World Crissis??

[NikFu S.]

That to me sounds like a pitiful, meaningless existence. The very concept of life itself is to adapt, grow, and change. What you are suggesting is to reverse actual progress in exchange for perceived tranquility.

New problems need to be discovered and made before we can decide how to solve them...

Bring on the crisis. We will be better off having challenged it and won than pretend things are better in an isolated world.

[K_Dub]

Originally Posted by NikFu S.

Bring on the crisis. We will be better off having challenged it and won than pretend things are better in an isolated world.

Coming from a guy in Alaska.JK

Perhaps I'm being a bit rash suggesting we go back to being cave men, but the levels of decadence and unsustainable living are more evident here in LA than anywhere else I've been. I beg the comparison to isolated villages in your home state (where much of my tranquil life has been lived). Until the intrusion of these western values of "progress" life was very much the same in those places for thousands of years. With progress came alcohol, big business oil and fishing, and global warming now threatening that way of life. I won't broach the subject of subsistance fishing with an Alaskan, but rather I propose instead of looking for big "cure all" solutions we should examine smaller solutions within our own lives.

I've been frequenting the local farmer's markets lately, and not only is my food better but so is the local economy and my understanding of what ends up on my plate. I'd gladly barter my skills with those farmers in a way like editing their promotional video in exchange for a duration of food supplies. Currently there is no market for this, and I'm not even sure it would work, but it's just an example.

Now I've come off like a hippie, which may be even worse than your run of the mill jerk. If you need me I'll be the guy hypermiling my SVX in the left lane... With my blinker on.

[K_Dub]

As an aside: While I was typing my last post the internet went down at my office. Talk about a Crisis! By the reactions I heard you'd think we'd just run out of oil, water, food, energy... I don't think we need to regress three centuries, I just think we need some perspective.

[SoCal LS-L]

A couple major differences between past highs and lows and present date are:

An exponentially growing world population of 6 billion sharing limited energy and food resources.

Thousands of thermonuclear weapons capable of rendering Earth unliveable for millenia.

The fuse is lit...

[TomsSVX]

Originally Posted by NikFu S.

The very concept of life itself is to adapt, grow, and change.

For an animal yes, over many decades of survival of the fittest in which the ones able to live long enough to reproduce can pass on their genetics. In a society that embraces the idea of prolonging the life of the weak giving them the ability and promoting their reproduction and thus contaminating the adaption and change part and only increasing growth...

Tom

[MadMaxSvx]

Originally Posted by SoCal LS-L

A couple major differences between past highs and lows and present date are:

An exponentially growing world population of 6 billion sharing limited energy and food and water resources.

Thousands of thermonuclear weapons capable of rendering Earth unliveable for millenia.

The fuse is lit...

Fixed!!!!

[NikFu S.]

Originally Posted by TomsSVX

For an animal yes, over many decades of survival of the fittest in which the ones able to live long enough to reproduce can pass on their genetics. In a society that embraces the idea of prolonging the life of the weak giving them the ability and promoting their reproduction and thus contaminating the adaption and change part and only increasing growth...

Tom

I recently came to the conclusion that natural selection no longer applies to modern society, as well with current and forthcoming [medical, bio-engineering] advances further rendering the concept of a fouled gene pool irrelevant. We still pick and choose whom with we wish to mate, and the beautiful fit people still choose to be with beautiful fit people. Thanks to technology the unfit, half-dead people can also fornicate with each other, but would this not be occurring (to an extent) regardless of the state of society, as well things like random mutation itself further confusing the pool giving doctors and celebrities deformed children, and hideous trolls super model protégé?

Even with the most advanced technology, I do not think it is physiologically possible to have a race of people whom do not adapt, change, or grow, so it seems to me that must be the entire reason for our existence, or at least the drive behind whatever the real reason may be, if one can be applied.

I do not believe in "waiting" for evolution, as well I do not believe in just being tranquil with or content with any state of affairs. There is always something better beyond the horizon, and no guarantee that horizon will come to you, so it is my opinion that humanity as a species should continue that path we have started, to push the limits of everything as quickly as possible. What's the worst that can happen? We blow ourselves up? I find that highly unlikely, as well I do not believe living a life without a horizon to be any better.

Originally Posted by SoCal LS-L

An exponentially growing world population of 6 billion sharing limited energy and food resources.

Thousands of thermonuclear weapons capable of rendering Earth unliveable for millenia.

I do not think energy is limited resource. It is all around us, and simply a matter of harnessing it. I also do not believe water is a limited resource. It is also all around us and again is a matter of simply purifying and extracting.

