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The end of consumerism: Our way of life is 'not viable'

Discuss research and forecasts regarding hydrocarbon depletion.

The end of consumerism: Our way of life is 'not viable'

Unread postby Graeme » Sun 10 Jan 2010, 03:22:21

The end of consumerism: Our way of life is 'not viable'

Ditch the dog; throw away (sorry, recycle) those takeaway menus; bin bottled water; get rid of that gas-guzzling car and forget flying to far-flung places. These are just some of the sacrifices we in the West will need to make if we are to survive climate change.

The stark warning comes from the renowned Worldwatch Institute, a Washington-based organisation regarded as the world's pre-eminent environmental think tank.

Its State of the World 2010 report published this week outlines a blueprint for changing our entire way of life. "Preventing the collapse of human civilisation requires nothing less than a wholesale transformation of dominant cultural patterns. This transformation would reject consumerism... and establish in its place a new cultural framework centred on sustainability," states the report.


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Re: The end of consumerism: Our way of life is 'not viable'

Unread postby timmac » Sun 10 Jan 2010, 03:28:30

And doing what is stated in that article will put half of the worlds working stiffs in the unemployment line, heck maybe 70% unemployyed is what might happen here in America.. :x

All under false science !!
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Re: The end of consumerism: Our way of life is 'not viable'

Unread postby Rod_Cloutier » Sun 10 Jan 2010, 11:22:04

I would disagree with the 'ditch the dog' statement. Dogs have been useful, at times even essential to human survival over the ages. We have domesticated, selectively bred, and co-evolved with dogs, so dogs are not a problem.

Rat terriers and other small dogs were bred specifically to control rodent infestations which would otherwise spred disease and consume our crops and stockpiles of food. Labradors, sheep dogs and other scent dogs were indispencible with keeping cattle, sheep, and in use for wild hunting. Large and vicious dogs, rotweillers, pit-bulls, dalmations were used as guard dogs, guarding property against both intuders and wild animals.

All these things will be important again in the post-peak oil world of scarcity. Its not time to 'ditch the dog'!
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Re: The end of consumerism: Our way of life is 'not viable'

Unread postby mcgowanjm » Sun 10 Jan 2010, 11:31:31

Repent wrote:All these things will be important again in the post-peak oil world of scarcity. Its not time to 'ditch the dog'!


Try to take my dog and someone's gonna get hurt.

They have at least a 2 year old's cognitive function and
will never betray you.

A Non Human Person. Get used to the term.

That said I note that State of the World can no longer be ignored by our gov't. Nice.
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Re: The end of consumerism: Our way of life is 'not viable'

Unread postby Cloud9 » Sun 10 Jan 2010, 11:35:29

Jill Russel is an outstanding alarm system. Messing with her could shorten your lfe.
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Re: The end of consumerism: Our way of life is 'not viable'

Unread postby drew » Sun 10 Jan 2010, 12:03:47

A couple of scumbags tried to b&e my house while we were home on friday. The one that knocked on our door (after trying every window and door at the back) said he was looking for some girl. My dog went nuts when I went to the door and I got a bad vibe instantly. I thought 'I have a weapon 3 feet away' which I do, so I wasn't feeling any fear about opening the door at 2 AM......I told the kid 'you've got the wrong house' and he left. Something didn't seem right about all of this and that is when we walked out back and found all his footprints. I grabbed my weapon (a bokken) and a flashlight and checked out five or ten of my neighbours' houses and then called the cops. Turns out they tried to kick in the door of a neighbour's (while they were home) quite a ways down the street about 10 minutes after they were at my place. I had forensics at my house on saturday taking pictures of all the footprints.

The moral of the story is simple; dogs ARE man's best friend. If I was at work and I didn't have a dog people might well have been invading my house!

