I hear about this every so often, with people both shooting it down or saying it’s right. I hold no expertise in the domain of sustainability, although I generally tend to agree with the idea that we should take care of the environment and limit our consumption of what appears to be limited resources.
Can someone TL;DR me to death and back on this issue? I’d really like to know if doomsday preppers are right. XD
I am only lightly read on the subject. So this is my opinion which doesn’t really help your question but maybe somebody else will jump in and correct me.
The Earth is finite and that means its resources are finite which means there is a limit to growth. The question is: what is that limit? For much of history science and technology has let us stay ahead of the limit.
In my opinion, as a world we still have a good chunk of room to go before we really hit those limits. The biggest issue I see is political. Studies say we can feed the world, the problem is getting the food there. A non-trivial task, but by the same token one that does not receive a lot of funding. We could get off of fossil fuels quicker, but politically the will isn’t there.
So, I think we, as a planet, need to change. And the biggest problem there is it’s not a technological change that needs to happen but a cultural one, which is the most difficult.
So this is the game where we see how close to the precipice we can stop this train? It’s actually a not too bad metaphor. Even if the people in the front car see that the problem is imminent and catastrophic, people at the back may not see it until it’s far too late and the rest of the train is pulling them in the darkened depths of the pit, the screams, the smoke, SO HORRIBLE. I hope you guys don’t mind me derailing for a bit. :P
The Collapse Of Western Civilization is a fictional book that tries to play out what could happen, specifically for climate change, in such a situation. Very short book.
I hear about this every so often, with people both shooting it down or saying it’s right. I hold no expertise in the domain of sustainability, although I generally tend to agree with the idea that we should take care of the environment and limit our consumption of what appears to be limited resources.
Can someone TL;DR me to death and back on this issue? I’d really like to know if doomsday preppers are right. XD
I am only lightly read on the subject. So this is my opinion which doesn’t really help your question but maybe somebody else will jump in and correct me.
The Earth is finite and that means its resources are finite which means there is a limit to growth. The question is: what is that limit? For much of history science and technology has let us stay ahead of the limit.
In my opinion, as a world we still have a good chunk of room to go before we really hit those limits. The biggest issue I see is political. Studies say we can feed the world, the problem is getting the food there. A non-trivial task, but by the same token one that does not receive a lot of funding. We could get off of fossil fuels quicker, but politically the will isn’t there.
So, I think we, as a planet, need to change. And the biggest problem there is it’s not a technological change that needs to happen but a cultural one, which is the most difficult.
So this is the game where we see how close to the precipice we can stop this train? It’s actually a not too bad metaphor. Even if the people in the front car see that the problem is imminent and catastrophic, people at the back may not see it until it’s far too late and the rest of the train is pulling them in the darkened depths of the pit, the screams, the smoke, SO HORRIBLE. I hope you guys don’t mind me derailing for a bit. :P
The Collapse Of Western Civilization is a fictional book that tries to play out what could happen, specifically for climate change, in such a situation. Very short book.