Quote:
Originally posted by MagiK:
So the question is...Do we completely disolve our existing societies and make sure that at least 5/6ths of the world population dies out or do we ignore the irrational panic mongering that is going on and continue to improve our technologies as almost every western nation is doing while maintaing the best quality of life for every one (in the west) that is the highest in the known history of the planet? I vote for option #2....see my post above about the 1970's and the Enonut horror stories we had to grow up with.
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I would certainly not propose something so extreme, nor I think would most people who look at the issues pragmatically. However... I do think it's reasonable for ALL people on this planet to be willing to make sacrifices to insure that we don't keep travelling along a road that could very well be a dead end path.
Regarding GHG emissions... we're 5th in the world (on a per-capita basis) in total GHG output (according to the World Resources Institute), but we are certainly the worst of the developed nations... some are close (Luxembourg is withing about 10%, Australia 15% or so), and some we're a lot worse than (Sweden is about 75% lower). Lots of room for improvement, but it's not like we're up there with Qatar (more than 3x the per capita output of the US)
[ 09-13-2002, 03:53 PM: Message edited by: Thoran ]