I agree with many of the prior comments. Only one child per family for the next several generations.

People are the cause of pollution, environmental degradation, much of the anomalous increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide and global warming that we are assured is taking place. (The "Green Revolution" increased yields of cereal crops by 5 times or more and helped to fuel population growth.)

We can reduce our own use of fossil fuels in well-documented ways. However one often overlooked but major use is home heating and yet much, or even all, can be supplied from the sun. (Nuclear is ok providing it is 93,000,000 miles away.) Most places in the US average more than 3kwH per day per square meter from the sun and that works out at over 1 Mega Watt Hour per year. Much of the heat needed for a home could be supplied by 20 or 30 square meters of solar heating panels on the roof. There are ways to store heat harvested during the summer so that it is available for the winter … e.g. http://www.dlsc.ca/

During the winter time, my thermostat is never, ever set higher than 60 F. It's sweaters and long johns for my family. I live in Chicago where it gets damn cold in wintertime. My gas bill is over $150 less than my neighbors every month. Sometimes $250.

Is this country and the world ready to talk about population and the necessity to thwart further population growth, as it relates to global warming?

This is certainly one way that humans can contribute to climate change- we are responsible (or not) for our own procreation.

Unless we as a species become bare minimalists, the world cannot continue to support us and our "lifestyles".
I think a good place to start is to accept the truth that babies are not miracles, and our worth as people is not limited to our ability to create a family.
We have to live in this moment, and see that the people and species around us are our family and it is our responsibility to take care of and nourish them... not create any more.

What I worry about now is too much focus on stopping global warming. I know that sounds daft, and of course I don't mean we should cease efforts to stop global warming. But I believe we can't, at this point, actually stop global warming any time soon. And for me, that is key, not anytime "soon". We can slow it, certainly, but like the huge freight train that it is, it will take a LONG time to stop it and return to normal. How long? We literally have no idea.

What I fear is that people will be sold an the idea of stopping global warming, will spend much money and effort in stopping it...and that when we realize we need to make life-saving changes in OUR lives to live through the dramatic changes sure to come...our resources will have been already spent. In short, what if we spend all our money on better technology, but are then left without food, water or energy in ten years. Or five years. Or twenty years. Being unavoidable and potentially horrific, to me the timespan is just a number. I believe, at this point it's unstoppable in our lifetimes, and we'd better get used to, and PLAN for, the idea of actually living WITH global warming.

I hear a lot of talk about stopping global warming, but NOT a whole lot of talk about how to live with it in the meantime. It seems England this summer is a typical example of what will happen if efforts to live with the new climates aren't as strong as the efforts to stop the changes. I'm afraid people, many many people, will be left out in the cold. Or in the heat. Or in the water. It's not a stretch to imagine these things anymore. Katrina.

Here is what has to happen to stop global warming and save the world. Each and everyone of these items MUST occur before the end of the next year (2008).

1. Dismantle the civilian aviation industry. Airplanes are by far the worst polluters. They emit pollution high up in the atmosphere were it does the most damage. No civilians should ever step foot in an airplane again.

2. Dismantle and shut down the meat industry. Animal production is the second worst industry in terms of global warming. There is simply no excuse for allowing this wasteful habit to continue. Not when the fate of the world is at stake.

3. Tax cars until no one can afford them, and tax gasoline until it is $15 a gallon. Only then will emisions come down.

4. Shut down ALL coal powered electrical plants. Make the people live with dramatically less electricity.

No one is serious about global warming until they follow the above. You can blog your heart away but change will not come until we achieve the above. Then and ONLY then will global warming be stopped.

Would Pope Benedict end the suicidal ban on birth control? Isn't biospheric sucide by human overpopulation a sin?

Cure could also lies in technology.

http://www.livescience.com/technology/070723_solar_paint.html

Trusting the politicians to make decisions about global warming is like trusting the insurance industry to make decisions about our health care. They both suffer from a conflict of interest and a severe lack of ethics.

I agree with RMouse that we will need to take drastic measures, and we need to invest heavily in renewable energy sources. It's only going to get hotter (and in some places, colder if the Gulf Stream stops, which appears likely). So tightening our belts now makes more sense than waiting until the climate is unlivable to tighten our belts. But the human race isn't famous for making sense. Self indulgent is a more accurate description.

