Reply To: The recent "discovery" of Dark Matter

[Warwick]

Rematog:

Yes, methane is a more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2. CO2 is the tip of the iceberg as regards environmental destruction going on right now … For instance the oceans are rapidly becoming full of tiny bits of plastic, dumped from Chinese factories, which are probably going to destroy marine ecosystems worldwide once they have been whittled small enough. In a more affluent, energy-rich society, that is the kind of thing we need to address. Habitat destruction in order to create plantations of cash crops is decimating biodiversity. I’m not sure why you would be OK with that.

Overpopulation is a massive problem – energy is not the only resource – and the only way populations stop expanding is when it pays more to have fewer kids, because they all require significant investment and do not represent an economic gain. That can only happen when i) you don’t need family to go to work for you if you get sick or unemployed; ii) you don’t need kids to work for you to provide for you when you’re old; iii) your kids have genuine prospects if you invest everything you have (including time) in bringing up just a few. These factors are what avoided the predicted Malthusian equilibrium for the “developed” world in the 20th century. Our best choice right now, never mind if we become more energy-rich, is to try to bring about progress towards that same thing for everyone presently living in a shanty town with no state pension and no decent prospects. I think it’s fair to call that civilisation – and at present we in the developed world are the ones that are being uncivilised, by letting the World Bank and their neoliberal fellow-travellers work against it.

Btw, I’ve been to Ohio and didn’t see anywhere that would have lost anything by being reverted to nature. What was it they said in “The Faculty”? Anyway, you should come to the UK and see what it’s like when all of the housing estates start to coalesce into each other.