JBowyer,

You may be ten foot tall and bullet proof, but face it, you and I won't be around when it really hits the fan (if it's going to hit the fan), we'll be long gone. And fossil fuels might be available for quite some time yet - with increasingly hazardous deep-sea drilling, environmentally destructive CSG capture, tar sands and shale extraction - but what then? Sure, they'll just have to grow masses of oil-rich algae, use more agricultural land for palm oil, or go back to hunting whales for their blubber. A self-destructive spiral in the making.

Are we so self-centered and so short sighted, so arrogant as to think that we can just go ahead and despoil the whole of the Eco-sphere just so that we can go on for a little bit longer with 'business as usual'? That's what happened with the Easter Islanders and the Aztecs, and look how that turned out. Talk about head in sand.

In any visionary undertaking, one at least tests the viability of the alternatives, and does not simply rely of 'possibilities'. That is vanity, if not sheer arrogance. Pride and 'cockiness' come before a fall, and in this instance it may be a very hard fall indeed. Where's caution, question of possibilities, and judicious prudence?

What world to leave, what heritage for future generations? No future but what we make. Are we to be tested and found wanting? I'd like to think we can leave this planet in good shape, for all its inhabitants. It is in our hands, whether we like it or not. Must it always be only a concerned few who strive to preserve and protect the likes of the Tarquine, the Amazon, the Great Barrier Reef, the polar bears, and our agricultural and aquatic heritage, or can humanity ever wake up as a whole, and as a single voice cry out for sanity to prevail? (Before the 'tipping point' that is.)

When did the naysayers ever discover, ever invent, ever create, anything?

Dear Saltpetre,

Unfortunately, the human race has become an infestation on the planet Earth. Humans are multiplying uncontrollably and devouring everything in their path. But there will be survivors - it just won't be the human race.

I think Jesus was right when he said "The meek shall inherit the Earth". Problem for us is that he wasn't refering to members of the human race. Sad, isn't it?

People who spend their entire life with in spitting distance of a CBD somewhere, are bound to have no idea at all, of the huge great empty world out there.

That is probably why we have so many stupid people, & greenies.

Hey naysayer people like me keep going. They so not sit around whining and saying we are all going to die, give me money, like Flannery.
Mate I have been in Melbourne since 1974 and have always paid taxes. Put my record against Brown who has just taken taken and stopped things and I think I am well in front!
We can get over all this nonsense. Started as global warming now its a far more ephemeral "Climate change" that's anything. Especially if you are able to change the records. Shades of 1984, he who controls the present, controls the past and the future. Again why has Flannery bought waterfront land. This is a rhetorical question because it is such a good investment and because he is making just sooooo much money, from my taxes.

What I was suggesting is not a green agenda, far from it.
One possible alternative energy is nuclear but the time it takes to
build nuclear power stations, especially when you need about 20 of them, means they will be too late.
Australia will soon import 100% of our oil use.

No there is not plenty of oil available.
Even Alan Kohler and the others on Business Insiders today don't have a clue.
They were quite sure that the US has self sufficiency in oil.
Fact, the US despite shale oil still imports 40% of the oil they use.
Shale oil production is about to start declining. Individual wells
decline at 40% to 70% a year. It requires constant drilling with
increasing money input and reducing initial output.
Also the net production is falling as the best areas are used up.

The government knows how serious the problem is, as they suppressed
the ABRE report. It echos the US govt Energy Dept report which was
hidden on a govt site but was found by a high school hacking club.
It is known as the Hirsch report, google it.

Hasbeen,

I live in the great outdoors, and in my experience all that empty space you refer to is either productive agricultural land or forests, or else is uninhabited by choice or is national parks, reserves and such. Do you suggest it should all be polluted with people?

It appears you may have no concern for the preservation of what remains of the Amazon or of the forests of Indonesia, Malaysia or the Congo/Rwanda. So, no concern for elephants, rhinos, Asiatic rhinos, orangutans or gorillas, polar bears, the Tassie Devil, koala, whales, and so very many other species with which we share this planet - or indeed for retention of the agricultural land needed to feed the world.

Boy, I'm glad I don't live in your distorted world.