[dinopello]

Overdevelopment, Overpopulation, Overshoot - Probably not much of an uplifting coffee table book but it does seem to have lots of pictures. Some are quite beautiful and not all in an apocalyptic way. The site link above lets you read the entire thing online and see the pictures.

[Pops]

Cool, found this right off

The United Nations estimates that it would cost an additional $3.5 billion per year to provide contraceptive information and services to the more than 220 million women in the developing world who want to avoid a pregnancy but who are not using a modern method of contraception. (That’s less than 4 percent of what Americans spend on beer each year.)

[kiwichick]

Yanks spend $ 80 billion a year on beer?

[vox_mundi]

Overdevelopment, Overpopulation, Overshoot - Probably not much of an uplifting coffee table book but it does seem to have lots of pictures. Some are quite beautiful and not all in an apocalyptic way. The site link above lets you read the entire thing online and see the pictures.

Very Interesting journey.

The picture gallery reminded me of Koyaanisqatsi - "life out of balance"

Maybe an alternate title - "Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds" *

Choices. Always choices.

* The Bhagavad Gita begins before the start of the climactic Kurukshetra War, where the Pandava prince Arjuna is filled with doubt on the battlefield. Realizing that his enemies are his own relatives, beloved friends, and revered teachers, he turns to his charioteer and guide, God Incarnate Lord Shri Krishna, for advice. Krishna asks him to follow his dharma

The term dharma has a number of meanings. Fundamentally, it means "what is right"

Though, in his case it is "scorcher of enemies!" - "propagating the view that accepting and enacting the fatal course of events is an act of devotion to this god [Krishna] and his cause."

[Outcast_Searcher]

Yanks spend $ 80 billion a year on beer?

This sounded really high to me (even as a guy who likes to drink beer, but isn't a drunk). According to the "Brewers Association", the actual figure is over $100 billion, if you US sales as a metric.

As a sanity check, the same source said 185 million barrels of beer (foreign and domestic) are sold in the US in a year. And THAT, sounds like an awful lot of beer.

https://www.brewersassociation.org/stat ... tion-data/

[Outcast_Searcher]

Cool, found this right off

The United Nations estimates that it would cost an additional $3.5 billion per year to provide contraceptive information and services to the more than 220 million women in the developing world who want to avoid a pregnancy but who are not using a modern method of contraception. (That’s less than 4 percent of what Americans spend on beer each year.)

To me, that kind of money is money VERY WELL SPENT, given all the problems overpopulation and unwanted children cause in the modern world. (And NO, I'm not blaming the children).

Now here's the interesting challenge. Politics as usual would say to just spend the money since it is a "good" idea for government to do (if you could get the majority on Capitol Hill to agree) -- likely not exactly endorsed by the GOP, so IMO not a sure thing.

But to do it intelligently, what other program(s) should be cut as "less of a good thing" to pay for it (going under the theory that endless government growth isn't automatically good) -- pardon me for leaning right on fiscal issues.

The military? (Will work for the far left). Inefficient social programs? (Will work for the far right). Something else? This is the one consideration so many good ideas for new government spending apparently fail COMPLETELY to consider.

Personally, I'd start with eliminating a weapon or three that THE PENTAGON DOESN'T EVEN WANT. Given that the defense industry is constructed to have as many states as possible involved in the construction of major weapon systems, I didn't say it was realistic to get congress to vote that way -- just that it would make sense to me.

[jedrider]

Beautiful book. I should have it right next to a book of pictures of bacterial growth.

[Timo]

Yanks spend $ 80 billion a year on beer?

Absolutely! Barley pop. Hop pop. Suds soda. Guinnness on Wheaties is awesome! Have that for breakfast every day.

Actually Guinness ice cream is even better. Seriously! Boil down a can of Guinness into a thick syrup, and mix it in to home made vanilla ice cream. Incredible!

[kiwichick]

@ os

you could start with an increase in the tax on alcohol

or a tax on sugar

or increase the tax on petrol (gasoline) to help pay for the maintenance on roads/bridges ..... and provide more jobs at the same time

or pay women to delay having their first (and/or second ) child , as they do in some other over populated countries , like India.

[jedrider]

[quote="kiwichick"]@ os
you could start with an increase in the tax on alcohol
quote]

Why? What are people going to do for fun? Fornicate?

Tax on Petrol, I agree 100%. No tax write-off for children. I agree.

[SilentRunning]

Why pay 2.5 billion a year today, when we can just let things slide some more and resort to the most ancient form of population control: Cannibalism!

Paying today for birth control would be what an INTELLIGENT, COMPASSIONATE species would do.

[Ibon]

The book is a raw and honest assessment of human overshoot. Beautifully done. It should be a mandatory presentation in every high school on the planet.

