so the earth is F***ed aparently..

[Vault101]

Well, as far as food goes, the size of a human has generally seen a steady increase which suggests food was plentiful. If there's a lack of food-> you get smaller or die and vice versa.

As far as stress and happiness, pretty much everything people did back then must have been related to hunting/fishing and eventually growing crops. And sex obviously. Whereas right now, we're forced to spend approx 7-20+ years doing nothing but studying. And then working behind a desk for the next 30 years after that :/
Compare that to doing literally nothing but drinking alcohol, fishing and making babies.

*facepalm*

yeah....no

although you "cant feel loss for what you didn't have in the first place" to say life was somhow easyer then that it is now is...well it just doesnt make any sense, technological advancement as brought both good and bad points but in the end it has made things easyer and more effiecient

 

[Vault101]

He is right on one thing, that the current economic paradigm rewards destruction of the environment. And another, that extraction and manufacturing processes add a lot of carcinogens, etc. to the ecosystem and food supply. There have to be alternatives to the way humans recklessly consume and pollute everything on the goddamn Earth without giving anything back except toxic waste.

I know some things need to change..but a backwards approach just isn't the right way

 

[Kragg]

Well, as far as food goes, the size of a human has generally seen a steady increase which suggests food was plentiful. If there's a lack of food-> you get smaller or die and vice versa.

As far as stress and happiness, pretty much everything people did back then must have been related to hunting/fishing and eventually growing crops. And sex obviously. Whereas right now, we're forced to spend approx 7-20+ years doing nothing but studying. And then working behind a desk for the next 30 years after that :/
Compare that to doing literally nothing but drinking alcohol, fishing and making babies.

*facepalm*

yeah....no

nice rebuttal there !

anyway, though extreme I see what this guy is saying, the strain on ourselves and the planet used to be lower. reverting to that will not make anyone happy except the planet probably. This is a problem that only more technological advancements can fix most likely (or better implementation of ones we have today)

 

[MammothBlade]

He is right on one thing, that the current economic paradigm rewards destruction of the environment. And another, that extraction and manufacturing processes add a lot of carcinogens, etc. to the ecosystem and food supply. There have to be alternatives to the way humans recklessly consume and pollute everything on the goddamn Earth without giving anything back except toxic waste.

I know some things need to change..but a backwards approach just isn't the right way

No it isn't. Change has to be achieved with social and technological improvements, not compromises.

 

[Meight08]

Back in the 1900's the human race was expected to starve to death by the 1930's because of a lack of nutrient soils, and look where we are today.
We need more technology and science if anything to solve this.

 

[Rawne1980]

Well, regardless of all the drama thrown around about "the end of the world" *insert dramatic music here*, I can't see it ending in my lifetime.

After that, I don't care ... i'll be dead.

 

[Benni88]

I did Biology for 3 years at university, and although it's not what I've found myself doing post-education, the one thing I took away from it was that the planet is very literally, fucked.

Not that I'm advocating steps backwards in terms of technology or anything.

I think what people fail to realise is that all the small environmental issues which seem to be irrelevant sob stories on their own, are actually all part of the same problem.

Issues such as the acidification of the seas, cutting back of the rain forests, micro-plastics in the seas and species extinctions make the news for only a short time before being forgotten, but the ramifications that they have on the planet are long lasting and serious.

Human progression on Earth has been at the detriment of almost everything else that lives on our planet.

 

[sXeth]

Overpopulation of the Earth will get us (probably not all life) ages before most doomsday scenarios. Population control is just terribly unpopular and treated like some abhorrent concept though. Dropping back down to 5 billion and pursuing sustainabiltiy would probably work. A real trimming down to 3 billion or so might just manage self-suffiency based on current first-world lifestyles..

 

[Vault101]

Certain aspects of his point are valid. The pace of technological progress in the last few centuries has far outpaced humanities capacity to actually cope. Hell, you don't need to look far to see some vestige of our tribal heritage rearing it's ugly head and some inopportune time.

really though? how do we know that? how much of that is just "change is scary"

I'd rather somthing more scientific and precise than "we don't connect with each other anymore"

 

[CrazyGirl17]

...Great. I always thought we should take better care of the world, just in case, but it's not like anyone (out in the world, anyway) would listen to me (no, I'm not bitter, why do you ask?)

And considering society 1000 years ago was kinda... not all that good, I don;t think that's the right choice...

 

[BrassButtons]

In order to say that the environment is fucked, he would first need to show what a healthy environment would look like. This isn't a trivial question (the environment has gone through some pretty drastic changes, after all) and he didn't appear to address it. Which means at best he can say "the environment is going to change dramatically from what it is now" which is quite a bit different than "the environment is fucked".

 

[General Twinkletoes]

People were happier, less stressed and better fed a few thousand years ago. I see nothing wrong with wanting to go back.

Huh? It was nothing like that. Even if you were the richest and most powerful person in a city, your life would still suck compared to most people in the first world today.
Life was horrible. You could get executed because of your race, slavery was everywhere, women weren't allowed to do anything and most people had to do gruelling manual labour for most of the day, every day, for terrible wage. There was shit everywhere and most people would never bathe. Where'd you get the better fed part? People have way more food now. Obesity was never a major health concern a few thousand years ago.

 

[MammothBlade]

I did Biology for 3 years at university, and although it's not what I've found myself doing post-education, the one thing I took away from it was that the planet is very literally, fucked.

Not that I'm advocating steps backwards in terms of technology or anything.

I think what people fail to realise is that all the small environmental issues which seem to be irrelevant sob stories on their own, are actually all part of the same problem.

