KaiserJeep wrote:It seems to me, I'm just about the only Forum member who has thought this through and has a viable plan to hang his hat on.
Kaiser, your failure to see clearly on this issue is that you frame the problem on the current crop of humans where yes there is no solution. Also for the next generation or two there is no solution. Stretch it out several generations and then it becomes clear. Dying off and correcting back to a sustainable carrying capacity IS the solution. Of course from our narrow perspective as a mortal human the reality of our species contracting down and living through the consequences makes us squirm in panic and for this reason we reach for crazy ideas like getting off this big ball before all hell breaks loose. But hell breaking loose IS THE SOLUTION.
I don't know where you see this process of the consequences of human overshoot making the planet ecologically dead and no longer livable. The very minute we go over the bell curve of peak Kudzu Ape and start contracting our over population, that is the very minute nature recolonizes our former human habitats. Several generations through this back down to a billion or 500 million and our planet will be green still, rich in biodiversity, wounded from this whole episode but by no means dead. Some charismatic top predators will be gone fore ever, some bio regions will have systemic eco system wounds which will cut deeper than others, but all in all, our mother earth will be a verdant ball full of rich life. More importantly for those of you who are Human Centric and only see the issue from humanity's benefit, well this green verdant ball several generations from now will maintain a stasis for humanity to find a stable living arrangement to carry forth. Reduced numbers but within carrying capacity. Technology preserved? Probably but we really don't know.
An analogy perhaps from our immune system will help to explain the point of what this process of human overshoot will provide humanity. There is a very good book, The Survival of the Sickest ,
https://www.amazon.com/Survival-Sickest ... B01FIXHL5A Briefly , the book mentions how all of us here today with our powerful immune systems because of the past diseases that were necessary to hone our immune systems into being these healthy defense systems that they are. It flips the whole ideo of disease over on its head and in a deep time perspective explains how disease is not only necessary but also responsible for our resilience as a species.
When you go from hard science and take a biological phenomenon, as the book discusses, and apply it as an analogy to culture there is a certain risk of inaccuracies. But I will take that risk. Here goes. There is a very good chance that human overshoot will have the same affect on our culture that disease has had on our immune systems. Going through the consequences of human overshoot, and yes, regionally including harrowing die offs and full scale pandemics in certain areas, all of that nasty stuff, emaciated tiny babies looking out at the world with starving eyes, yes all of that included, and not just little brown babies but white babies also, yes , let's take a moment and look straight in the eyes of that horror because we will not be spared this. But IT IS THE SOLUTION. Why? Because the experience collectively of correcting back down to carrying capacity will embed deeply on whatever civilization follows. Our culture will develop antibodies to human overshoot. Those anti bodies will be a set of cultural rules and self regulations to avoid allowing this to happen again.
Nature however will be the biggest regulator for awhile anyway. We know from ecological overshoot that the carrying capacity after the correction is below the base line carrying capacity because of environmental degradation. All those resource sinks, those non renewable ones as well as renewable ones, will be impacted so after we go through the correction we are not going to bounce back up to 7 billion.
It is the interplay between a reduced carrying capacity and embedded cultural anti bodies that will act in tandem to regulate future consumption and population if we remain a civilization with technology. Here is the irony Kaiser. That is exactly what humans would do on a space colony where the artificial biospheres would require both population and consumption regulations. There is no freedom to breed and freedom to consume on a space colony. No, Cog for example, will not be invited to go into space. Sorry Cog, you stay home
A space colony represents communism par excellence. ha ha ha
By going through the consequences of human overshoot the surviving human culture will apply the same self regulating mechanisms that you would have found on a space colony. And there you have it. We did it without ever having to blast off into space.
We need the coonsequences of human overshoot just like our species has needed disease to build the resiliency we have in our immune systems. We need this culturally since civilization is still a novelty for our species, only having been around a couple of thousands of years. The "disease" of human overshoot will hone cultural self regulation mechanisms. Global human overshoot is a first time event by the way. This is a major inflection point in the time line of human civilization, having never happened before. I look at it as a test. What doesn't make you extinct will make you stronger. Again the parallel to disease and our immune system.
Of course as some will argue the consequences of human overshoot will be so severe that civilization disappears and there will only be a few humans around falling back to our ancestral HG tribal social arrangement.
Or we will go extinct.
Yep, any of those possibilities exist. On this post I am focusing on the opportunity human overshoot has to allow our species to progress culturally in keeping civilization resilient and around for a long time.
You see, I am about the least misanthropic person you will ever meet even though I worship every morning to the overshoot predator to start the process of making us more resilient as a species. Also more resilient as a civilization. This IS THE ONLY VIABLE SOLUTION.
Patiently awaiting the pathogens. Our resiliency resembles an invasive weed. We are the Kudzu Ape
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