http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ ... scientistsA new study sponsored by Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center has highlighted the prospect that global industrial civilisation could collapse in coming decades due to unsustainable resource exploitation and increasingly unequal wealth distribution.
Noting that warnings of 'collapse' are often seen to be fringe or controversial, the study attempts to make sense of compelling historical data showing that "the process of rise-and-collapse is actually a recurrent cycle found throughout history." Cases of severe civilisational disruption due to "precipitous collapse - often lasting centuries - have been quite common."
The research project is based on a new cross-disciplinary 'Human And Nature DYnamical' (HANDY) model, led by applied mathematician Safa Motesharri of the US National Science Foundation-supported National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, in association with a team of natural and social scientists. The study based on the HANDY model has been accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed Elsevier journal, Ecological Economics.
Collapse goes mainstream
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- biffvernon
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Collapse goes mainstream
- RenewableCandy
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There's more where that came from!
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight
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How can you have a sustainable level of depletion? Surely depletion by its very nature is unsustainable, at any level.Shortfall wrote:If only."Collapse can be avoided and population can reach equilibrium if the per capita rate of depletion of nature is reduced to a sustainable level, and if resources are distributed in a reasonably equitable fashion."
- frank_begbie
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So, we just reduce the population by half then things can carry on as usual.
Its all a matter of how we achieve this.
Any suggestions?
Its all a matter of how we achieve this.
Any suggestions?
"In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated, and scorned. When his cause succeeds however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot."
- UndercoverElephant
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Yep. It's nonsense. "Sustainable depletion" is as oxymoronic as "sustainable growth."extractorfan wrote:How can you have a sustainable level of depletion? Surely depletion by its very nature is unsustainable, at any level.Shortfall wrote:If only."Collapse can be avoided and population can reach equilibrium if the per capita rate of depletion of nature is reduced to a sustainable level, and if resources are distributed in a reasonably equitable fashion."
Re: Collapse goes mainstream
That is the same guy who has done a really, REALLY bad peak oil video linked to around here in the recent past. Talk about the quality of what passes for "journalism" going into the crapper.biffvernon wrote:http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ ... scientistsA new study sponsored by Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center has highlighted the prospect that global industrial civilisation could collapse in coming decades due to unsustainable resource exploitation and increasingly unequal wealth distribution.
http://networkedblogs.com/VhZ5j
A forthcoming “NASA study” that predicts medium-term collapse has gone viral on the Internet, based entirely on Nafeez Ahmed’s advance writeup for The Guardian (“NASA-funded study: industrial civilisation headed for ‘irreversible collapse’?,” March 14).
To start with we should note, just in passing, that it turns out not to be quite a “NASA study” after all. It was the work of independent researchers at the University of Maryland, using analytical tools that had previously been developed for an entirely different NASA study. It wasn’t commissioned or funded by NASA. And on top of everything else, a lot of the authorities cited to support its premises aren’t all that pleased with the authors’ interpretation of their work (“Keith Kloor, About That Popular Guardian Story on the Collapse of Industrial Civilization“; “Judging the Merits of a Media-Hyped ‘Collapse’ Study.” Discover, March 21; ).
Might I recommend a soothsayer of renown to balance recent optimism in the face of peak oil having been somewhat of a bust?
Our favorite ex-cop is back in action!!
APOCALYPSE MAN!!!!
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/apocalypse-man/
Our favorite ex-cop is back in action!!
APOCALYPSE MAN!!!!
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/apocalypse-man/
- RenewableCandy
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Meanwhile in Nigeria:
Oil depletion link to boko harem(sp)
Oil depletion link to boko harem(sp)
But while corruption and ageing infrastructure play an important role, the end of cheap oil is the real elephant in the room. One study by two Nigerian scholars concluded in 2011 that "there is an imminent decline in Nigeria's oil reserve since peaking could have occurred or just about to occur...
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We could start by leaving Nature to her own checks and balances. Medicine should only be about making a life as comfortable as possible during that life. Not saving it, prolonging it, or forcing it to come about - IVF etc.frank_begbie wrote:So, we just reduce the population by half then things can carry on as usual.
Its all a matter of how we achieve this.
Any suggestions?
Who cares!! All they need to do is just use less….if the folks in the US can pull it off, it should be a cake walk for everyone else with such a fine example on how to get'er done!kenneal - lagger wrote:The Nigerians shouldn't worry and nor should we!! Peak oil is only temporary: just look at the US. They've now exceeded their 1971 ish peak. Haven't they???
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There's a bit of a difference between the amount of fuel that an American uses, sorry wastes, and the amount that the average African uses. There's far more opportunity for an American to save. You waste twice as much as a European does and an African only uses a fraction of what we do.
Action is the antidote to despair - Joan Baez
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Hay I resemble that remark!!kenneal - lagger wrote:There's a bit of a difference between the amount of fuel that an American uses, sorry wastes, and the amount that the average African uses. There's far more opportunity for an American to save. You waste twice as much as a European does and an African only uses a fraction of what we do.
I drove140 miles today to spend an hour at the funeral of a coworker and old friend. Post peak a letter or Email expressing my condolences will have to suffice.
You make an excellent case for the tremendous power of demand destruction offsetting lack of fuel fears by utilizing nothing more than a change in American behavior.kenneal - lagger wrote:There's a bit of a difference between the amount of fuel that an American uses, sorry wastes, and the amount that the average African uses. There's far more opportunity for an American to save. You waste twice as much as a European does and an African only uses a fraction of what we do.
I agree with you in that case.