Nature pushed to the brink by 'runaway consumption'

If you look around, and your eyes are open - it's not hard to see that this article speaks the truth and is not alarmist at all. It's realist and it's based on data. I am cynical of mankind's ability to turn these problems around. There is too much corruption at the core.

The fact that this article is not the most important news item reflects how far humanity has strayed from its role as the "intelligent" species on the planet. We seem to be devolving rather than evolving.

If you want to read just how far the rabbit hole goes I'd recommend http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/07/climate-change-earth-too-hot-for-humans.html

We are going to suffer badly and we are not doing enough to stop it

But you knew that

The pace of population increase -- long taboo in development and conservation circles

This is another problem. Pollution and global warming wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't so freaking many of us. But nobody will even consider beginning to talk about that.

This is another problem. Pollution and global warming wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't so freaking many of us. But nobody will even consider beginning to talk about that.

Exactly. The very institutions that educate us wire us to constantly fall into the consumerism trap. So much so that we can't even see plain logical thoughts anymore, like looking (ethically!) at populations. Furthermore, the economic model/s that have so corrupted our minds.

I was going to add a comment as soon as I saw the headline but all the above comments sum up very well my own views and feelings to this news.

Scary stuff. Hope we somehow pull it off and survive this century without completely destroying the planet we live on.

Also note that food capacity is already at maximum, so for every 1 degree increase, crop yield drops 10-17 percent. Growing population with depleting food equals chaos to ensue

Get some land. Build an "earthship" go grow your own food, like living in a house garden. Or add a greenhouse, or petition your condo board to allow growing food in the basement parking in order to scale to the need.

We need to get started on projects like these for food security. We can't just instantly grow food, it takes time for the soil to be fertile enough and for the plants to produce viable fruit. A crisis is going to get worse if you're waiting four years for a fruit tree to mature

If we stopped growing useless lawns that take up water and deliver nothing in return and replaced that with growing local food that could help us, and over time greenhouse them as the climate gets worse.

It would at least be a worthwhile project

AgentX

That's why it's so important to have worthwhile projects to work on and supporting those communities rather than just more escapism

A few more "airpocalypse" events in China where the air quality index is lethal at over 800, a few more hurricanes to the US east coast, the forest fires, a few more deadly summers in Europe and around the world are coming no matter what we do now. Those will increase.

While that's going on the action is to act and take that CO2 down from the atmosphere. Make it a WWII-like worldwide imperative.

Let that be our last battlefield

Brazil's Amazon rain forest is truly remarkable. Often referred to as the lungs of the planet, it's no joke. It's so vast and important to us as it supplies 20% of our oxygen. Why would the world allow Brazil to bulldoze it into farms? Economic sanctions should be applied, should we wish to live

Maybe if enough incentives were given to Brazil they would consider those instead. We can only move forward if we're willing to help other countries. Sanctions would be a way to say it is important, but would waste years we don't have to waste on the actions we need to take today

Brazil is an acute example, but are any of our nations really any different? I'm sure we're all doing something stupid too. We all need to start helping each other. Look in the mirror and be honest with ourselves will help us found relationships that matter.

We need a different model that uses the challenges of our nations to forward CO2 removal and create a notion of the environment not as a separate thing but together with every decision

Cooperation removes ignorance and fear and helps us delve into the complexities of our problems.

The latest news is that Brazil, home to the Amazon and said to be the "lungs of the planet", has just elected someone who refers to climate change as "greenhouse fables". A couple of days ago it was 90% of the world's children are breathing toxic air. 92% are exposed to unsafe levels of PM2.5.

Eat less meat, eat less fish, travel less and more efficiently, choose renewables over fossil fuels and perhaps we can delay the worst for a generation or two, if not stop at the brink of disaster. Continue on this path and everyone who knows about it says we are screwed.

fwiw, if it were human nature to want lots of things, advertising would not exist in the form it does.Many of our/my wants are manufactured. Rather than overconsuming through simple stupidity, I think people are brainwashed into it.

kohakuebisuToday  

The latest news is that Brazil, home to the Amazon and said to be the "lungs of the planet", has just elected someone who refers to climate change as "greenhouse fables". A couple of days ago it was 90% of the world's children are breathing toxic air. 92% are exposed to unsafe levels of PM2.5.

Yes I hear he's going to open it up to even more development. This will be a world crisis whether we decide to help Brazil or do nothing and leave them to destroy the Amazon.

Merkel at least was a trained scientist and could garner serious action. I don't think we have any serious leaders left who won't be swayed by industry cashola at some point. Even my PM Trudeau bought a pipeline recently, undermining anything Canada does for decades to come. Yeesh.

Interestingly veganism is catching on though. A ground swell of rebellion against industrial food and our polluted societies. Give going vegan a try for 14 days, you'll feel great and might realize you don't need processed oils, meat, dairy, or fish and it meets all your dietary needs. Eat 1.3 times more food due to low caloric density, no one has to starve themselves. Coming up two years for me. Best health choice I ever made and it turns out to be a huge benefit to the environment as well. Win-win

Life will survive on Earth. Whether humans will is an open question. Evolution may have to start over. But there is hope - Awareness and action.

