What a good common sense article,

Love the "elephant in the greenhouse" comment.
That paints a vivid picture. And gets right to the issue of global warming and overpopulation.

I once called overpopulation, "the Big white elephant standing in the United Nations
Chambers.

But The "elephant in the Greenhous " , I just can'T get that picture out of my mind.
Great comment by Micheal, the author of this article

For anyone with a desire to see a fantastic pictorial view of mans impact on our planet please go to this link and view this wonderful book, http://issuu.com/globalpopulationspeakout/docs/final_over_book?e=12385403/10500444

Some of the pictures are simply stunning

Cheers Geoff

We talk about renewables all while ignoring some of the most basic and affordable solutions!

Anyone see the amount of garbage finding its way into landfill in Indonesia,and how much methane that produces, and yes they collect some of it!

Other third world countries fare little better and continue to add methane (21 times more efficacious as a greenhouse gas than Co2) as thousands of daily tons, when with a little old fashioned common sense they could turn nearly all that waste into currently costly fuel.

Let me elucidate, step one, feed all the organic waste currently dumped into landfill, into digestors, either as a suburban or highrise specific operation at the lowest point to eliminate where possible, pumps, along with the hard material recycling that would require, and collect and store the methane in bladders.

After scrubbing, the gas can be fed into ceramic fuel cells to create on demand 24/7 peak power, plus free hot water.

Step two is a simple as using the resultant nutrient laden effluent to grow oil rich algae in clear plastic pipes, using roof space and floating on ponds, where space is at a premium; and extract the ready to use alternate fuel. Simple and virtual child's play.

The reusable water is then safe to use for almost any non potable purpose. i.e. rice production?

the ex crush material may be used as animal fodder in some circumstances or as the basis for a food and arable land free petrol replacing ethanol industry!

We can't do any of this, we aren't poor enough and prefer to use coal where we can so we can continue to be the largest pro rata emitters? and possibly underpin a very lucrative ETS, which earns billions for sharp ex bankers? No names no pack drill.

You'd be forgiven for thinking we didn't have any cheaper than coal, carbon free thorium, let alone enough to power the world for 700 odd years!

And what's more for a fraction of the price of coal, wind or solar power!
Rhrosty.

Since 1800, we've heard that population growth is 'unsustainable'. But these doomsayers have never been right - never. We've gone from 1 Billion to 7.3 billion since 1800 yet we currently grow more calories per capita than ever before. We've been told by doomsayers that famine is just around the corner for the majority of mankind yet that too has been wrong. Famines occur not because of lack of food but because of failed political systems.

Likewise we are constantly told that we are on the brink of running out of resources. But we've never run out of a resource - never.

In fact there is only one resource that matters - the human brain. A stick is just a stick until a human brain turns it into a spear or fuel. A rock is just a rock until some intelligent bi-ped puts a point on it. Oil is just some sludge that befouls farmland until...

The world is getting better because there are vastly more of the one thing that makes progress happen - the human brain. Don't fret over the growing population, celebrate it.

But if you need to fret then consider that we already know how to resolve population growth. As people become wealthier and more secure, they have fewer children. It happens everywhere, everytime. Thats why the world's population growth rate has declined over the past half century (http://www.geohive.com/earth/his_history3.aspx). When you see throw-away comments like "with an increase in average fertility of just 0.50 children per woman - it would reach 16.6 billion people by 2100" ask why fertility rates would rise when they've been falling for the better part of a century. They won't. But its postulated to create the scare.

The world's population will stabilise some time this century and then start to decline. At that point those 10 billion (+/- 1 billion) will be wealthier, more educated and better fed, on average, than people at any time in history. All that assumes that we continue to grow economically and don't throw it away by taking fright at phantoms.

Sorry, some of you Henny Pennys, for piddling in your punch bowl but here's a prediction which is impossible to verify:

* that, long before we run out of high-quality coal in Queensland or natural gas in the Canning Basin, and similar new deposits all around the world, population growth will slow down (with people living far longer), stabilise at about ten billion in about 2150, then slowly start to decline at 0.01-0.02% p.a. By 2300, an affluent and well-educated world may be facing a crisis of too few people, too few workers in an extremely high-tech economy, as life expectancy exceeds 120 years.

What's the bet ?

Joe

PS. I apologise for the term 'high-quality coal', which so many here would like to be an oxymoron.

I attribute a lot of the wars, unrest and refugees happening in the world today
To land and resources shortage caused by overpopulation in many parts of the world.

Did I mention poverty as well.

And no,the wealthy world which practices contraception
Shouldn't have to share their resources with people who overpopulate.

The making of their misery is in their overpopulation.
They need to learn especially the religious male leaders
That overpopulation has serious consequences.
Don't blame responsible country's for the consequences.