Happy thoughts for a rainy Saturday
Happy thoughts for a rainy Saturday
I just posted this as a comment on a friend's FB post and decided to re-post it here. Was in response to this BBC artcle:
Deep sea mining 'gold rush' moves closer
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22546875
Every time we find new ways to further exploit natural resources it makes economists happy because it "proves" their "law" that supply always reacts to demand and that we (humans via markets) will always adapt and find new ways to ensure infinite, perpetual "growth".
Ecologists warn that there are always limits to growth (you can't have infinite growth on a finite planet) and whilst clever new tech/methods seem like clever and resourceful ways of extending the carrying capacity of an environment.. they often add to the size/scale of the problem and extend the "overshoot" so that the time to react is lessened and the problem is bigger.
The topics raised in this short, simple video and the thinking behind it really influenced my thinking several years ago.. every time I hear (yet another, from all mainstream parties) a politician talking about a "return to growth" it makes me despair just a little more and realise we are doomed!
Conclusion - we (as a species) really aren't smarter than yeast.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hM1x4RljmnE
I just posted this as a comment on a friend's FB post and decided to re-post it here. Was in response to this BBC artcle:
Deep sea mining 'gold rush' moves closer
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22546875
Every time we find new ways to further exploit natural resources it makes economists happy because it "proves" their "law" that supply always reacts to demand and that we (humans via markets) will always adapt and find new ways to ensure infinite, perpetual "growth".
Ecologists warn that there are always limits to growth (you can't have infinite growth on a finite planet) and whilst clever new tech/methods seem like clever and resourceful ways of extending the carrying capacity of an environment.. they often add to the size/scale of the problem and extend the "overshoot" so that the time to react is lessened and the problem is bigger.
The topics raised in this short, simple video and the thinking behind it really influenced my thinking several years ago.. every time I hear (yet another, from all mainstream parties) a politician talking about a "return to growth" it makes me despair just a little more and realise we are doomed!
Conclusion - we (as a species) really aren't smarter than yeast.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hM1x4RljmnE
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