case, given certain fixed allocations of greenhouse gas emissions, human engineering could give families the choice between two medium sized children, or three small sized children. From our perspective that would be more liberty enhancing than a policy that says "you can only have one or two children."....

[null and void]

The left has always dreamt of a New Soviet Man...

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

(Obama’s America)

Till January 20th 2013.

[bicyclerepair]

I’d like this twit to look up at me and tell me this BS.

I’m 5’18” btw.

[I see my hands]

Skip the intermediate steps and eliminate all animal life except for plant eating ants.

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

“We represent the Communist guild..the Communist guild...the Communist guild..We represent the Communist guiiiild! We welcome you to O-ba-ma land!”

[Steely Tom]

They should run this theory by Representitive Jerry Nadler.

[Sirius Lee]

"I hear the directors of Genetic Control have been buying all the
properties that have recently been sold, taking risks oh so bold.
It's said now that people will be shorter in height, they can fit
twice as many in the same building site.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFnNXGRGIzQ

[A message]

And if you might potentially have a third medium child you can kill it for a dollar.

[BeAllYouCanBe]

6-7 and gassy? No problem light’em up with a match — saves on heat

[A message]

Get them out by Friday.
You don’t get paid
Till the last ones well on his way.

They’ve been working on this idea since 1972.

[hosepipe]

Sounds like a comedy routine proposing a human race of dwarves...

Handled correctly this administration could actually be laughed out of the White-Hut..
Might help the war on drugs since a dwarf would require less DOPE to get high..
Less water to get clean and less cotton to make clothing..

[prairiebreeze]

He looks like a ChiCom....

[eclecticEel]

They don’t need to be all that high tech about it - genetic engineering, pshaw. Feudal masters discovered millennia ago that denying their serfs a protein rich diet resulted in physically smaller and weaker populations. Of course that made dominating the peasantry with the threat of physical violence all the more effective - another feature I’m sure these Nazi freaks would also find attractive.

[Bryanw92]

We should all march to DC and reduce our weight...55 grains at a time. Or 62 grains. Or even 150 grains at a time if you prefer the heavier caliber.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

Besides bioengineering humans to be smaller, we should also bioengineer our skins to contain chlorophyll so we can absorb nutrients directly from the sun.

That way when the Martians come out of their undergound caverns to visit Earth they will be happy when they are welcomed by little green men.

[Cicero]

Ironically, another “scientific” study was posted here, I think yesterday, arguing that global warming would make people smaller. That was presented as a bad thing.

Put these two articles together, however, and it demonstrates that global warming automatically cancels itself out.

[Grizzled Bear]

And so size reduction could be one way to reduce a person's ecological footprint. For instance if you reduce the average U.S. height by just 15cm, you could reduce body mass by 21% for men and 25% for women, with a corresponding reduction in metabolic rates by some 15% to 18%, because less tissue means lower energy and nutrient needs.

How did that work for North Korea?

[magellan]

Let’s reengineer humanity for a fraud.

[TASMANIANRED]

These folks are 180 degree’s out of sane.

[Alas Babylon!]

Here’s his blog. He allows comments. Happy FReeping!

http://ethics-etc.com/