Off Topic Humans to be extinct within 100 years and worlds resources to expire in 2050!

I hope you are right Col 'cos other wise it means that as the industrial revolution was started around 1750 we have managed to bugger up a perfectly good planet in under 300 years!!!

 

Saw this on BBC a couple of years ago, they reckoned that population growth would peak at about 20Bn in the future if I remember correctly, as we eradicate infant deaths and prolong our lifespan. However, they also suggested that single child families would become the norm, even in developing countries.

 

We've been buggering it up for time immemorial. On the extinction of things, was reading recently that wherever man has migrated to, large mammals get killed off relatively quickly, Australia being the clearest example (and it wasn't the nasty white man, but the ancestors of the aborigines) but the Americas too. They survive in Africa, where we evolved in the same ecosystem, and man was just one of many competing species. Of course our biggest and earliest victims were the other species of humans, of which there were at least half a dozen a few tens of thousands of years ago.

Agriculture, was the spark for a lot of damage, as we changed landscapes to cultivate things, and became dependant on a limited number of foods which took an immense amount of labour to produce in the process. The hunters gatherers, tiny in numbers and with huge territories to roam were minor league in comparison - but could still do the business as the aborigines show.

But unless you believe than man is unnatural, or sits outside nature somehow, everything we do is as natural as an eagle taking a salmon (Col will advise whether this actually happens). And agriculture has produced some of the most beautiful landscapes on earth (in my view) - the Cotswolds, Tuscany, the paddy field terraces in the Phillipines etc. And some of our cities are equally breathtaking - Sydney, Hong Kong, Rome, New York, from the right angle London.

 

Don't know of any Eagles that would take a Salmon............maybe the white tailed Eagle that we get off Scotland?
Ospreys now............they definitely do.

 

Cheers Col.

 

I'm not sure we necessarily sit outside nature but I do believe we are in constant conflict with nature.

And I believe that what sets us apart from all other lifeforms is the naive misconception of mankind that this planet belongs to us and not the other way round

 

Adapt and survive. Isn't that the mantra we should be speaking? Mankind has always managed to find a way. The black death wiped out a third of the European population, but we came back. As to the food running out, we will just have to change our eating habits. IMO we ain't going to run out of food of any kind in 35 years.

 

Possibly fish but not in the next 35 years. Having said that, North Sea cod stocks are on the increase having been "managed" over recent years:

Fish
While food as a whole is forecast to come under intense pressure, the future for fish seems far bleaker. It's estimated that unless drastic (and extremely politically difficult) action is taken immediately, humans will eat fish pretty much out of existence within the next 50 years. According to most projections, we will be the generation that runs out of wild fish.
A combination of commercial greed, weak policy, consumer disinterest, massive waste and blatant disregard for what flimsy rules are in place has seen about 30% of fish species lose more than 90% of their populations since 1950. Once a population hits a certain terminal level, it simply can't sustain itself any more. And as each species dies out, the reduction of biodiversity accelerates the rate of decline of the other species around it.
The problem becomes far worse when fisheries and consumers ignore the minimum size limits set to allow fish to reach maturity and breed before they're eaten. Undersize fish are scarily common in European markets and others around the world.
The only plan that seems to have any chance to stall or reverse this accelerating decline is to set up marine wildlife reserves all over the globe, covering between 30 and 40% of the world's oceans. But it would be virtually impossible to reach international consensus on such a plan, let alone enforce it across the massive expanses of the world's oceans.
Fishery lobbies stridently oppose any measure to allow fish stocks to recover, and commercial boats ignore or find ways around the laws that are passed. You can understand why; their catches and their profits are in a steep decline. They feel the rules need to be relaxed so they can earn a living. It's a great example of the catastrophic short-term decision-making our species is renowned for.

 

There's always insects.

 

Mankind is too lazy, inert, self-centred and greedy to change (ie too stupid).

It'd rather carry on until it's faced with a catastrophic event and hope all the scientists can bail them out than do anything about it.

My prediction would be a global epidemic wipes out a large percentage of the population (with no ability to resist because of the global locality and overpopulation).

Fictitious man in a gown help us otherwise because we wouldn't cope with resource shortages.

 

And each other if things get desperate, though I wouldn't eat a Chelsea fan no matter how bad things got!

 

Harry Potter? Or Mr Chips?

 

That yellow guy off Catchphrase?

The apocalypse? It's good but it's not right.

 

let me on as you float past

 

SOLVING THE WORLDS PROBLEMS 1 AT A TIME

LET THE HUNGRY EAT THE HOMELESS

 

Indeed mate!

 

no Norwich
every cloud an all that

 

I hope that video is correct. I'd have a beach front property!!!

 

Ok, I know I've posted a comment before on this but I've had time to take on board all considerations and have form the opinion that I think the gentleman is right.
The other real problem is mankind is doing everything it can to rid itself in the same token.

Consider if you will, that the morals and ethics of each generation have been slowly disintegrating to what we see today.
Sure, the world still has decent human beings, who are willing to help their fellow man or woman but by and large, they are an endangered species.

Fact is, The AArseole is on the rise. Look around you, it is almost impossible NOT to come across an AArseole on a daily basis.
When we are at work, there are AArseoles telling us what to do, not to mention AArseoles who won't do as their told when you ask them.

You go to the bottle shop and some AArseole in front of you takes the last carton of your favourite beer!

Your running late for work but you must have a coffee from your local drive thru, however, some AArseole has ordered a 'Half Latte, Double Carmel with a twist & cookie' and the young window assistant doesn't have a friggin clue as how to make it ............ so your stuck in line, forever. AArseoles!

Yes my friends, without wishing to start a panick motion, just be wary ................. The AArseole is on the rise!

 

I've eaten cicadas in China a few times and they are suprisingly quite yummy.................taste like shrimp ( but look like ****!)