I also happen to know that all of the nuclear arsenal on the planet is barely enough firepower to take out Texas alone. Radioactive fallout is an issue, but let us examine the probability that every nuclear device on the planet will detonate, ever. Highly unlikely, not to mention nuclear devices decay and do not work forever, so the number isn't necessarily growing even if new weapons are being built.

--
Relevant link for the interested to something I said earlier: http://www.pppl.gov/kstar/html/about_kstar.html, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KSTAR
Another: http://www.scientificamerican.com/bl...nif-2009-04-01

[SoCal LS-L]

Originally Posted by NikFu S.

I also happen to know that all of the nuclear arsenal on the planet is barely enough firepower to take out Texas alone. Radioactive fallout is an issue, but let us examine the probability that every nuclear device on the planet will detonate, ever. Highly unlikely, not to mention nuclear devices decay and do not work forever, so the number isn't necessarily growing even if new weapons are being built.

--

Google or Wiki "nuclear winter"

A small excerpt:

A minor nuclear war (such as between India and Pakistan or in the Middle East), with each country using 50 Hiroshima-sized atom bombs as airbursts on urban areas, could produce climate change unprecedented in recorded human history. This is only 0.03% of the explosive power of the current global arsenal.

[MadMaxSvx]

Originally Posted by NikFu S.

I do not think energy is limited resource. It is all around us, and simply a matter of harnessing it. I also do not believe water is a limited resource. It is also all around us and again is a matter of simply purifying and extracting.
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Not so easy,due of the growing demand..We CAN get thirsty someday...

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

[TomsSVX]

Sea water is too easily made into drinking water for it to become a limited resource. Unless the means of conveying it to landlocked communities is wiped out

Tom

[NikFu S.]

Originally Posted by SoCal LS-L

Google or Wiki "nuclear winter"

A small excerpt:

A minor nuclear war (such as between India and Pakistan or in the Middle East), with each country using 50 Hiroshima-sized atom bombs as airbursts on urban areas, could produce climate change unprecedented in recorded human history. This is only 0.03% of the explosive power of the current global arsenal.

Researching. Passed up Wiki for Carl Sagan. I'll get back to you.

Originally Posted by MadMaxSvx

Not so easy,due of the growing demand..We CAN get thirsty someday...

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

Researching...

[NikFu S.]

I think I underestimated the devastation caused by nuclear detonations. I did not know they destroy the ozone layer, and I did not not consider air borne debris being a problem. Still, I know they are deadly on a worldly scale and that is why I think it is highly unlikely there will ever be a nuclear war. Everyone loses.

Far as freshwater resources versus booming demand, we need an alternative to just throwing all our used water into sewage and contaminating large water bodies. Water itself is unlimited, but not unlike a needle from a haystack, simply difficult to extract from polluted sources. Water or lack of water isn't itself the primary problem, but pollution, mainly from sewage. To be honest I can't even fathom how to fix that problem, though I have heard of an African town that converts it's sewage into methane energy and fertilizer. Not sure that would work on a larger scale.

[Landshark]

Originally Posted by TomsSVX

For an animal yes, over many decades of survival of the fittest in which the ones able to live long enough to reproduce can pass on their genetics. In a society that embraces the idea of prolonging the life of the weak giving them the ability and promoting their reproduction and thus contaminating the adaption and change part and only increasing growth...

Tom

Stupid Cat has no future.

[TomsSVX]

Originally Posted by Landshark

Stupid Cat has no future.

looks like he figured it out to me

Tom

[SoCal LS-L]

Originally Posted by NikFu S.

I think I underestimated the devastation caused by nuclear detonations. I did not know they destroy the ozone layer, and I did not not consider air borne debris being a problem. Still, I know they are deadly on a worldly scale and that is why I think it is highly unlikely there will ever be a nuclear war. Everyone loses.

I sure hope you are right! With so many nations in posession of them, or near posession, theres a lot of fingers on the button already. Even worse, I am almost 100% certain that at some point in the near future, a terrorist cell will finally gain posession of a low or mid yield nuke from the old Soviet reserves, or N.Korea, and may use them on one of our cities. The environmental fallout may not be very severe, but if 9/11 can eventually send the United States spiraling into recession..... what will fear of another nuclear event do to the worlds economy?

I really hate to sound like the prophet of doom or something, I just really try to be thankful for all the cheap food, running water, electricity, easy transportation, etc. that I have now, because even losing one of those makes life suck in comparison, and one day I may be talking about "the good 'ol days" in a completely different world.