If we had any common sense, which we seem to lack on a species level, we would also consider the looming population migrations, and plan for them. But the only plans on the drawing board that I've heard about is the Pentagon beefing itself up to defend our borders. Great. Meanwhile. globalization goes on destroying third world farm economies, the rich continue to run off with our national income with the collaboration of Congress, our infrastructure continues to rot, and the Department of Defense is bankrupting our economy. All we need now is global warming heating up, a worldwide depression, and the news that a major meteor shower is headed for Earth. That would be the perfect storm. Did they really shut down Hubble to save the maintenance money? And why are we hearing that if a meteor was headed for Earth we could use lasers to deflect it?

Many years ago I read that the Mayan calendar predicted a major event - a break in the calendar in about the year 2012. We will see.

@vets, technology got us into this mess; technology will not save us (though it may delay the inevitable).

RMouse and ezeflyer have got it; we need to reduce and in many areas eliminate consumption, and we need to reduce the population.

David Suzuki, a prominent Canadian ecologist, suggested in the 1990s that the Earth could sustain a population of 25 million people, not the current count of ~6.5 billion.

What the world needs is an outbreak of a particularly infectious and nasty ebola virus.

They're saying that the world's population is going to stabilize at 9 billion. How or why? Regardless, as long as the endless worldwide corporate search for cheaper labor continues unabated, poorer laborers will continue to have larger families to increase their labor force and bring home more bacon. Among other things, globalization causes overpopulation.

OK new set of rules...
No kids unless married for at least five years, which means no kids to single moms or dads.
NO marriages until 30 years old.
ONE yes one child per couple.
No living more than 30 minute bicycle ride to work.
NO temp in winter above 68
No temp in air cond less than 74.
Meat one day a week.
Cars must get 50 mpg, speed limit set at 65 mph.
more to come...

Until such time as the United States changes the mission of its Military-Industrial Complex from building "bigger and better" Weapons of Mass Destruction to finding ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating the negative impacts of climate change, bold and decisive American leadership on the global warming front will be nothing more than a hollow shell. Unfortunately, the Bush-Cheney-Rove propaganda machine has convinced the majority of Americans that they have more to fear from terrorist bogeymen than they do from climate change. This is the Bush-Cheney Regime's penultimate crime against humanity!

Shane, technology didn't get us into this mess. Abuse of Technology did.

I don't think the solution should be to kill 6 Billion people as some of the commenters suggested. If it is - will you be willing to volunteer?

The solution is with conservation, and development of clean and cheep alternative energy, public transportation, different food source (eat less meat and more potatoes), build high rising building (Or similar solution which will preserve nature and free up space) etc.

WOW - EEEEEEEE this has REALLY brought the extremists out.

Air travel - yes it does a lot of damage and there really needs to be serious emission controls on aero engines and people will just have to lump the hike in airfares.

Meat - absolutely; people will be a damn sight healthier with less meat in their diet in any case (less diabetes and colon cancer, anyone?)

Population - again yes. Reductions are needed and the question is how to prevent countries such as India, China, Pakistan, Poland or whoever from exporting their overpopulation to wherever will take them while at the same time letting their home population live in squalor and poverty. Will draconian restrictions in immigration help to address this? who knows.....

Outsourcing - it's about time that US (and UK and European...) industry was prohibited from sending their manufacturing abroad (to China especially) in order to save HUGE amounts of money by having goods made under conditions of uncontrolled pollution. There are whole swathes of China where buildings over 100 ft high are invisible in the haze.

Cars - whatever DID happen to the electric car???

BUT it's all about the money - $$$$$$$ is all that matters and it's all that WILL matter even when the ice caps are melted and all the world's major cities (London, Glasgow, Sydney, New York, practically everywhere except Moscow, Berlin and Winipeg) are swamped and millions, billions of people are fighting like dogs all over the planet for a place to lie down and sleep. God help us all.

Impeachment now, then beginning the trial.

However, the trial will take time that is true.

