Snake, was that the Paul Erlick (sic) whose best case scenario predicted that in 1974 America would stop food aid to India because it was "beyond hope" - now the second fastest growing major economy in the world?

The horse has already bolted and we're not going to get it back inside the gate. There are too many people consuming far too much, and neither of these trends will reverse themselves any time soon.

Nature seeks equilibrium given finite resources. As such, I believe there will be an inevitable resource war and things will balance themselves out (even if there's a lot of bloodshed). We can either be winners or losers in the shakeout of it, but it's coming. What we need to do is embrace it by shoring up our own resources within our own country and making sure we have sustainability reasonably well worked out here and make sure we can hang on to what we have. If we need to, we must make sure we're part of a political/military bloc that will not be devoured by others and may actually get a piece of someone/somewhere else. Personally, I think it will suck to be Latin American and African (as they'll be the first to go), and perhaps even from elsewhere. As rotten as it might be, it's going to be a fight for survival and we need to make sure we're one of the winners, not losers, even if that means we become something of a vassal state (since I don't believe we're powerful enough to stand on our own or as an equal partner).

If you want peace, prepare for war. If you want environmental sustainability, prepare for conquest and annihilation. I know that's really unpalatable, but that's what's on the horizon. That's how nature does it, and that's what nature will dictate we do.

What is 'Medical Geography'? And how does it relate to the field of global warming? A medical geographist may be able to tell us of some of the effects that increasing temperature may have, but in no way is he an expert on whether we are a significant cause of temperature changes

Perhaps you should listen to real experts on the question of man made global warming....
http://www.verumserum.com/?p=1006
http://www.channel4.com/science/microsites/G/great_global_warming_swindle/index.html

Compare earth's climate change with that of mars
http://alangrey.blogspot.com/2007/04/global-warming-is-real.html

The people who are supposed to be skeptics seem to lose it all when it comes to this climate change crusade.

Such fear mongering. A great sign of the religion of climate change.

Don't you love how everyone is 'worried about the environment'? I've been hearing it everywhere. Those same people weren't listening to the environmentalists 10-20 years ago are now parroting their words and concerns like monkey. Yes that's parroting like monkeys XD. Now you have the conservative government (home of rabid anti-environmentalism) trying to sell the idea of protecting forests to the same type of stubborn idiots as they were themselves (can anyone say pleasant irony?)

Grey:
"Such fear mongering. A great sign of the religion of climate change."

For every expert I've read who claims man-made global warming is a myth, I read another hundred who claim it's very real.

I'm willing to concede that some of the more extreme warnings may be exaggerated, but you know what? I think that's exactly what we need. Because the human race isn't going to get off its arse and do something unless the alarm bells are ringing loud and clear. While we're talking about the effect on the economy and the most 'efficient' way of going about things, we're doing more and more damage. Scaremongering is exactly the kick in the pants we may need in this situation. If it isn't too late already.

Grey, your poo-pooing concerns over global warming remind me of stories I heard at university from Jewish students who said mum, dad and grandma wouldn't leave Berlin in the 1930s because they couldn't imagine how bad the Nazis would be.

I think Australia is at a similar abyss. All of south east Australia is in the grip of drought and the cities of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne have outstripped their water supply. Perhaps you can build dams for Brisbane and Sydney but in Melbourne's case it appears the rain now falls over the ocean. So what? well Melbourne's food supply comes from the Murray Darling Basin and that is as dry as anyone can remember. And because Coles has centralised buying probably Australia's food comes from the Murray Darling Basin.

How long will it be before Australia imports basic food stuffs? And how much will it cost when transport oil prices rise?

Ask yourself why Bob Carr, the previous premier of New SOuth Wales, now lives on the south island of New Zealand.