Oh where is the environmental benevolent dictator when we need him or her?

Perhaps he or she is not human?

[jedrider]

The book is a raw and honest assessment of human overshoot. Beautifully done. It should be a mandatory presentation in every high school on the planet.

Oh where is the environmental benevolent dictator when we need him or her?

Perhaps he or she is not human?

Can't speak for every high school, but our kids understand our predicament. It's the parents that are still in denial. The kids are just confused at times with all the mixed signals.

But great idea Ibon, that we need a cyber-robot President to lead us as humans seem incapable at this point. H'mm, would make a great science fiction plot, too.

[Ibon]

The newsprint for the Sunday edition of the New York Times was cut from 100 acres of forest, approximately 75,000 trees per edition.

How many of these adorable little things had to die for this coffee table book?

Black Capped Chickadees and their cousins, the Carolina and Boreal Chickadess, and a few other species, are doing quite well. In fact, they have higher populations today than 60 years ago because of how nicely eastern deciduous forests have made a comeback.

More to the point of this thread, this book is a call to arms and on the opening page they are calling for people to get involved as activists.

SEE HOW OTHERS ARE HELPING.
The campaign map shows Campaign Friends (people who have put their name on the map in support of Speak Out), Campaign Activists (people who have pledged to help spread the word), and Book Champions (people who have requested free books to distribute). Join us! Put your name on the map!

CAMPAIGN FRIENDS, CAMPAIGN ACTIVISTS, BOOK CHAMPIONS

I have read through the book now, the text and quotes. It really is a great summary of human overshoot and a valuable teaching tool.

Any school teacher out there whose school district permits it should put this book on their curriculum.

Call me naive for suggesting activism here, call me naive for not recognizing the billions upon billions of consumers whose lives and interests are so far from recognizing what this book is illustrating, that's fine. At some point perhaps, we will confront this mess. This book can nudge us a little closer.

[Timo]

I'm having a real hard time with this book. I agree 100% with Ibon, that it should be mandatory reading for every high school student on the planet. More than that, though, it should be mandatory reading for every living human being! This is a wake-up call to reality if there ever was one. However, my problem, and I'm not really sure how personal this problem is, is how to present this book for other people to read. If I sent someone the link to this book, or bought a copy for someone as a gift, that person would probably never speak to me again! It is a very damning book on the state of humanity, and everyone who reads it instantly recognizes that they are, themselves, a part of the problem, and the problem is not something that they can remove themselves from. We're a part of the human civilization, and this is what human civilization has done to the planet, and is continuing to do at an exponential rate. Thanks for ruining any enjoyment in life I might ever have again. F U, Timo!

[Ibon]

I suggest we all of us rather than running around making an important point, learn how to enjoy ourselves locally, minimally perhaps with sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Viva la revolution!

Do you think I drag down the birdwatchers here after a fine day of adding many lifers to their list by droning on about overshoot and collapse? Hell no, I never bring up the topic unless they do. About sex and rock and roll, there is plenty of courtship going on at the moment as it is breeding season for many birds.

The other week I had a biologist here, very much up to speed on the subject of biodiversity loss and climate change, I mentioned to him peak oil and upcoming resource constraints. He went off on this long spiel about how oil was not made by plant life but is an abiotic process and there is still tons of it around. This is a guy who can rattle off thousands of latin names in taxonomy and he holds this belief. Sometimes it amazes me how compartmentalized knowledge is. I had to give up because he was an academic and I couldn't make any headway in changing his belief.

[Ibon]

It is a very damning book on the state of humanity, and everyone who reads it instantly recognizes that they are, themselves, a part of the problem, and the problem is not something that they can remove themselves from. We're a part of the human civilization, and this is what human civilization has done to the planet, and is continuing to do at an exponential rate. Thanks for ruining any enjoyment in life I might ever have again. F U, Timo!

Especially if they have little kiddies or grandchildren. How can you put a positive spin on being a rogue parasite?

[Timo]

My nephew arrived in Texas today to begin an internship with a fracking company. He's being used to research a new method of fracking, one that's supposed to be less dangerous, thus implicitly acknowledging that the current method is dangerous. His grandfather honestly believes that oil regenerates in a period of 20 to 40 years, hence the new oil boom in Texas after the first boom went bust. My nephew is young enough (junior in college) that he might still be able to understand this book. His grandfather, and the rest of his family? Acknowledging reality is heresy. Every single child on the planet is a gift from God, and he has a plan for every single one. Shut up! Ignore reality, and submit yourself to God's ultimate plan. He promised to save us.

From ourselves.

I gave up talking about reality with those folks a couple decades ago. It is a pointless and counterproductive effort. The stupid is strong with some.