It will be interesting for the American public to see the evidence presented in the prosecution and again in the defense during the trial.

Perhaps we will get to see the US government more clearly.

We have all the time in the world to advance the principles of democracy and work on practicing them.

One thing that ought to keep the Democrats from pursuing impeachment is that we may find that they were very willing collaborators in the crimes of the administration. It thus will make it just as hard to vote for a Democrat as a Republican

So let's have an impeachment and a trial and then let's clean house and find human beings to represent Americans in the Congress and Executive Branch

Any global warmer who does not advocate the IMMEDIATE dismantlement of the civilian aviation industry is not serious about the problem. In just a short time, the Airbus A380 will be flying. Over 2000 new planes have been ordered from Boeing and Airbus, CO2 emmisions are going to skyrocket.

It is FACT that airplanes are the worst, by far, and need to go. Anyone who steps into a plane is far far worse than someone driving a hummer.

And FORGET about electric cars. Where does that electricity come from???? Coal, or natural gas, or maybe Nuclear.

It is up to the politicians to gain support for the total elimination of the aviation industry. The fate of the world rests upon gaining that support. A single Boeing 747 carries 63,000 gallons of fuel and burns it high up in the atmosphere. The A380 will carry close to 80,000 gallons of fuel. There are somewhere near 2,000 747's in service. There are tens of thousands of smaller planes that still carry 20,000 plus gallons of fuel.

High speed rail is a good idea but still emits huge amounts of CO2.

People, we are trying to have our cake AND eat it too. You want less CO2? You NEED less energy.

My dear Rmouse:
Without challenging any of your suggestions, may I add that the single largest source of additional CO2 in the atmosphere is conversion of rainforest (burning, soybeans, cattle, etc.) Not well reported, there are none-the-less several good sources.
lunatic

I LOVE solar power. But the FACT is that we cannot produce more than 10% of the energy we need TODAY with solar or wind power. EVERY year we need 2-3% MORE energy. Solar and Wind are NOT going to get us there people in the time it takes to save the world from global warming.

On July 23rd, 2007 7:34 pm, Takamine2002 said "WOW - EEEEEEEE this has REALLY brought the extremists out."

Not really. These people are realists and pragmatists. The population as a whole is only just waking up to what the environmental crisis is all about, and how it will affect every aspect of all our lives no matter how hard we try to ignore it. The hippies were right in almost everything they said thirty or forty years ago, but they were ridiculed (then and now) and still we fiddle while Rome burns.

For centuries (since the Industrial Revolution) we've been spending a hundred times more than we've earned, and the difference has come from spending our capital. [Emptying our oilfields, catching and eating all the fish, chopping down all the forests, and so on.] Our lives are hugely luxurious, and we don't want to give it up. The lifestyle we enjoy today has always been unsustainable. The longer we delay, the worse it will be for us. Not (just) for our children and theirs, but for us.

The one constant thing about the environmental crisis, and our reaction to it, is that the predictions have all come true years or decades before they were supposed to. When they say it will take a hundred years, think five. The Water Wars and the floods have already begun. If it isn't already too late, NOW is the time to act. Delay costs lives, millions and millions of lives. Many of those lives are human lives; none of them should be dismissed or wasted.

Pattern-chaser

"Who cares, wins"

"BTW, I said electric trains. The only CO2 is when the passengers exhale."

Uh....check where your electricity comes from. Odds are that it comes from coal and/or natural gas. Which produces BILLIONS of tons of CO2.

Electricity needs to be generated from another power source. This is basic physics people.

less than 20% of US power comes from nuclear sources.

I have to insist, I think an important point is being missed. If we don't figure out how to live WITH Global Warming in the meantime, none of the good new technology will matter. Will it? Who will make it, who will buy it, what good will EnergyStar appliences do if 24/7 electricity is a memory? Like it is in Iraq now? We won't have the money to buy the better hightech stuff. We can't even afford it NOW. If I could afford to go solar, I would. But I can't. If I can't afford it now, how will the less fortunate be able to in the future economy? And won't many more of us be less fortunate? Old woodburning, forest foraging, dirty-water-drinking, laundry by hand lives will be the norm. How can it not be? As it is elsewhere, right now. That won't help the environment, or our children. We need to conserve clean water, NOW. We need to enable people to live, more cleanly and conservatively, in the new environments we'll be facing. Or the rest of this is just happy talk.

