UKC

Very depressing reading in The Independent this morning....why has the Indy become such a heavy doom laden organ these days ?
According to James 'Gaia theory' Locklock, the earth has passed the point of no return.
By the end of the century billions will have died.Only the artic regions will be habitable.Warlords will control our disintegrating society and millions of species will be erased forever.

That's it then. I'm buggered if I'm recycling my Christmas cards and wine bottles again.

In reply to Jonno:

I read it too - very depressing, still, it cheered me up reading about Sven and the fake Sheikh.

In reply to Jonno:
This is bad - it could have implications for Socttish winter climbing.

In reply to Jonno: Why is your opinion influenced so easily by another's? There have been doomsayers for centuries (millennia, even). Sure, things are bad, but it's up to us to create a positive world (and to influence your kids) rather than take the easy option and go with the flow. End of rant!

In reply to Marc C: Haven't read the article, so I may be being presumptuous, but if I was going to listen to the opinion of anyone over these issues, it would be Lovelock. He's not some namby tree hugger but a pragmatic scientist whose research turned the environmental and earth sciences on their head back in the day. Genuis insight basically. Virtually deified by the green camp, he then succeeded in p***ing most of them off, by realistically saying that our only hope now is to go fully nuclear for energy production - we've left it far too late to impliment renewables. If he's worried, then you should be.

In reply to danm: I haven't read the article. But I do think that worrying and being pessimistic isn't going to help. And, in any case, why worry about something that - according to him - is going to happen anyway? He may not have said this, but saying 'we're doomed!' is tantamount to giving up any positve alternatives. If he's saying 'unless we do x and y...' then that's pragmatic and helpful.

In reply to Jonno:

It may seem hard to believe when trapped in your typing chariot, but this is at or near the peak of western civilisation, right here, right now.

Enjoy the good times while they last.......

In reply to the real dr gav: I agree, the way that technology, population increase, resource use, etc. is accelerating does not feel like it can be sustained. I think we are living in 'interesting times', as the curse goes. Still, it may all end sooner than we think!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/space/article/0,14493,1660485,00.html

In reply to Marc C: I'm with the sadly missed Hunter S on this....stock up on the ammo first, then the supplies. No point doing it the other way round. Move north and get armed. No seriously, the guy gave us the info we needed to act back when it would have made a difference; we collectively decided our nice way of life now was too good to give up for the sake of generations to come. I'm as guilty as the rest of you. It's not a case of pessimism, it's a case of "this is whats gonna happen, s'far as we can tell, so prepare yourselves". I'd rather hear bad news than the usual politico bullsh** that got us here in the first place. I think his point (again, I haven't read the article, just seen some of his later interviews on this topic) is that we are now into damage limitation, the point of no return has been crossed as far as maintaining a viable civilisation in its current form goes. I think its gonna get really ugly, and that being a stoic may be the best philosophy to adopt.