What do YOU do in order to help the enviroment?

JMonkey

The world is overpopulated?

Link that?

Not as extreme as what you had mentioned, but I certainly feel that this is the way things are going to go.

It's also just a bit of a feeling I have. When I was out in Oz, there were so few people per km. It's just sooo crowded here comparitively!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7951838.stm

Reply 62

mikeyd85

Yep yep yep!

My reasoning: The world is screwed due to over population. We need the environment to deteriorate so that a few billion or so people die. Morbid: Yes, true: yes.

ah yes overpopulation! the only world problem that rich people can blame the poor for. Also the least of our worries.

stop having sex RIGHT NOW poor people.

Reply 63

JMonkey

mikeyd85

Not as extreme as what you had mentioned, but I certainly feel that this is the way things are going to go.

It's also just a bit of a feeling I have. When I was out in Oz, there were so few people per km. It's just sooo crowded here comparitively!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7951838.stm

They've been saying that every decade since the late 19th century. They have been wrong every decade since the late 19th cenury. People didn't understand that technology in farming is not static so they tend to think that projections based on technology now will be apt. This is not and has never been so.

As technology increases birth rates tend to approach 2.0 or even dip below it as in some European countries. This is the level at which population increase is zero. It's fair to say as the technology level of countries increases they too will observe this population birth rate decrease, also an increase in farming techniques and technologies to acquire water. This is something that most people seem totally unable to comprehend, and it always leads to prophecies of doom. They are always misplaced and slightly ignorant.

Genetically-modified

Prof Beddington said the concern now - when prices have dropped once again - was that the issues would slip back down the domestic and international agenda.

"We can't afford to be complacent. Just because the high prices have dropped doesn't mean we can relax," he said.

Improving agricultural productivity globally was one way to tackle the problem, he added.

At present, 30-40% of all crops are lost due to pest and disease before they are harvested.

Professor Beddington said: "We have to address that. We need more disease-resistant and pest-resistant plants and better practices, better harvesting procedures.

"Genetically-modified food could also be part of the solution. We need plants that are resistant to drought and salinity - a mixture of genetic modification and conventional plant breeding.

Better water storage and cleaner energy supplies are also essential, he added.

Prof Beddington is chairing a subgroup of a new Cabinet Office task force set up to tackle food security.

But he said the problem could not be tackled in isolation.

He wants policy-makers in the European Commission to receive the same high level of scientific advice as the new US president, Barack Obama.

One solution would be to create a new post of chief science adviser to the European Commission, he suggested.

This guy does at least seem to have answers. Even if he's scaremongering a little.

Reply 64

Hipparchia

6

cpj1987

I do nothing. Call me selfish but I really don't see reason to; I don't believe the situation is as bad as claimed. Of course, I won't leave rubbish out to injure animals, but that's about it.

This.

Reply 65

FLOETRY

I use free energy saving light bulbs.

Reply 66

Sprockette

15

I recycle plastic cartons and tins and try to bring a bag with me to do my shopping. Also as I work in a grocery store I won't give bags to most people unless they'll be weighed down. I almost glare at them to discourage them asking lol

Reply 67

Rosie18

9

I make an effort NOT to recycle. Recycling paper is ridiculous, it uses thousands of tonnes of coal and oil each yeah, creates huge amounts of CO2 and produces a toxic waste which has to be landfilled. Plus as Yuffie mentioned it leads to falling standards of virgin forest management.

Reply 68

Our arogant and snobbish (and Daily Mail fuelled) rejection of perfectly safe GM technology is the main problem here.

Reply 69

JMonkey

This guy does at least seem to have answers. Even if he's scaremongering a little.

We'll see what happens! No matter what people say though, I can't see 2030 being a particularly good decade for people. More people, few (maybe no) non-renewable energy sources. It'll be interesting to see how we as a species cope.

And if I'm wrong, I'll be pleasantly surprised!

Pessimism for the win!

py0alb

ah yes overpopulation! the only world problem that rich people can blame the poor for. Also the least of our worries.

stop having sex RIGHT NOW poor people.