If we don't plan now, the human race might be a memory after Global Warming. And the planet will chug along just fine without us. Some might think that's not a bad thing. But if that's the case, what are we really talking about? Saving the planet or saving ourselves?

If we only care about the planet, and the many other animal species dying off, all we have to do is let the human race run it's course. In effect, do nothing and let the human race decline. We're taking ourselves out just fine.

Eliminate 95+% of military pollution machine. Tax the sh*t out of fuel inefficient vehicles, give tax credits for buying most fuel efficient vehicles. Tax the sh*t out of energy consuming mcmansions. Provide FREE electric vehicle transportation, ration gas, tax the sh*t out of air travel, particularly for people who travel multiple times yearly and for weekend getaways. Limit household electricity use. Provide free or heavily subsidized public transportation, paid by taxing private vehicles. Subsidize locally grown foods and tax the sh*t out of imported foods. Restrict or eliminate non essential products like bottled beverages. Tax meat products. Demand carpooling or bicycling.

Was listening to BBC Radio, a program about this very subject...

Although most people agree that their livestyles have exacerbated climate change and understand that they have to drastically alter their consumption priorities, these same people, selfishly and distrustfully, don't want to be the ones to 'go first' and sacrifice for the greater good.

The theme of their arguments go: why should I stop driving my kids to school in my house-sized SUV when Mr+Mrs Blogs still do the same; aren't I just offseting the Blogs' carbon polution rather than making a difference to global temperatures?

The solution to this kind of paradox requires a carrot and stick, from top-down and bottom-up simultaneously. Rewards/taxes from government, status/admonishment from community.

It is already too late!!

RMouse--

You have many things right.

It appears that we will probably have $15/gallon gasoline in the not-too-distant future, though I'm not sure many people grasp what this means.

One thing it means is $15/gallon milk and a commensurate increase in the costs of all other foods--along with everything else. This would mean price increases of 300%-400% in everything. Price increases of that magnitude mean massive social and economic dislocations.

The near-term outcome would be widespread unemployment, as businesses shut down because no one could afford to buy the stuff they were selling, and because they had no one to run the cash registers or stock the shelves, because employees would be unable buy the gasoline to get to work. Or, employees might decide that it didn't make economic sense to work for eight hours in order to earn just enough money to pay for the trip to work and back.

Probably a lot of other things would shut down, besides businesses. Large school districts medical facilities would probably be among them.

In the long term--assuming the rioting and looting eventually subsided because people are able to make other arrangements--truly local economic activity could flourish. Farmers who formerly raised only corn and soybeans would switch to dairy cattle and produce for the local market. People who were able would begin growing their own food.

People might even be able to buy small acreages of farmland because it had become impossible to farm large acreages. It could become economically pointless to own more than 120 acres--which is about as much as you can farm using animal power, assuming you are Amish and have a large family of grown sons.

And maybe local business activity would create enough employment to support the local population.

We might even see the reappearance of one-room school houses, neighborhood schools, and small-town hospitals. There used to be many small-town hospitals until some time in the 1950s. Little towns with a population of as little as 2,000 had their own hospital. One-room schoolhouses used to dot the rural landscape--which is why you can't drive more than a couple of miles in the country without passing Star School Road, or some other School Road.

The long-term outcome could be a blessed re-localization.

The near-term would/will be ugly, until society has time to reorganize. During the transition, lots of unemployed people would end up homeless or unable to pay the heating and electric bills, and unable even to buy food, while they waited for local production of necessities to gear up and local employment to become available.

RMouse and others--

I wouldn't worry too much about legislating all this stuff into existence. The price of fossil fuels is about to head for the moon--and at some point will be reduced to a trickle.

The lifestyles we've become accustomed to are pretty much doomed anyway. But the elites will still be flying around in airplanes and driving around in Hummers long after the rest of us are visiting the neighbors in goat-carts.