Saltpetre,

Well said!

The tar sands abomination in Alberta accurately sums up just how dumb wise man is. However, this project is set to continue expanding. Transcanada is pushing for the U.S. to give the okay for a pipeline - the Keystone XL - to take the dirty tar sands oil into America. The decision to go with this (or not) has been postponed as it is such an environmentally sensitive area.

A little more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_Pipeline

http://www.transcanada.com/keystone.html

*However, this project is set to continue expanding*

Well there you go, Poirot. The US is full of mums and dads,
just like you and Squeers, who keep popping out children,
who want to drive cars etc.

The result, tar sands.

I can't help but feel that this Golden Age is one of iron pyrites, 'Fools Gold', as the world paints itself further and further into a corner from which it will be unable to withdraw. Were it not for our inherent vulnerability and our security reliance on the U.S. I would venture to suggest that Aus withdraw from the global family and the global economy, and take our chances on our own. But, alas and alack.

It may end up being a good thing that Oz does not have oil, making us less of a target; though we do have gas - but then much of this is bespoke already in any case. We had better come up with a plan very soon to do without oil, and little gas, or else start designing a carbon fibre buggy for the family that has it all.

Poirot,

Thanks for those extra links. The Transcanada self-praising propaganda piece and the attempted Republican push to rush Obama to approve this new pipeline makes very clear the voraciousness of North America and the power of the capitalist lobby in that arena. There is a certain mania and paranoia in the way the world's most powerful nations are rushing to steel themselves against any deceleration of the mammoth consumerist machine, and against any threat to their continued superiority. Dog eat dog, survival of the fittest, natural (or unnatural) selection in full stride. Humanity? By whose definition? The term rushes to premature obselescence.

What catastrophe must befall to curb the tide? A benign and benevolent world order fades into the smog of a belching mammoth of gloom, of lust, and of the dust of destruction and decay.

If there is a God, we need some guidance now, and perhaps some smiting hip and thigh.

I do enjoy watching those that like to tip-toe around the truth they just cant bring themselves to tell, for it is not wise to face down the beast thats killing us all. Yes how far will mankind go, to show how stupid his quest for money, wealth and power is, but then the day will come, where he too will look into his own child's eyes and say, Oh My God! What have I done.

Lets hope this awaken comes soon.

National policy world-wide.......Let the death rate out weigh the birth rate.......We must not let ourselves kill the only planet we have got........you people cant be that thick?

CACTUS

Yabby:
<Well there you go, Poirot. The US is full of mums and dads,
just like you and Squeers, who keep popping out children,
who want to drive cars etc>

Certainly too many people is part of the problem, Yabby, though as I think you've observed or endorsed elsewhere, Western populations are more or less stable or in decline.
The real problem, en masse, is consumerism, whereby it's promoted as a downright virtue to be conspicuous, for the sake of it, with all one's self-worth vested in material status, a semblance or caricature of aristocracy. Consumerism is the modern form of exploitation, the cultivation of prodigality, but the real evil driving the farm is the same as it ever was, the profit motive. The same rationale that once presided oblivious over the unspeakable horrors endured by exploited industrial workers, now presides over the pathologically glutinous consumer, whose desire (for he knows not what) is perennially renewed and cultivated ad nauseam. The same evil that presides indifferent over the tar sands and all the other abominations committed against the biosphere, against any moral justification for our existence, and ultimately against that very existence.
The consumer is the pathetic victim in the process, more to be pitied than despised. The real evil is the faceless dynamic that drives it all. Do you really suppose the market passively "responds" to that desire for "a car etc."? that the nitwit driving it is ultimately driving the whole process? The process is systemic and "intelligent", or technocratic, and the dynamic is excess at home, in wealthy countries, and expansion abroad. But this is not passive growth, it's aggressive, exploratory, manipulative--downright evil!--and finally entrepreneurial. People like me who've racked-up too many kids are the modern (anti)saviour's who help to drive the economy. What would happen to economic growth if we stopped breeding? Satiety already afflicts us to a morbid degree--we're stuffed and nauseated, but it's not enough. The economy is ailing and needs more consumption and more consumers--and more raw materials.

I forgot to add--which all spells more carbon emissions.