Issues such as the acidification of the seas, cutting back of the rain forests, micro-plastics in the seas and species extinctions make the news for only a short time before being forgotten, but the ramifications that they have on the planet are long lasting and serious.

Human progression on Earth has been at the detriment of almost everything else that lives on our planet.

Exactly. And it's also frequently been bad for human health, through cumulative toxins, carcinogens, lifestyle, and so on. Medicine is forced to clean up the mess. A lot of technologies could be safer if the materials and production process were altered.
Preservatives and additives in food are particularly bad, and can be carcinogenic or hormone imbalancing. Packaging is also a hidden risk factor. All these chemicals building up in the human body can cause serious problems. And that causes more problems with obesity, because such toxins accumulate in fat cells. The risks can't be completely eliminated, but they can be minimised.

 

[MammothBlade]

People were happier, less stressed and better fed a few thousand years ago. I see nothing wrong with wanting to go back.

Have you ever been in a history class? It was nothing like that. Even if you were the richest and most powerful people in a city, your life would still suck compared to most people in the first world today.
Life was horrible. You could get executed because of your race, slavery was everywhere, women weren't allowed to do anything and you had to do gruelling manual labour for most of the day, every day, for terrible pay. There was shit everywhere and most people would never bathe.

Ehh, people coped with their lot in life. Not so much those treated as slaves or outsiders, but most people weren't severely depressed on the brink of suicide because of their situation. They didn't think in the same way, and the same paradigms we do now. We think it's terrible because of the things we are used to, and what we believe and understand now. What people believe is important. So, don't pity people in the past. That's not how contemporary humans live, it's not how we should live according to what we know now, but that's how people in the past lived. And they mostly adapted to it, accepted it as their reality.

 

[hermes]

Nothing new here; but I have to admire his "scientific approach". If environmental issues don't get to us, overpopulation will... and it won't be pretty.

If someone believes a return to the dark ages is not a possibility, they should check their history... Specifically, the dark ages part.

 

[Aurora Firestorm]

Even if humanity does invoke climate change, eventually life will evolve to suit it. We've had mass extinctions before; really, unless we truly and horribly dick it up beyond our current predictions, life will go on fairly similarly to before. We'll have to adjust where and how we grow food, but when hydroponics is becoming a thing and power plants are hooking their CO2 up to greenhouses to grow plants at N times the speed, we won't need to care that much about climate for agriculture in developed countries soon. The Third World countries will get hit the hardest, unfortunately.

Still, it is very sad to see valuable species die...but in the end, the planet itself doesn't care that much about what specific species are alive on it. Earth and anything dependent on technology will go on no matter what, and really, it would suck if many species went extinct, but I don't think it will affect us all that much. So long as we can artificially produce environments that grow food well, we're set.

 

[Vault101]

Don't you see Vault?! This is the beginning of a Bond Villian or Super-Hero Villian! It is only a matter of time before he goes on a widespread attack on humanity, only to be stopped by a single man/woman. I shall dub this villian as "Chrono-Tard". He shall strike fear into the hearts of few, and be laughed at by the large populous!

LONG LIVE CHRONO-TARD!

.....he must be stopped

[b/]TO THE BAT-MOBILE!![/b]
[img/]http://gifsoup.com/webroot/animatedgifs/323910_o.gif[/img]

 

[ClockworkPenguin]

Going back to a pre-industrial lifestyle is not sustainable at all. It was powered by burning wood, and through animal power. There is not enough suitable land per person to grow enough to feed people and grow enough plant matter for heating and fuel (for animals). In the middle ages population density was much less, and it still wasn't sustainable then, hence Europe's forests being decimated. Also, wood burning is worse than oil burning in terms of CO2 and particulates.

That said, whilst I imagine humanity will certainly survive, the next couple of centuries could be very bumpy, especially when the oil runs out, and it is by no means certain that western culture will survive. There is no political or economic will to solve the problems, so the argument that we are f*cked isn't necessarily a stupid one. But primitivism is in no way one of the solutions. It just doesn't work.

 

[razer17]

OT: Seriously, people make these predictions all the time, once the 21st December doomsday thing passes, they will move onto the next date (Most likely 2016)

Except that's not what the article is about.
Not once is December 21 mentioned in it.

The article's about climate-change.

I know, still another doomsday theory.

Its just that these kind of news headlines are almost always bogus! I don't think the earth is f-ed and that while he may have some good points, the damage isn't going to be so bad as to F up the planet.

Not exactly true. If carbon emissions keep climbing at the rate they are, the earths temperature may rise to levels that will have a signicant impact on then world.

Before the end of the century it could get to a point where large parts of Africa, China, Australia, India, Brazil and parts of the USA will basically become uninhabitable during certain parts of the year because it would get so hot and humid it would cause mass heat exhaustion and kill large amounts of people. Events like Hurricane Sandy would increase due to the unpredictable weather. Our food production will drop significantly, especially in parts of the world that are already suffering large amounts of starvation.

Not that I agree with this dudes theory. There is a lot of evidence to suggest that the earth (or more accurately the things living on it) could be in a lot of trouble, but it's not irreversible. We just need to work on lowering carbon emissions more quickly. This isn't some doomsday theory like the Mayan calender thing. This is based on real, scientific data and observations etc. Only thing is, is that switching back to a dark ages style of living just isn't realistic.

 

[Brainwreck]

The Earth IS fucked. The Heat Death of the Universe will unmake all atomic and subatomic bonds, and matter will cease to be.

On a more relevant note:
Yeah, we kind of fucked the environment up. Pretty sure it's going to be a less pleasant place to live in the not-far-enough future even in human measurements. But this guy is dumb as a brick and probably isn't worth taking seriously.