This is another problem. Pollution and global warming wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't so freaking many of us. But nobody will even consider beginning to talk about that.

Nope, need a few more sensationalist articles how Japan's lowering population will doom the country and the only measure of success for a country is a population that goes up Up UP!

This has been more and more on my mind lately especially after now having a little one myself. How will her future be? I know many people are worried and want to do something about it but where to start? The world is addicted to oil, weapons, money, plastic. Greed and pollution.

A single person cant change a thing, in the meantime I am also at fault. Being lazy and just want to eat my maguro sushi and feast on delicious food. Where to start really.

Madden - the problem in Japan is not the lowering of the population - about 80mill sounds right - but in fact the distorted demographic, whereby a rapidly dwindling number of younger people are required to work and finance the survival of the huge aging population.

Nothing sensational about this at all. It is hard fact reality. Unless there is an immediate increase in the young population, either through increased birth rate or immigration programmes, the population will surely decrease at a remarkable rate, leaving most of society in dire straits.

Sadly Japan (amongst others) has poorly planned / managed for it's future, resulting in this currently looming paradox - the world needs less people meaning Japan need less people, but we need more.

At some point in the future there will be a global demographic implosion of sorts, fuelled by environmental decay, just we don't know as yet what form it will take - but it will.

Actually Japan's past as a closed off country and former recycling society will be interesting in a modern version.

Also if Japan reverted to its traditional food choices and got rid of their exponential meat consumption since the 1960's they'd be better off. Culinary excellence won't make it a hard choice. Diversify their plant farming, improve health outcomes, reduce stress, people would have purpose in their lives. Relocalization wouldn't be boring.

With modern technology can also diversify energy production away from nuclear into biomass/biogas geothermal solar thermal solar panel.

I see a lot of opportunities from Japan. It could be a lot of fun and the lessons learned could help numerous countries

But the oyajis in office seem to be on a deathwish so if they can just get past them, there's a chance. Maybe local cities and towns will have better luck

"Unbridled consumption has decimated global wildlife, triggered a mass extinction and exhausted Earth's capacity to accommodate humanity's expanding appetites"

And China's 1.4 billion people and India's 1.3 billion people are just getting started on consuming. Yikes!

Unbridled consumption has decimated global wildlife, triggered a mass extinction and exhausted Earth's capacity to accommodate humanity's expanding appetites

The whole problem with this is pinning the blame on some Marxist concept of "unbridled consumerism" being the villain. This shows even the people who should be most aware of the problem can't help bringing in their utopian politics - which ensures they will alienate people rather than unite them.

People consume. As so many said above, the problem is unbridled population growth. Far easier to reduce a population than to reduce its consumption.

Not only consumption, the infrastructure boom of the last 50 years is also killing the planet and China and India have barely started their own transportation/infrastructure revolution. Things will only get worse.

Glad I travelled a fair bit cause the world we live in will never be the same again. Memories (& Bruce Parry's docos) are all that's left.

we have enough food to feed the world. it's corporate inequity that prevents it

And China's 1.4 billion people and India's 1.3 billion people are just getting started on consuming. Yikes!

Wise words indeed. They are all going to want fridges, cars, cameras, air-con etc.

Part of me is often glad that I'll be dead in 50 years, the planet needs a new epoch without us.

It is inevitable that humanity would increase its consumption of resources. When I was born, just after WW II, there were fewer than 2.5 billion people. Today there are more than 7.6 billion people. Just for humanity to have kept the annual consumption of resources at what it was then, we would each have to consume less than 1/3rd of what an individual consumed back then. Even if we are able to stop global warming, and that is by no means assured, finding the means to supply all people with the necessities and pleasures of life will be a monumental task.

@papigiulio, you ask where to start. You already have; recognition of a problem, personal or otherwise, is the first step to action.

To the rest of the commenters on this subject who mention consumerism and advertising, as a former ad agency owner who is thankful for the generous income that profession gave to me, I must admit that the power of marketing is not all that good. We don't need half the sh*t we own, and my own household is a prime example of that. So, as I mentioned to 'papigiulio', I've recognized my own problematic contribution and will begin to divest.

I'm also a gardener, by the way, and annually cultivate 200 sq. meters of produce for me, my friends, and neighbours.

Nothing sensational about this at all. It is hard fact reality. Unless there is an immediate increase in the young population, either through increased birth rate or immigration programmes, the population will surely decrease at a remarkable rate, leaving most of society in dire straits.

Or unless there are anti aging drugs and rejuvenation therapies which will become available in the next few years that will be able to prolong life in a healthy state effectively indefinitely. I'm not all that pessimistic at all when that is combined with more human injenuity like lab grown foods, especially meat, and the decrease of livestock/animal agriculture....etc.