Where we as humanity stand currently.

Quick summary of some major issues:

* An area of frozen methane lakes in Siberia greater than the land area of the USA. Current temperature of about -15 degrees, warmed by 3 degrees over the last ten years. Methane is ~24x more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Assuming a current trend, that's about 50 years off being released.

* Amplified carbon output by industry and transport, contributing to the problem.

* Acidification of the oceans. The pH of the sea has been decreasing due to the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere. CO2 is absorbed by the sea and makes it more acidic.

* Deforestation in biodiversity hotspots reducing nature's carbon fixing capacity.

* Global overfishing by around 157%. Major decline in high trophic level predators will precipitate unpredictable, but probably unfavourable changes in marine biodiversity. Also going to result in over a billion people starving. This might actually help the overpopulation problem in this regard.

* The squandering of water resources, more and more water is becoming undrinkable. Only ~2.6% of the water on Earth is fresh water, and 77% of that is trapped in ice, 22% in groundwater, and the remaining 1% in lakes, rivers, and the biosphere. That 1% is becoming polluted to shit, and used up for stupid crap like consumer products and unsustainable production of almost everything.

* Mismanagement of land all over the place resulting in soil erosion, an irreplaceable resource given the time it takes for soils to form.

These are some of the main issues I can think of offhand, there are undoubtedly more to talk about. Without being alarmist, these things are actually happening, and there is plenty of science highlighting these problems, and yet there seems to be very little effort overall to address these problems and change.

Not only this, but an overwhelming majority of people are either ignorant of what's happening, don't understand the issues to any degree enough to be concerned, or even worse, don't even give a shit. It's life as usual for most. They still want their massive TV and lame consumer shit. We're all guilty of it.

The worse part is how our politicians know about some of these issues but are forced into caring or advocating short sighted irrelevant issues like Islamic militant terrorism, which only makes up 0.34% of all terror attacks in Europe, or if Obama was born in the US or not.

I think we're headed into a massive disaster, and it's about time these issues got the proper acknowledgement they deserve rather than sitting in the back of our minds with the "oh it's not an immediate problem now so it's sweet for the time being" mentality. We need to be heading into a post-consumption society. It is US now who could become the most important generation in human history in our brief existence.

Well its still nothing new, Some poeple just don't have the care to do much about any problem, so as long as it doesn't dirrectly affect them.

I don't think it will be "us" (1980-???? gereation) who will be changing the future, well still have many poeple who will only look after themselves, Many more that are going to be as limited as they belive they are limited.

Of course any topic on humanity can be challanging, but we should know that poeple still haven't grown out of being selfish.. anywhere in the world you can find more than enough poeple who rather HAVE a stupid lame T.V. for watching over-glossied actor/actress, rather than learning something new, questioning something that came up and giving it a good thinking about it.

On top of all this though, someone here already should be doing something about a problem world, The Goverments, you said that they focus to much on the now, but ANY event ("Islamic militant terrorism") can turn out much worse if someone didn't look after it, But there still are points were idiocy takes the better of everyone... ( "if Obama was born in the US or not." )

I'm just gonna leave this here:


But on to the subject:

It's sad that there's a lot of poverty in the world right now, but there's not much we (the western world) can do about it. What we're already doing is enough and all that's left is to wait for the world to develop on it's own. We're not some kind of parent that must meddle in the business of everyone else, our last attempt to do so, The White Man's Burden, is now viewed as being imperialistic and/or racist, and I don't see what makes it less so today.

And about the climate: Yes, things are getting really bad and we have to do something. But I also want to highlight the hypocracy of the environmentally friendly people as well, because the people that "don't give a shit" aren't the only ones buying massive TV's and lame consumer shit. Doesn't Al Gore have a private jet, for example? It's so easy to blame people.

First off, your source is from RAND while mine is from Europol, the criminal intelligence agency of the European Union. There's really not much to say.



That thing you posted isn't evidence, that thing is propaganda. For people like you.



So that ignorance i was talking about. Case and point A.

Oh no it's too hard! People should continue to starve and die while i buy a Ipod, because it's not our responsibility! And to not sound like an immoral dickwad and validate my selfish ignorance i'll use xenophobic reasoning!

No what!? Wait what is this thing here.





Wow! Sir i would ever like you to enlighten me as how countries would seemingly do this? Because by the sounds of things it sounds like you have invented a tree that money grows on. Y'know globalization is just a myth.



Maybe you should learn to read more carefully because i never said anything like you're implying i did. And the problem, if you read my post is not the carbon emissions but the fact we're not taking enough measures to counteract it. Deforestation a like and ill-regulated agricultural systems aren't helping either. Besides it's factories not cars and planes that are the main culprit of human emissions. Something like 95% of human emissions come from factories.

Your article is about number of attacks. Mine is about number of deaths. There's a huge difference because if you only count how many and not how severe, you're putting the 9/11 attacks on the same level as anarchists burning cars (cars without people in them, mind you). And you could discuss which one is the propaganda... But that's not the subject in this thread so let's drop it.





I'd say the UN counts as one of the things we're already doing, so I can't see why you're hating on me right now (I'm guessing you think I'm against the UN, for some reason). I'm not saying we should withdraw all support from third world countries, I'm just saying that there's not much more we can do that we aren't already doing, and that I think it's better for everyone if we let them hande some -- some, not all -- problems on their own. You know, just like the western world always have done.



Sorry for implying that you ment stuff you didn't, I'm just a little prejudiced towards eviromentally friendly people, since there actually are many who talk so much about it but never does anything. Again, sorry if I blamed you for something you're not guilty of.

Maybe it's time to step it up another notch. It's evidently assured that as time passes, governments get bigger and bigger, while those that oppress the people turn out like Lybia, Egypt, etc. The Feds have no choice, as more people mean more citizens to satisfy and take care of. I think the more the more time passes, the need for bigger overarching federal governments or powerful organizations will be required. Like a NATO or UN power with jurisdiction over the world. But before stuff like that can even be thought of, we first need to overcome these centuries old perceptions of national pride, longstanding rivalries, and tense conflicts, mainly speaking to the Middle East vs US, the issue with North Korea, equality issues around the world, and the many problems in African countries. People need to be aware that we're all just the same people, and that's the bigger issue here.

Taking ideals away, I think we need to learn how to become a self sustainable species. More attention to alternate sources of energy, like hydrogen, solar, wind, etc. Ways to immensely maximize that power should be our main efforts of collaboration right now, not shooting up the Middle East, not policing the world, and not spending so much fucking budget on the military. If the US starts, the world will begin to do the same. But I guess we need to get out of the recession first.

There are so many problems I actually can't think of where to begin. This discussion is too deep. Mind fuck.