It’s been a while since the terms "energy crisis" and "resource crisis" have been used. They have been eclipsed by the global warming crisis and resource boom politics but the crises haven't gone away. It’s not just energy resources either. The intelligence resource of our leader is a rapidly diminishing resource. Have you noticed he is looking a little blue around the lips – oxygen resource problem?

Pity Aleklett didn't mention that uranium is rapidly running out - some estimates put it well within in the next 20 years! Howard's plunge on our behalf into nuclear energy could be short-circuited!

Arjay,

Poor silly man,

"developing countries that are consuming energy/resources with impunity"

which ones are those, what is their per capita consumption?

Silly Deu(fu)s,
The problem is: total consumption -total pollution- total population.

On this issue, the per capita measures chief function is to shaft blame to the west,
& justify payment of further tribute to the rest.

Very impressive graphs and fluff.
There is no human on our planet who knows what the future holds for us, for anyone one human to claim they have any clue at all is fanciful and absurd.
The humans who have got us to this situation did not know the folly of their ways, and the same can be said for the current soothesayers, prophets and egotists.

I can’t see that all our efforts to address climate change are really going to amount to much. We will still be using fossil fuels at a rapid rate for as long as we can viably extract them. So whether we slow the rate now and stretch it out or go whole hog at it until they are exhausted doesn’t matter greatly, does it?

It doesn’t really matter as far a climate change is concerned that is. But it probably does matter greatly in terms of sustainability. Presumably the longer we draw out fossil fuel consumption, the more time we have to adapt and gently transition ourselves into alternative energy sources and lifestyles. But then, maybe we will essentially remain fossil fuel energy dependent and relatively blasé about change for as long as we have it economically available. Perhaps the best thing that can happen is for it to quickly become uneconomic and thus force us into rapid change.

At any rate, I have always maintained that all our efforts on climate change are a distraction from what really matters – sustainability. Sure, in addressing climate change we are dealing with large aspects of sustainability. We are not addressing the whole deal.

The most fundamental aspect that we are overlooking is the continuous-expansion-of-all-things-human paradigm. We’ve got to realise that a society (in Australia and around the world) that is based on an economic model of continuous growth is a society that is running against sustainability and hence against its own future wellbeing, all else being equal.

We can strive to grow per-capita economic gain and hence quality of life, but not total economic gain in conjunction with continuous population growth, which is what is happening in Australia and many countries and which is leadings to an ever-greater impact on environment and resources without improving the average per-capita benefit.

I dearly hope that all this concern about climate change is just a step on the ladder to addressing genuine and holistic sustainability. We really need to step up to the next rung or two pretty damn quickly.

Deus_Abscondis, it isn't just the per capita consumption you need to worry about, it is the product of the number of people and the per capita consumption which counts, as Horus has just pointed out.

Sarah101, I am afraid that you are wrong. It is people like you who put their heads in the sand have got us into the catastrophe that will inevitably befall us if we do not act decisively now.

I have no intention to present distractive information nor question the validity of the extensive data presented, however, the 'tipping point' (where we pass a point of either no return or an indeterminate time frame of return) cannot be quantified by the most astute exponent of guessetimating ... simply, when the more fragile lifeforms cannot cope with a heat or acidic variation, then the more robust life forms are still only as strong as the weakest link.

There is not one life form on this planet that can regenerate its species - as a whole - when key components are missing in the food chain; and so in closing, to suggest severe climate change has been forestaled is but another - perhaps unintended - distraction from the very real situation where - for many species around the world - it is the end of the world as they know it ... pretending to think we will not be affected by the ripple effect is .. well, typically human ...

There is no magic alternative energy source on the horizian that will ever be accessible to the vast majority of human species ... and as previous/current history shows, we are too immature and therefore unable correctly manage it.