Countdown to extinction?

Here's an article which claims we will need two planets worth of resources every year by 2050 based on current world development trends.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061024/sc_nm/environment_wwf_planet_dc

Maybe we won't become extinct but at this rate there will at least be some massive die off like what happened in Easter Island when the population got to big for the islands resources.

 

I think we are more likely to blow ourselves up before 2050.

 

Oh yeah I forgot about that...

I better spend more of my time on sex, cigars and cognac.

 

Good to see that someone has their priorities in order

 

I say becoming extinct is the best thing that will ever happen to the plant.

Go VHEMNT!

 

Then all that will be left is meat, once the plant dies off.

 

Hey simple pleasures are the best...

 

I agree, but you got it in the wrong order, cognac is better than sex.

 

You're probably not doing it right then.

 

Who let chicken little out of the hen house?

 

2050? Hmmm, so I wont need as much in my 401K as I thought.

 

Malthus was saying the same things two hundred years ago.

He was wrong, and everyone with the same argument since him has been equally wrong.

 

And here I thought this was a MegaDeth thread!

 

So what you're saying is, because they haven't been right yet they will be wrong forever?

Look maybe they were wrong about the time projections but consider these simple facts and draw a conclusion.

• The world economy is increasing at 4 - 5% a year (of course over the long term this increase is exponential).
  
  
• The world economy uses natural resourses to grow. Natural resources use is also increasing at an exponential rate.
  
  
• Natural Resource supplies are not increasing at an exponential rate but are in fact decreasing and are finite.
  

People say... "ahh yes but technology will solve these problems. "

Funny thing is... over the last century the use of more and more technologies has increased... and the use of more and more natural resource stocks has also increased.

 

Which of these natural resources is expiring that is crucial for our survival? And which can we do without?

The only things which we need to live are:
Air
Water
Food

these resources arent running out anytime soon, and if they really start to run out technoligies would be developed to give us sustainability. Perhaps in 50-100 years we will need to live in big bubble domes.. but we would still be alive.

 

Don't forget:
A moderate temperature
Medicines/Health care

Now ask yourself where our "air" (oxygen) comes from, and what factors influence the temperature on earth

 

So what can a bubble not provide here..?
Trees for a sustainable oxygen supply, solar panels which provide power for cooling/heating needs.

as for medicines/healthcare perhaps there would be a problem with production, but I would imagine large managed eco sub systems (in bubbles) should provide the resources required to create the many modern medicines.

This is just an example, hopefully we dont live in bubbles. I just dont see anything short of war leading to the extinction of the human race.

 

You should do a search on world wheat supplies.

There are huge problems with air and water quality in many parts of the world and its only getting worse.

If you read above I said the likely senario is a mass die off like on Easter Island where they used up all their natural resources on the island and then almost two thirds of the population died off virtually over night.

Not extinction.

 

Supervolcanoe, asteroid, pandemic, global climate change... there's plenty of things that could do it

 

Sorry i was responding more to the title then your post. Comparing easter island to the entire world is a bit much. However as a small island has limited capabilities as far as land area, ecological diversity etc.

supervolcano? that seems interesting.