While the world wrings its collective hands over how little we must do to thwart climate change, two other sinister threats lurk in the wings – overpopulation and our rapacious excessive consumption of very finite resources, renewable and non-renewable. Any one of those three, on its own, is more than
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The Disaffected Lib: And Nobody Listened
It’s Kurt Vonnegut. The year is 1988. Vonnegut wrote a letter to the citizens of Earth in 2088. He wrote of future perils that, in some ways, have already come to pass. It was advice that almost no one heeded. Now that we can discuss the mess we are in
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Global Economy Is a "Pyramid Scheme" – Nobel Laureate
Former Obama-administration energy secretary and Nobel laureate, Steven Chu, says the global economy is dysfunctional because it depends on constant population growth. “The world needs a new model of how to generate a rising standard of living that’s not dependent on a pyramid scheme,” Chu said at the University of
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Dying On the Edges
Neoliberalism is not conducive to our health or to our survival. Neoliberalism has brought us to a place where we have to choose to either step back or accept the butcher’s bill to keep it going. We’re running out of room, we’re running out of stuff, somebody – a lot
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Faint Hope
These days good news on climate change is hard to find. Yet recent progress by major emitters, specifically China, give hope that the world might just meet the Paris Climate Summit goal of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius by 2100. Over the past half-century, growth in the global
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Another Sign? I Sure Hope Not.
Something has changed over the past two years. My home is bordered along the back by a row of large cedar trees. When I moved here some 15 years ago one of the delights I discovered was being awakened in the mornings by the chirps and songs of a seemingly
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Perspective is Jarring.
Let’s see, 9 billion tonnes of plastic divided by 7.5 billion human beings. That’s 1.2 tonnes of plastic per person or 2,640 pounds. More than 9 billion tonnes of plastic has been produced since 1950, and almost all of it is still around. A new study that tracked the global
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: At Last, An Intelligent Discussion About Overpopulation.
The May edition of Foreign Policy magazine is their climate change issue. As a keen follower of climate science for the past 15 years or more, the shortcomings in the treatment of this potentially existential threat to human civilization has been the fractured and shallow coverage it has received. This has
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Ultimate Disposable Species
My mother was fond of repeating an old adage: “You’ve made your bed. Now lie it it.” While that advice, in one form or another, has probably been meted out for centuries, renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking apparently doesn’t think very much of it. In “Expedition New Earth” — a
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Sadly, I Am Inclined To Agree With Sir David Attenborough
His logic seems impeccable: Or, to put it another way: Recommend this Post
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: As I Stare at My Smoke-Clouded Sky, a Thought or Two About Tipping Points
A tipping point isn’t that instant when water begins pouring over the canoe’s gunwale. The tipping point is actually before that, when the canoe is heeling over and can’t be stopped. It’s summer time. Get in a canoe and try it. There’s a brief moment, perhaps not more than a
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: And the Band Played On
It’s generally accepted in the scientific community that it takes one to several centuries, on average, for species to truly adapt to a 1 degree Celsius shift in temperature, up or down. Look around today and you’ll see species “running” for their lives, continually migrating ever further away from the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Connecting the Dots on Climate Change
One of the biggest failures in climate change reporting is the tendency to focus on particular aspects without considering the bigger picture. What does sea level rise have to do with droughts or floods? What is the role of changing ocean circulation patterns? How do these impacts all factor into
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Unholy Trinity
The Unholy Trinity, the Three O’s – Overpopulation, Overconsumption and Overshoot – are mankind’s plague on the Earth. Surf’s Up, Indonesia Despite claims that, with just a bit more efficiency, we can grow our species to nine, perhaps even twelve billion, there are already far too many of our species
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Big Question Now is When?
Several years ago a non-governmental organization, the Global Footprint Network, came to my attention. GFN’s purpose was to monitor the state of the biomass around the world on a global, regional and national basis. GFN published this annual report marking what they called “World Overshoot Day.” This was the date
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Shove Down. We Need to Set a Lot More Places at the Table.
It seemed like a grim consolation prize in the global overpopulation sweepstakes, the notion that mankind’s numbers would peak at somewhere in the vicinity of 9-billion before eventually ebbing to a more sustainable level. Well, so much for that. A new study says we’re heading for 11-billion by 2100 and
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: Canada’s annual protest against women’s rights was…
Canada’s annual protest against women’s rights was held at Parliament Hill on May 9, 2013, drawing thousands of right-wing busybodies who can’t keep their authoritarianism in their pants. The name of the yearly “March For Life” is misleading, because most of the religious fanatics who attend these events are very
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: A Turbulent Sea of People
Around the world nations are being seriously destabilized by the combined impacts of climate change and food insecurity. One factor in this is population density, the number of people a nation must somehow provide for within a fixed area.Ca…
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