"It is clear that the size and extent of global energy use, which has provided the sub structure for the huge world population and for the high material living standards of maybe 20%, cannot continue as it cannot deliver comparable living standards to the other 80%, or advance or even retain the standards of the privileged 20%.

The depletion of resources, the destruction of the complex biological environment and its inhabitants and the altering of the dynamics of the atmosphere and oceans are now well established."

It's certainly not clear to me, nor do I see that your second claim is 'well established'. Perhaps next time you could provide some evidence, rather than merely parroting whatever received opinions happen to be fashionable within your set as if they were generally accepted truths. There seems to be a lot of this going on lately on OO.

JonJ, a line from a classic Simon & Garfunkel song:

A man sees what he wants to see and disregards the rest.

Has anyone notice the tragic irony of the Christian true believer Runners postings on this forum? Invariably he aligns himself with the aggressive atheists and/or techno-barbarians who feature very strongly on this forum.

In my opinion the deleted posting by DavidL was one of the worst cases of in your face verbal abuse that has ever appeared on this forum.

I wonder if thousands of years ago there was some twit telling everyone to stop throwing rocks at that Tyrannosaurus Rex, because if they didn't, the earth would run out of rocks, & they would all be doomed?

John Ness, if I were to get some nice leather, & plat up a nice cat-o-nine tails for you, would you go off & self flagellate somewhere in private. I hate the sight of blood, real or symbolic, & could do without this cr4p.

I am not unhappy, I have no intention of being unhappy, & I have even less intention of letting someone like you make me so. I have lived much of my life using little energy, but that was by choice. Neither you, nor anyone else, will be allowed to dictate my energy use, without a very hard fight.

I'd suggest you trot off & have a swim. I hear that water is very good at dampening out vibrations. A few less bad vibrations, & even you too, may be able to be happy. Good luck.

…The response to unhappiness outlined as the theory of the author of this article, fails to identify the causes of true unhappiness of the human state, that is, as an alignment to the “inner nature” of happiness. It fails by concentrating the alignment of human happiness to economic success.

…But any thinking individual knows only too well, this to be a fallacy. To prove the truth of John Nesses postulations, one should simply observe the well off for signs of this mystical “wealth created” happiness.

…No; true happiness is not wealth created. True happiness is a spiritual nurturing. It is an outwardly projecting state, from an inwardly established contentedness. Economics is not a “massaging paramount” of a contented soul.

…In these pages it would be most appropriate to quote the five precepts of basic morality, from the more humanist religion of Buddhism, (but Buddhism is not unique to this teaching among established religions):

1. To refrain from taking life (non-violence towards sentient life forms), or ahimsā
2. To refrain from taking that which is not given (not committing theft)
3. To refrain from sensual (including sexual) misconduct
4. To refrain from lying (speaking truth always)
5. To refrain from intoxicants which lead to loss of mindfulness (specifically, drugs and alcohol)

I'm not "miserable" and religion is not my concern.

Reputedly among the religious, religion has the effect of inculcating guilt for those not conforming to the edict that they should feel miserable.

Paraphrasing the "Life of Brian's" religious crowd scene "Yes. We're all individuals"

I'm not :)

Pete

Was this written by Kevin Rudd? Its about as understandable. I have no idea what the following neologisms are all about:

"The world has seen that the best way out of the circularity of such arguments is to dispense with them altogether and to replace them with a system that is capable of flexibility and incremental steps towards matching belief with reality."

"Alternatively, if the motive of the altruistic group benefit maximiser is accepted, then society heads towards stagnation and often xenophobia."

"To do this, the economic system must be based on and measured by the use of energy and the production of entropy as an empirical quantification of which system should be adopted."

Most of this article is absolute gobbledegook.