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From Bloomberg:
Forty years ago, scientists from 50 nations converged on Geneva to discuss what was then called the "CO2-climate problem." At the time, with reliance on fossil fuels having helped trigger the 1979 oil crisis, they predicted global warming would eventually become a major environmental challenge.
Now, four decades later, a larger group of scientists is sounding another, much more urgent alarm. More than 11,000 experts from around the world are calling for a critical addition to the main strategy of dumping fossil fuels for renewable energy: there needs to be far fewer humans on the planet.
[...] The scientists make specific calls for policymakers to quickly implement systemic change to energy, food, and economic policies. But they go one step further, into the politically fraught territory of population control. It "must be stabilized—and, ideally, gradually reduced—within a framework that ensures social integrity," they write.
Others disagree, stating
Fewer people producing less in greenhouse-gas emissions could make some difference in the danger that climate change poses over time. But whether we end up with 9, 10, or 11 billion people in the coming decades, the world will still be pumping out increasingly risky amounts of climate pollution if we don't fundamentally fix the underlying energy, transportation, and food systems.
Critics blast a proposal to curb climate change by halting population growth
Journal Reference:
William J Ripple, Christopher Wolf, Thomas M Newsome, Phoebe Barnard, William R Moomaw. World Scientists' Warning of a Climate Emergency[$]. BioScience. doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biz088
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday November 07 2019, @09:01PM (4 children)
Just a tiny bit of logical reduction and you come back to human population as the primary driver of climate change.
Changing human behavior is... tricky at best, convincing people to not eat meat or travel is one of those things that people fly to global conferences and discuss over a nice steak dinner.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday November 07 2019, @09:12PM (3 children)
Greta Thunberg doesn't fly [foxnews.com], it seems.
(Score: 5, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Thursday November 07 2019, @09:21PM (1 child)
She's a child, and has nothing else to do for the three weeks it takes to sail across the Atlantic. Also, if you do a net carbon expenditure analysis of what her trip cost the planet, it isn't all that great as compared to a jet - there's the crew of the sailing ship you have to feed for 3 weeks, along with the passengers. Rope and sails ain't cheap, and they cost that money because they require energy to make, maintain, and dispose of. A sailing ship which can carry as many passengers as a 767 would be huge, in today's world you'd likely need a fleet of 20+ normal sailing ships to carry that many passengers, and the crew to passenger ratio is sky high on the ships.
Still, I applaud her statement, and wish that more people would follow suit and change their behavior in meaningful ways before going to the conference table to discuss what can be done.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 08 2019, @04:16AM
Personally I think we could do completely without people who actually make things worse just so they can show off much they care.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Friday November 08 2019, @08:46AM
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2019/08/16/crew-of-five-are-flying-to-new-york-to-bring-gretas-boat-back/ [wordpress.com]
Greta is a symbol, ineffable ideology for the new lefty generation which risked to be swayed by memes and chans. This is why they are allowed to skip one day of propaganda sessions AKA school a week. This is why it's more important for her to show up after a sea trip than actually saving some CO2 and having her attend by teleconference. HELLO THIS IS THE 2020 WE CAN MANAGE SOME VIDEO ACROSS THE GLOBE AT ACCEPTABLE SPEED.
It was too easy for commenters here to call her followers gretini, which is a bit unfair (a pun on cretini, morons), but doesn't miss much the mark.
Account abandoned.