20 trillion oil in sa, page-54

We are off on another tangent, but yes have to agree, overpopulation and poor use of natural resources it a huge bogey in the cupboard. And it will get us i.e. lead to huge wars and famine in the nearish future if something, many things are not done about it.

Better use of resources, better ways to grow food, lower population growth, technological innovation. Our only chance of avoiding further peril from overpopulation. While things are still done stupidly and there is massive waste and excess especially from the first world, things look pretty grim. Rather than teaching the poorer cousins how to live more within their means predictions on obesity levels in the developing world are rising nearly as quickly as first world waistlines.

It is all related, rampant obesity (a fairly useful visual gauge on first world live and eat like there is no tomorrow mentality), poor land use i.e. more red meat grown and less legumes and grains, followed by erosion and land degradation.

Is the s#it hitting the fan in a few decades avoidable? Possibly not, indeed probably not, but Im not a quitter, Im not going to sit on my fat overfed bum and watch the planet go down the gurgled without some sort of a fight.

On the plus side humans can be very clever, resourceful, committed and hardworking. On the down side sloth and greed have been with us since the time of Abraham.

The question is which approach does one take, the quitter approach, where we just gouge ourselves on the earths resources like the characters in one of those dark French comedies (was it La Belle Epoche?), or the approach that has a crack and tries to leave something worth having to those after us?

Im in the latter group, and I believe alternative fuels and techs like AEBs Algal fuels will play important parts in not only cleaner fuels but possibly in more efficient food production. Food production is an obvious spin off on growing algae and one of the value adds we have barely looked at. Certainly there is huge potential in more intensive food production, aquaponics, hydroponics, all have scope to feed large numbers of people, but require some level of education to implement.

If people want a double beef burger every meal, well we are all screwed
anyway from over clearing and land degradation , but perhaps therein lies the solution, people are already dying earlier from obesity related deaths.
Even more pressing is the threat of major global pandemics as bugs resistance to the existing antibiotics becomes greater and greater.

The planet has a way of sorting species out where they overpopulate, perhaps it will happen to our species sooner than we think..? Not a happy though but perhaps quite realistic..?

In the meantime our only hope lays is our minds and our attitudes.
I have faith in the human race being smart enough to feed the planet with the existing resources, they just need to be much better used.

Ignorance, sloth and greed remain the enemy....at least for the planets children..

Tretch