The road to the future leads us smack into the wall. We simply ricochet off the alternatives that destiny offers: a demographic explosion that triggers social chaos and spreads death, nuclear delirium and the quasi-annihilation of the species… Our survival is no more than a question of 25, 50 or perhaps 100 years.
– Jacques Cousteau (1910-1997)
Jacques said that at least 12 years ago - so we are counting down.
This is the first age that’s ever paid much attention to the future, which is a little ironic since we may not have one.
– Arthur C. Clarke
The prevailing view holds that a stable population that does not tax the environment’s “carrying capacity” would be sustainable indefinitely, and that this state of equilibrium can be achieved through a combination of birth control, conservation, and reliance on “renewable” resources. Unfortunately, worldwide implementation of a rigorous program of birth control is politically impossible. Conservation is futile as long as population continues to rise. And no resources are truly renewable.
“Energy and Human Evolution” by David Price
http://www.sunpath-designs.com/DavidPrice/
More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.
– Woody Allen
«As for pointing to our mental failures with scorn or dismay, we might as well profess disappointment with the mechanics of gravity or the laws of thermodynamics. In other words, the degree of disillusionment we feel in response to any particular human behaviour is the precise measure of our ignorance of its evolutionary and genetic origins.»
– Reg Morrison - The Spirit in the Gene: Humanity’s Proud Illusion and the Laws of Nature
We are programed to die off
Written in August 2009
