This article is a welcome change of pace and attitude for On Line Opinion. Thankyou. It puts things into perspective to take a deep breath and see how materialistic we are.
The clarification I need is how Shakti will keep us warm on a cold winter's night. It seems we must burn some kind of fuel to do this.

Good article.
Now, sit back and watch OLO's resident dumbnuts and wingbats tear it to shreds.

Ah yes, consider the poor…
equality for all.

Ignore the benefits of industrialization… such as western medicines which have eradicated many “population balancing” diseases and improved birth mortality rates in the third world, as well as the first.

Presume living the lifestyle of an Indian peasant has some benefits… but go try it for a decade before you attempt to impose it upon me.

If you want to improve “the lot of humanity” start by stopping the poor from breeding like rabbits beyond the level of resources they need to exist.

If you want the benefits of modern medicines, modern communications and the freedoms of contemporary society you cannot separate them from the economies of scale which are only possible from modern commerce and modern industry.

Pretending the developed countries are the source of the problem is to ignore the benefits the developed countries have brought to the underdeveloped countries.. like medicine, agricultural productivity, communications, social development … the list is endless

Pretending there is a future in forcing everyone to live like peones and peasants is the sort of stupid fallacy which most “socialist” thinking is based upon.

Interesting .. now wait for the sneering and name calling to start.

Oh .. too late, Q&A already here, the rest of the intolerant team can't be far behind ..

Online Opinion prints far too much of this sort of thing but it is always fun to point out the problems, even if there are some other contributors who cannot believe there can be contrary opinions.
The business about using agricultural land to grow fuel is stupid, I agree but the idea comes from some bizarre union of greens and agricultural interests. End it immediately! We will know when the alleged shortage of fossil fuels has become serious to indulge in that sort of nonsense - it will be when they start exploiting the shale oil deposits in Queensland. As it is the arguments about peak oil - whether its occured, or is some decades away - it bears no relevence to the issue. Only a fringe of peak oilers believe its about any end to energy supplies. To the rest its about short term price changes.
As for a sustainable economy as suggested by this rather odd, fluff-filled article, a few diehards may go to a farm at say, Nimben, and practice something like it but for the economy as a whole its a waste of breath to suggest it. More energy efficiency? Sure! Improved fuel efficiency for cars? Bring it on. Living on a commune and toiling in the fields? Hell would have to freeze over.

Good Lord, this is what passes for intellectual rigor in the environmental movement these days, is it?

It must be intellectual - it uses the word "paradigm" a lot!

It's like being in a timewarp, really: one used to read this sort of fluff in student newspapers all the time in the 70s; but at least then they had the excuse of being stoned out of their gourds.