by Ibon » Fri 16 Nov 2012, 13:23:36
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'T')he root cause to all problems we discuss is over population, but that is just too controversial so you need a surrogate. PO is as good as any.
I fully agree and the reason why Peak Oil is really relevant related to over population is that overshoot is a combination of population PLUS consumption per capita.
We may not currently have the cultural ethics to direct and manage population numbers or consumption BUT resource constraints, which is an early indication of overshoot (weather you are a goat on an island or modern Kudzu Apes on the planet) is applying the directive that our culture and ethics lack.
Resource constraints, whether energy, water, soils, rare metals or an unstable climate does become the arbiter as a result of our cultural incapability to manage human overshoot. Montequest often said that overshoot will be corrected by design or by default. We are going the direction of correction mostly by default. The other Montequest quote in regards to the ethics of trying to limit our numbers and consumption is that when we leave it up to nature she plays her hand without any consideration of morals or ethics. (I have never met a compassionate influenza virus)
But not to despair because the lessons learned from corrections by default result in the opportunity to embed cultural ethics around managing our numbers and consumption for the more enlightened culture that emerges on the other side of overshooot when our wiser surviving progeny carry on.
Modern humans, lets face it, in spite of all the inequities and unsustainable agricultural practices, have been masterful at the logistics, distribution and production of food for example. Certainly having done so ignoring the environmental externalities but nevertheless since 1960 managing to increase yields as the population went from 3 to 7 billion.
Maintaining this as the population goes from 7 to 9 billion as most demographers predict with declining resources is an open question but there are reserves or waste in our dietary habits that indicate that in spite of climate change and more expensive energy we will persevere.
In a way I am pleased, despite patiently awaiting the pathogens, that nature hasnt yet given us a way out of the ethical dilemma. We may yet have the time this century and the next to suffer enough of the corrections by default to learn how to manage by design.
Patiently awaiting the pathogens. Our resiliency resembles an invasive weed. We are the Kudzu Ape
blog: http://blog.mounttotumas.com/
website: http://www.mounttotumas.com
Had enough debating the issues (or watching the debating in my case) decided I was much better off using my time to actually dig a garden and teach the kids how to get eggs out from under a nasty broody 
But I still frequent here to keep an eye on things... don't want to not see something coming!
I think the topic is insurmountable.
