Pericles

"it isn't as green as some more modern ones, but would I be doing the right thing to replace it, given the energy required to build a new one?"

You have made an excellent point here - I drive an elderly car also, it is very fuel efficient. Until prices come down AND there are enough energy efficient modern cars around so's I can buy a late model, rather than brand new, I will care for my current car.

You can check on your car's fuel efficiency at the following link:

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/findacar.htm

It's American, but you may find that your old car is better value than many modern cars. And can, therefore, feel smug and superior as I do at the petrol station while filling my car for a pittance alongside someone spending the equivalent to third world debt to fill their 4WD.

BTW; you have balcony you can grow herbs AND tomatoes, capsicums, chilis.

I revamped my PC by downloading Linux - nyah nyah Mr Gates. I buy excellent quality shoes which last for years - better for my feet and less wasteful and find superb and unique clothes at op-shops - much more fun scoring an Armani jacket for $20, than a piece of crap for $200 at some chain boutique.

I go to the market (when I can) near closing and buy up on the freshest and cheapest local produce. And its fun, I have a chinwag with other customers and the sellers - supermarkets? stupormarkets.

Come on people, make some suggestions for Pericles - he loves a challenge give him one

let me make exception to the comment re limited resources..[this cap and trade farce origonated from the oil/lobby..who has discovered many new oil wells..[and capped them to restrict supply

further many of the old wells are refilling..[further we havnt reached peaK OIL..[thats the half way mark...and when we look at the waste-age of oil in the past..[how many nigerian oil scemes run on a quick crab and run..[i expect no shortage of oil for the next hundred years at least]indeed ever..read on

by then we will be making oil from algie..[the figures on it are huge[the algie is recirculated in plastic bladders..[hung..much like the hops vines..collecting the energy of the sun in real time from the same algae source...the origonal black gold came from..

[except this is green..[carbon capturing gold]..lol..and its productive capacity..per hectare is bigger than any current agricultural croping currently in use

as previously postulated there is free energy..[magnetic drive instead of coal..then..[and heating water is best done by using friction..[go figure its cheaper to heat water by compression/friction...then there is the joe-cell making hydrgen from water[for free]...not ever bigger multi-nationalistic fee]

not to mention hydroponics grown under lights in highrises..[with the ewaste fed to beasts also living right in the self same highrises[naturally methane is collected from their excreta..[and piped into houses for cooking etc

in short we could fit 10 fold the people on but a fraction of the land we currently use...with a much better quality of life..as well as fullfill our mission to subdue the earth...for the benifit of all life and evolve spiritually way beyond these end time eugenics/doomsayers could comprehend

[As Pericles identifies, there's a serious lack of real leadership among the neo-malthusian Unsustainables. When there is such a lack combined with such obvious anti-civilization and anti-human zeal, particular forms of ideological absolutism fill the void. These side comments - around some genocidalists' compromising expressions - indicate just what ideological direction they mean]

Rick Teaser just keeps ticking the boxes on “fascist ideology”. In an earlier post, I identified the fascist-Malthusian idolatry and societal implications from such irrational devotion to the “Earth Mother” absolute:

'- Emphasis upon concepts of a staid, entropic “natural order”
- Hostility and condemnation to those perceived as ignoring such “natural order”
- Higher, Brahman-like status for those (fascists) who pay homage to such mythical “natural order”'

Not only did I not evade its absurd question (“is mummy a democracy?”), I hung the absurd question back around its own neck. In that way, the absurd question then resembled a big placard reading: “Rick = Fascist. Kick here”

But now it's posing as a shrink, which – in context - also appears to reflect some suitably genocidalist ambition. In the Nazi euthanasia program, some shrinks played the role of “gassing judge” when dealing with subjects “treated” on account of complaints that they were “work shy”, vagrant, or exhibited “anti-social” qualities, for example. Most of the other targets were mentally or physically handicapped; all slaughtered in tens of thousands in locked trucks with tubes feeding in Carbon Monoxide from the running engines.

Of course, all the murder was done with the express purpose of “benefit for future generations”.

This time the fascist leaves evidence that it wants us killed off.

<<And yes, Bugsy, "equilibrium" is not a steady state, but fluctuates in line with production/consumption.>>

Ah yes, Pericles, I can really see that you think that you know what you are talking about here. Your sentence would be much more at home in an economics textbook than an ecological one.

Production and consumption are economic terms, but then ecological theory is littered with economic theories, but even in economics equilibrium is assumed. That is, it doesn’t really exist. Equilibrium is often assumed in deterministic models. But reality is based in stochastic processes because the world is chaotic . Fluctuations around an ‘equilibrium’ only really exist in chemistry and physics. In biology, what seem to be equilibria are only ever temporary, ever changing when prevailing conditions change. Organisms die. Whole populations and species can and do die.

Natural history is full of examples from bacteria to butterflies to koalas and kangaroos, when a population increases past the carrying capacity of a local area, populations crash. Local extinctions happen.

I don't for a second believe that humans will become extinct, but that isn't the point.

I have come to understand though, that certain political groups seek to use certain real issues to further objectionable agendas. Anti-immigration groups for example. And then hyperbole abounds. I too find this objectionable, make no mistake about that. But I have also met some well-educated people that are concerned about population growth that are certainly not anti-human, nor selfish, racist, fascist, imperialist, ignorant, pagan earth worshippers, etc. They do not wish the ‘pain’ to be transferred to others either. They are truly concerned, about people and the planet and they don’t talk about it in public either. Three guesses as to why. I bet you can get it in one.

mal-observer comments "Of course, all the murder was done with the express purpose of “benefit for future generations”.

This time the fascist leaves evidence that it wants us killed off."

Exactly. With millions dying of starvation every year on this planet, with the current sixth great extinction of species and the collapse of ocean fish stocks and so on, our current system is doing exactly that--murdering with the express purpose of "benefit for future generations." Our fascistic economic system clearly wants us killed off. That is great insight on your part.

Keep up the self-therapy. It's good for you

Don't be silly, Bugsy.

>>I don't for a second believe that humans will become extinct...<<

Nothing is more certain.

It is simply a matter of time.