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Re: The end of consumerism: Our way of life is 'not viable'

Unread postby frankthetank » Sun 10 Jan 2010, 12:56:35

I didn't think Canada had crime :)
lawns should be outlawed.
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Re: The end of consumerism: Our way of life is 'not viable'

Unread postby Jotapay » Sun 10 Jan 2010, 13:23:56

drew wrote:A couple of scumbags tried to b&e my house while we were home on friday. The one that knocked on our door (after trying every window and door at the back) said he was looking for some girl. My dog went nuts when I went to the door and I got a bad vibe instantly. I thought 'I have a weapon 3 feet away' which I do, so I wasn't feeling any fear about opening the door at 2 AM.

The moral of the story is simple; dogs ARE man's best friend. If I was at work and I didn't have a dog people might well have been invading my house!


Are you allowed to own a firearm and defend yourself in Canada? Or are you required to run away if an attacker broke into your house?

My dog's job is to guard the house. She does a damn good job at it. I think she provides a very good return on my investment in her.
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Re: The end of consumerism: Our way of life is 'not viable'

Unread postby Plantagenet » Sun 10 Jan 2010, 14:23:29

When dogs are outlawed, only outlaws will have dogs.

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Re: The end of consumerism: Our way of life is 'not viable'

Unread postby green_achers » Sun 10 Jan 2010, 14:56:18

My dog weighs 90 lbs and did a great job of ridding the barn of armadillos the day I brought him home. But he's pretty worthless when it comes to being a watch dog.

As far as the article is concerned, I did not read it yet, but how many articles have I seen written just like this? What are we, 40 years post Club of Rome, and these writers always act like they've never heard of the concept of limits. Where have they been all this time, sharing a cave with Bin Laden?
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Re: The end of consumerism: Our way of life is 'not viable'

Unread postby hillsidedigger » Sun 10 Jan 2010, 15:10:20

Consumerism was once considered by everyone to be a terrible vice that always resulted in disease.
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Re: The end of consumerism: Our way of life is 'not viable'

Unread postby Sixstrings » Sun 10 Jan 2010, 15:16:08

I really don't know what their angle is here. I guess they're just trying to pump folks up to be dirt poor, as in "You're gonna be dirt freaking poor in the new globalist world, so let's all hold hands and embrace poverty. Oh, and the dog has to go."

They don't say that word of course, poverty -- dirt poor, 3rd world Bangalore slum style poverty. Instead, they dress it up like some kind of grand adventure, a noble cause we're about undertake.
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Re: The end of consumerism: Our way of life is 'not viable'

Unread postby Ludi » Sun 10 Jan 2010, 15:36:03

I'll ditch my dog ( and cats) when everyone else ditches their children. :)
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Re: The end of consumerism: Our way of life is 'not viable'

Unread postby hope_full » Sun 10 Jan 2010, 16:17:15

I live on the edges of the 'hood where the "young men" (twitch, twitch) walk down the street looking for the easy marks in the community. Three times, my car was broken into in one year while it sat 20 feet away from my back door.

At least once a month, a miscreant would stagger into my yard and ask for money and/or generally harass me. Mind you, I have a nice expensive security system, but that didn't keep the car safe and it didn't keep the ne'er-do-wells from knocking on my door.

I now have a 30-pound fluffy dog with a big, loud bark. Since that little dog came into my life, my troubles with break-ins and miscreants have *ceased.* My fluffy dog spends the night in my bedroom and I sleep well. She can hear things and sense things that baffle understanding. We think she's barking at nothing, and then a minute or two later, we look out the window and see someone walking down the sidewalk at 2:00 am.

I'm not ditching my dog.
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Re: The end of consumerism: Our way of life is 'not viable'

Unread postby Jotapay » Sun 10 Jan 2010, 16:54:51

Ludi wrote:I'll ditch my dog ( and cats) when everyone else ditches their children. :)


Yeah. Good point.
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Re: The end of consumerism: Our way of life is 'not viable'

Unread postby socrates1fan » Sun 10 Jan 2010, 17:04:03

Repent wrote:I would disagree with the 'ditch the dog' statement. Dogs have been useful, at times even essential to human survival over the ages. We have domesticated, selectively bred, and co-evolved with dogs, so dogs are not a problem.

