. . .
K “It’s too late?”
J “It is too late.”
. . .
J “But we pretend and extend.”
K “Get up, put on your socks, and soldier on.”
. . .
J “We are producing far more babies than solar panels. That scenario is not changing under any scenario. There is very little hope, there is only collective delusion within the collective.”
K “Ironic that so many will not acknowledge our global plight and others who will acknowledge our situation do not even acknowledge the underlying and overriding problem. The ‘Peoplocene Age’ is upon us and we do not know it.”
J “The ‘Peoplobscene Age’? Too many people, too little planet.”
. . .
K “The plebiscite on global climate destruction takes place in the specialized voting booths known as the maternity wards of the world one new voter at a time. The votes are tallied every day, the voting booth never closes and the decision is unanimous and uncontested. Everyone endorses global climate devastation one baby at a time.”
J “We need to reduce the load. Period. The only viable solution is to produce fewer people not to delude ourselves into thinking we can produce more panels and power.”
. . .
K “The inconvenient truth is that renewable energy is not the answer, now or in the long run. If one honestly calculates all the costs including every opportunity cost, the total cost of renewable energy does not and never will pencil out.”
J “My concern is that we are not allowed to provide that answer, so we are not allowed even to ask the question.”
. . .
K “We are in the flood right now. I don’t recall anyone in the movie even once mentioning overpopulation. Go through the flick and replace the phrase ‘reduce fossil fuels’ with ‘reduce world population.’ The only sustainable energy policy is a people policy.”
. . .
J “There are more neurosurgeons than skilled solar panel installers. Americans contend in response that they can simply wave a wand and the problem is solved. If the government – or the private sector with generous tax breaks, credits and deductions – commits to training more solar panel installers, voila, we will have more solar panel installers. But at what real cost?”
. . .
J “Those people who are here must reduce their load. Period. Everyone wants to live like they do in Bethesda-Chevy Chase; no one can sustainably live like they do in Bethesda-Chevy Chase. The Republicans delude the populace that they can live the Bethesda-Chevy Chase lifestyle simply by demanding to live the Bethesda-Chevy Chase lifestyle.”
. . .
K “The planet will support 500,000,000 souls comfortably and 5,000,000,000 souls uncomfortably. We are grossly over gross. Overpopulation is at the headwaters of all of our problems.”
J “And first and foremost among the downstream problems is our growing inability to provide clean, available and affordable water.”
K “We need to reverse the two trends. We need to quit depositing more humans on the planet and quit removing other species off the planet.”
. . .
J “Yet, by definition, it cannot be the biggest problem confronting humanity unless you use the word ‘terrorist’ to describe it.”
K “Okay. Fair enough. We have overpopulated the planet with almost 7.5 billion precious little miracle . . . terrorists. And the numbers are growing. There you go.”
J “That should work.”
K “Almost 7.5 billion precious little miracle terrorists are pummeling Mother Nature with poison. Then we sprinkle nuclear reactors around the planet that are finicky nuclear bombs waiting to be detonated by default. Pull the plug on electricity, pull the pin on the reactors. The nuclear reactors are weapons of mass destruction that will go off when they cannot get the electricity to stay on.”
J “The mutant shall inherent the earth. We allow one country to pour radiation into the Pacific Ocean day in and day out for over five years and create the world’s largest Superfund Site. The grazing ground for sea critters is toxic.”
K “The Pacific Ocean Superfund site and other ocean Superfund Sites also have massive gyres of poisonous plastic and detritus spinning around.”
J “The ultimate inconvenient truth is that the entire Earth is now a Superfund Site.”
. . .
K “What if the government only provided a tax deduction of ‘x’ for the first child and ‘1/2 x’ for the second child? Or no deduction?”
J “The hard simple truth is that little can be done to slow population growth. The load has overloaded us.”
K “A carbon fee and dividend program?”
. . .
J “With so many available bodies, there are so many opportunities for corporations to exploit the vast pool of desperate workers.”
. . .
K “We have met the enemy and it is a little miracle terrorist. It is us.”
J “Mother Nature is the only adult on the planet. She is growing impatient. Soon she will intercede.”
. . .
[See Daniel Quinn from “What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire” and his “Advice for Young People” at minute 48. Try to find some joy in this life without deluding yourself.]
[See the e-commentary at “On Overpopulation (June 14, 2010)”, “Kids As Consumer Durables (August 6, 2007)”, “Global Environmental Something (February 16, 2009)”, “A Gentle Landing On Earth (August 1, 2016)”, “‘It’s Only A Rental.’ The Earth As A Cosmic Doormat. De-Immanentizing The Eschation. (September 28, 2015), “Global Climate Craziness (GCC) and Taxation (March 23, 2015)”, “On Roiling And Rolling Collapse (March 9, 2015)” and “Over Over-Population: 10 Billion Little Miracles (And Counting) (And Costing) (January 26, 2015)”.]
Bumper stickers of the week:
“We have met the enemy and it is a little miracle terrorist. It is us.” Nogo
We need to reduce the load. Period.
Be fruitful and don’t multiply; multiple fruit fruitfully
Slow climate destruction; practice birth control
Too many live people; too few dead dinosaurs. To say nothing of the too chilling consequences of burning the few available dead dinosaurs (or whatever spawns gas and oil).
Price carbon
Stay calm and price carbon
Panic and price carbon
Better never than late?
Preserve the Nest; at all costs.
The mutant shall inherent the earth.
Too many people, too little planet
“Can you think of any problem in any area of human endeavor on any scale, from microscopic to global, whose long-term solution is in any demonstrable way aided, assisted, or advanced by further increases in population, locally, nationally or globally?” Albert Allen Bartlett, Great Challenge
e-commentary 