What is Digg?199 Comments
- charm803, on 11/08/2008, -4/+146A great man once said:
"Besides, there is nothing wrong with the planet.
Nothing wrong with the planet. The planet is fine.
The PEOPLE are *****. Difference. Difference. The planet is fine.
Compared to the people, the planet is doing great. Been here four and a half billion years. Did you ever think about the arithmetic? The planet has been here four and a half billion years. We've been here, what, a hundred thousand? Maybe two hundred thousand?
And we've only been engaged in heavy industry for a little over two hundred years. Two hundred years versus four and a half billion. And we have the CONCEIT to think that somehow we're a threat? That somehow we're gonna put in jeopardy this beautiful little blue-green ball that's just a-floatin' around the sun?
The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through all kinds of things worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles...hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worlwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages...And we think some plastic bags, and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference?
The planet...the planet...the planet isn't going anywhere. WE ARE!"
-George Carlin - Shogi, on 11/08/2008, -4/+35Joe Pesci will save us.
- Orchid64, on 11/09/2008, -0/+22Rather than reward people for having lots of kids with tax breaks, countries need to start introducing a tax penalty for every kid after the first two. Does anyone really need to have more than two kids to feel fulfilled as a parent? There are more than enough people around to fill jobs through immigration. People are just too selfish and ethnocentric to accept that their blood and culture are no more important than someone else's.
- Shogi, on 11/08/2008, -2/+23Maybe now people will have a greater appreciation for the importance of CNSA, ESA, and NASA's work.
- AmyVernon, on 11/08/2008, -3/+24Mars needs women.
- BertEatsDirt, on 11/09/2008, -3/+22So we should spread our wasteful inefficient ways to other planets? As the first commenter said the problem isn't the planet, the problem is us. Before we start digging up other planets' resources, let's try using the stuff we've got on this planet as efficiently as possible - do more with less, repair stuff rather than throw it away, and when we do have to throw stuff away reclaim as close to 100% of it's materials as possible and create new stuff from that. I think we'll find the resources we have on this planet can take us a lot further than we might suspect.
- antoniuk, on 11/09/2008, -2/+21Here's how it is
The earth got used up. So we move out and terraformed a whole new galaxy of earths. Some rich and flush with the new technologies; some not so much
The central planets, thems formed the alliance, waged war to bring everyone under their rule.
Am I making myself clear?
Ai ya. Women wanle - Dumbledorito, on 11/09/2008, -1/+17Geht yuah ahss to Mahhs.
- inactive, on 11/09/2008, -0/+15Leaving Earth wouldn't be much help until we build an army of WALL-Es...
- bob_the_alien, on 11/09/2008, -0/+14yes, we know, because Africa is not a country.
- Trekhawk, on 11/08/2008, -1/+14Pack your ***** folks.
- prisoner24601, on 11/09/2008, -0/+12Fusion power and space elevators.
With fusion, pulling carbon directly from the atmosphere and literally mining landfills to separate recyclable materials and hyper-incinerate the toxins will be straightforward. The harmless portions can be returned to landfills, and whatever remaining truly toxic residue (or existing nuclear waste from fission reactors) can be shipped up the elevator in hardened/reentry-proof canisters and then railgunned into the sun.
Fusion should be our #1 public works priority at this point. - APer3Caper, on 11/09/2008, -0/+12The answer is 42 actually.
- greenfyre, on 11/08/2008, -3/+15The most sense would be the 20% of us doing 80% of the damage ie the Industrialized North and perhaps the top %5 consumers in all other countries
But I'm not seeing a line up to volunteer. - Tyrghast, on 11/09/2008, -2/+13Solution? I believe fallout three indicates what is going to happen...
- dafragsta, on 11/09/2008, -0/+10... ooooor we could explore space and harvesting essential elements at the atomic level and push the human race in the direction it should be going without such distractions as wars, intolerance and financial bickering. Naah ***** it! Let's cull!
- Trekhawk, on 11/08/2008, -0/+10I believe you're thinking of Smallpox, of which samples are kept in refrigeration at the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and a government lab in Novosibirsk, Russia.
- Emelius, on 11/09/2008, -2/+11Beautiful
- palehorse864, on 11/09/2008, -1/+8It doesn't really matter if we spread that to other planets if they aren't inhabited. If we ruin this one, why ruin another? Because, the only reason we are concerned about ruining this one is that it needs to support life, and the human race. Planets aren't some sentient entities out there that mind us coming to them. If there's no life already on the planet, it's best to migrate life to it, even if we have a tendency to mess things up. Plus, the offloading of population might help this one regenerate for a while until more permanent solutions are around.
The idea of screwing up an essentially dead planet out there is a bit silly. It's a now cliche bit of pessimism. The key is preserving life. There are a lot more inhospitable and trashy things out there than earth, but the only reason we are concerned about this ball of dirt is because of what lives on it. - Louay, on 11/09/2008, -0/+7nice religious reference i dont think anyone else got that
- Trekhawk, on 11/08/2008, -6/+13The article is partially right. The Planet can't keep up with our current and future demands. A culling of the herd is necessary. No doubt.
- whataboutdave, on 11/09/2008, -2/+9Does the name "Thomas Malthus" ring a bell?
- TheOneTrueGod, on 11/09/2008, -0/+7xD I totally recall someone saying that.
- OJXs, on 11/09/2008, -1/+8Well,
*****. - TommyTubesteak, on 11/09/2008, -1/+8http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1sE1E3z7jU
Sad but true...:( - yerock, on 11/09/2008, -1/+8Joe bless you.
- Techx4, on 11/09/2008, -1/+8Thank you for posting tihs! Carlin was so smart and so right about so many things, especially this.. it's true.. people are the ones who are *****, once we run out of food and climate change makes it unlivable.