Rat terriers and other small dogs were bred specifically to control rodent infestations which would otherwise spred disease and consume our crops and stockpiles of food. Labradors, sheep dogs and other scent dogs were indispencible with keeping cattle, sheep, and in use for wild hunting. Large and vicious dogs, rotweillers, pit-bulls, dalmations were used as guard dogs, guarding property against both intuders and wild animals.

All these things will be important again in the post-peak oil world of scarcity. Its not time to 'ditch the dog'!


I agree, same with cats.
Cats are detrimental in affectively controlling disease and food hunting mice in a house.
As lazy as they can be, when I moved to a new house, my cat brought me mouse after mouse, and kept the mice out of the house (after we moved they were everywhere), dogs are not horribly affective at hunting mice in the house (my dog would just bark and freak out), but they are good at defending a home or at least working as an alarm.
As far as ‘false science’ goes, global warming is real people.
Anyhow, I am not what one would call wealthy, but I suppose this is the price we pay for carelessly destroying the environment.
What would you rather have? Air or a job?
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Re: The end of consumerism: Our way of life is 'not viable'

Unread postby drew » Sun 10 Jan 2010, 23:10:15

Jotapay wrote:
Are you allowed to own a firearm and defend yourself in Canada? Or are you required to run away if an attacker broke into your house?



What part of 'I have a weapon 3 feet away' didn't you read,

or are you just pissing on Canadians to be an idiot?

Up here you'd be in trouble for shooting someone unless they were trying to mess you up first. It has to be self defense, along the lines of 'I had no other choice'....

I don't have a gun but I certainly wouldn't have an issue with hospitalizing an intruder with my fists or other weapons kept at my entrances.

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Re: The end of consumerism: Our way of life is 'not viable'

Unread postby Jotapay » Mon 11 Jan 2010, 00:58:30

drew wrote:
Jotapay wrote:
Are you allowed to own a firearm and defend yourself in Canada? Or are you required to run away if an attacker broke into your house?



What part of 'I have a weapon 3 feet away' didn't you read,

or are you just pissing on Canadians to be an idiot?

Up here you'd be in trouble for shooting someone unless they were trying to mess you up first. It has to be self defense, along the lines of 'I had no other choice'....

I don't have a gun but I certainly wouldn't have an issue with hospitalizing an intruder with my fists or other weapons kept at my entrances.

Drew


I'm trying to get to the bottom of the matter. I find it fascinating how people will submit to their own form of local tyranny sometimes, so I try and learn where and how it exists. I wasn't really sure about Canada's self defense laws.

You stated that you had a stick to defend your family. I was asking if you could use a firearm.

In some English-speaking countries and states in the USA, one's only defense from an attacker is to literally run away as you will probably be charged with assault if you try and defend yourself. That is what it sounds like exists in Canada from what you said. I'm more interested in the actual laws than any individual response. I'd be very interested to know exactly how much latitude Canadians have to use deadly force against an attacker in their home, on the street and in their car.

So it sounds like if he had actually broken in and was standing in your parlor you couldn't do anything more offensive than offer him tea unless he bashed you in the head first or stabbed you in the neck.
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Re: The end of consumerism: Our way of life is 'not viable'

Unread postby americandream » Mon 11 Jan 2010, 02:00:37

The caviare eating class wont change anything so no need to panic.

timmac wrote:And doing what is stated in that article will put half of the worlds working stiffs in the unemployment line, heck maybe 70% unemployyed is what might happen here in America.. :x

All under false science !!
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Re: The end of consumerism: Our way of life is 'not viable'

Unread postby Pretorian » Mon 11 Jan 2010, 08:08:38

green_achers wrote:My dog weighs 90 lbs and did a great job of ridding the barn of armadillos the day I brought him home.


Shame killing such beautiful creatures. Did you eat them at least? They taste just like chicken. You can get yourself a leprosy though.
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