Ummm... I see over population to be caused by all people, more so the rich, mainly because we don't die as quickly as those in the third world.

Reply 70

mikeyd85

We'll see what happens! No matter what people say though, I can't see 2030 being a particularly good decade for people. More people, few (maybe no) non-renewable energy sources. It'll be interesting to see how we as a species cope.

And if I'm wrong, I'll be pleasantly surprised!

Pessimism for the win!

Ummm... I see over population to be caused by all people, more so the rich, mainly because we don't die as quickly as those in the third world.

"WASHINGTON, May 8 /U.S. Newswire/ -- In 1997, the world's developing(1) countries accounted for 98 percent of world population increase. The current prospect is for that imbalance to continue. This conclusion is drawn from the yearly report card of world population trends from the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), a Washington-based demographic research group. Data for all countries of the world appear on its annual World Population Data Sheet, a widely used source of global demographic trends."

Its only going to have increased since 1997 methinks. As monkey said, there is more than enough food production capability to feed the world twice over, the problem is more to do with inequality than absolute lack of resources. and it doesn't help that the populations of rich nations think they're "too good" for normal food and insist on organic rubbish.

In the same vein, there is more than enough nuclear power to provide energy for centuries to come. But apparently we're too good for that as well.

Hopefully now cold fusion has broken threshold, we might actually get somewhere. But don't hold your breath, its easier to steal all the resources off the developing world, and let them starve instead!

Reply 71

py0alb

In the same vein, there is more than enough nuclear power to provide energy for centuries to come. But apparently we're too good for that as well.

Hopefully now cold fusion has broken threshold, we might actually get somewhere. But don't hold your breath, its easier to steal all the resources off the developing world, and let them starve instead!

1st bit: Yeah, that's stupid. Nuclear power is fine IMO.

2nd bit: Really??? When did that happen? That's exciting! :woo:

Reply 72

GeorgEGNT

14

pinkpont

I drive a V8 and dump toxic waste in lakes. No, wait, I'm not doing this right...

:awesome:

I was about to say eliminate tax on large 4x4 vehicles, so we're on the right lines! :biggrin:

Reply 73

mikeyd85

1st bit: Yeah, that's stupid. Nuclear power is fine IMO.

2nd bit: Really??? When did that happen? That's exciting! :woo:

regular fusion, sorry, not cold fusion. not my area of physics. apparently JET or ZIP or ITER or something broke threshold last year. I sat through a presentation on it anyway at a conference. I may have dozed off....

Reply 74

neenbean

I don't eat meat and I do all the aforementioned recycling/ reusable bag/ energy saving bulb stuff :smile:

Reply 75

py0alb

regular fusion, sorry, not cold fusion. not my area of physics. apparently JET or ZIP or ITER or something broke threshold last year. I sat through a presentation on it anyway at a conference. I may have dozed off....

Awww...

Reply 76

myblueheaven339

19

py0alb

Lets face it: who gonna get hardest hit by a warming of 4-10degrees? mainly equatorial countries (particularly in Africa)
QUOTE]

if the gulf stream changes the uk climate will change dramatically, it will be more like other european countries like poland. at least,thats what ive been told.

Reply 77

SoundDevastation

13

joseph1991

feel a little bit sick after reading this. please refer to my post on the previous page. xx

I agree about carbon offsets. As for the rest, I beleive its our responsability to look after the planet. Whether or not you beleive in climate change, we live here, its all we've got, so we should look after it.

Reply 78

Myth717

12

Global warming, Climate change due to humans etc is a load of lies. Its just a way of hiding neo marxist agenda aswell as the Facists not letting developing countries develop. Ie Africa wanting to develop but apparently Co2 is going to kill us all therefore "America + Britian" condems africa and other developing countries to move modern.

Basically they're saying "No Electricity because we need slave/child labour". This is just 1 aspect theres many others. We as humans only contribute in single digit propotions of the worlds Co2. Aswell as global warming being the next new enemy after Islam. Its all fairly deep.

Well, I am done ranting here lol.

Reply 79