- AaronCo, on 11/09/2008, -1/+8Short-sided arguments that have a history of being wrong. It forgets that ppl adapt to resource shortfalls by inventing new stuff and using the new stuff instead.
- oxdeltaxo, on 11/09/2008, -0/+6Mars needs attractive women.
- EricM770, on 11/09/2008, -0/+6World Wildlife Federation? I lol'd at that. I do tech support for them and got dinged a few times for saying Federation instead of Fund.
- nmanguy, on 11/09/2008, -3/+9I think you mean 6000.
- Shogi, on 11/08/2008, -1/+7Not sure that advocating genocide to save the planet is the right idea either....
- rbfbeerguy, on 11/09/2008, -1/+6We won't live long enough to extinguish all the resources, frankly, we will die out from pollution before we run out of resources.
- Virgule, on 11/09/2008, -0/+5"People a hundred years ago predicted that the Earth couldn't even hold the population we have now, and we are."
Are you sure its "holding"? Its not. - maxtangent, on 11/09/2008, -0/+5This is just hilarious. Why are the common people blaming each other and themselves for the actions of CORPORATONS?
Green technology has been suppressed for decades, yet we are the ones responsible for killing the biosphere?
The whole notion of culling the population is from the elites who know they cannot control billions of people. Read what Orson Welles wrote about WW! - that it didn't kill off enough people; it wasn't enough to get the world to accept the League of Nations, so they needed another war.
They pollute the world then get us to feel guilty about it to the point we agree there are too many of us so we get divided, then conquered.
What a joke. - salivalnz, on 11/09/2008, -4/+9The reality is that, somehow, the equation will be balanced. Either:
1 - we stop using so many resources, which is unlikely for a number of reasons, the top two being selfishness and religion
2 - we reduce the population, either through starvation, disease or war (yes, war over water and food is likely. There's scarcely anything more valuable than water. Oil is essential for an economy but it has nothing on water.)
3 - we shift the population, which I can't realistically see happening in my lifetime.
At some point we are all going to be faced with a choice: Either we keep going the way we're going, or we all decide to change direction. A few people can make a small difference, but I'm talking about a decisive group action. Cancel the production of meat (no hamburgers to save the human race? I'm all for that). Require the use of recyclable materials. Innovate. Use renewable energy (I don't give a toss if wind farms are "visual pollution" - they work). And the big one: have less children. No one wants to admit it, but as a species we need to stop breeding. The ultimate Darwinian objective is survival of the species. Our continuing to breed is going to have the opposite effect in the long term. It's a hard pill to swallow, and no one wants to be the one who isn't allow to have kids (though to be honest I'd happily take one for the team on that score).
Stop thinking about "the western dream" of 2.4 kids, an SUV and a house in the suburbs. The planet and all the species on it won't survive if we keep thinking that way.
Make a change and make a difference. - Anathapendika, on 11/09/2008, -1/+6We will soon begin to develop technology just for harvesting valuable resources from our landfills.
- TheOneTrueGod, on 11/09/2008, -1/+6The text that you read and reacted to contained the word "conceit". Actually, it contained the word "CONCEIT".
Apart from your mega-conceit ("craters bigger blablabla" which was also incorrect - the Moon *is* a piece of Earth, what are you gonna do, build a space station?), you didn't get it: The *planet* is fine. The biosphere might truely become damaged by us. But who cares (except for us hopefully)? We go away. Planet's still here, also, most likely, the biosphere would recover. - Dumbledorito, on 11/09/2008, -1/+6Mining isn't the problem; it's sustainable biology (food and waste). Unless you want to terraform Mars and start it as a giant corn-producing world, all the metals in the solar system won't help.
- Dumbledorito, on 11/09/2008, -0/+5If we had the ability to go and "ruin" other planets, I think that level of technology would solve a lot of the problems inherent with what we're doing to the Earth.
- lead2thehead, on 11/09/2008, -1/+6China already does this, but they go a LOT further than taxing them. The official penalty is a huge fine, but there have been cases of forced abortion, forced sterilization, and infanticide.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-child_policy - inactive, on 11/09/2008, -2/+6you realy didnt get it...
maybe you need to see it, reading might be troubles for some
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eScDfYzMEEw - 15thPD, on 11/09/2008, -0/+4I'm never gonna stop missing George Carlin.
- MrSteamTank, on 11/09/2008, -0/+4I think our future is going to be more like Mad Max than Fallout.
- danj484, on 11/09/2008, -1/+5Fusion reactors run on deuterium and, less commonly, tritium. They don't really help much in the way of reducing carbon. In nature, carbon is only fused in stars beginning at 4 solar masses. That would have to be a big reactor.
But I agree, they at least don't give off carbon, and are far less hazardous than nuclear reactors. Best bet until solar is viable at a commercial scale. - zbeast, on 11/09/2008, -0/+4You know, people could simply stop breeding like rabbits. Operating under current math rules..
We can't get anywhere, where trapped on this planet and this solar system.
About the only thing we may be able to do within the next 200 years is inhabit mars.
All of the other planets are death traps. High pressures, deadly radiation, planetary bombardment, extreme cold.
With no warp drive, were stuck here and stuck bad... - Brassbud, on 11/09/2008, -0/+4^^ I would like to do that, yes.
- Murdats, on 11/09/2008, -0/+4have you not noticed that the worlds population is still increasing? we may be dying but don't forget that people are also being born as well.
the world population increased by about 1,000,000,000 (billion) in just over a decade, that is a lot of extra people and the population growth shows little sign of slowing. - XZanatos, on 11/09/2008, -0/+4No, actually I see an article about this every year. They just like to keep us updated on how much more screwed we are this year as compared to last.
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