Saving the planet

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The real root cause of environmental issues is surely the continuing massive rise in the world’s population. Too many babies are being born worldwide - a situation that has been largely sidestepped for generations. Land use is now a competition between trees, agriculture, housing, leisurely and recreation, transport infrastructure and energy. Meanwhile people make celebrities of families with 9 or 22 children.

[Bryn]

The real root cause of environmental issues is surely the continuing massive rise in the world’s population. Too many babies are being born worldwide - a situation that has been largely sidestepped for generations. Land use is now a competition between trees, agriculture, housing, leisurely and recreation, transport infrastructure and energy. Meanwhile people make celebrities of families with 9 or 22 children.

And, all too often, those people elect such parents to high office.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Thanks for the tip EH. (The shares were not in the company you suggested.) Hope the Equiniti route isn't too complicated for a dumbo like me!

If by any chance it’s Aviva I think Equinti are their brokers . They are also Barclays. I also have these tiny amounts of shares as a result of various takeovers of building societies. I’d rather they’d kept the mutuals going to be honest

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

And, all too often, those people elect such parents to high office.

Exactly

[Pulcinella]

The real root cause of environmental issues is surely the continuing massive rise in the world’s population. Too many babies are being born worldwide - a situation that has been largely sidestepped for generations. Land use is now a competition between trees, agriculture, housing, leisurely and recreation, transport infrastructure and energy. Meanwhile people make celebrities of families with 9 or 22 children.

Boris doesn't have quite that many, does he?

[ahinton]

The real root cause of environmental issues is surely the continuing massive rise in the world’s population. Too many babies are being born worldwide - a situation that has been largely sidestepped for generations. Land use is now a competition between trees, agriculture, housing, leisurely and recreation, transport infrastructure and energy. Meanwhile people make celebrities of families with 9 or 22 children.

But without mass culling it is likely that the population will never fall as long as measures are successfully developed to deal with major diseases with the consequence that human life expectancy rises to a point at which death other than by war, accident or crime becomes a "lifestyle" choice; although "death and taxes" were once cited as inevitabilities, the latter is widely avoided so why not also the former?...

[ahinton]

Boris doesn't have quite that many, does he?

Who knows? He for one probably doesn't...

[Pulcinella]

Who knows? He for one probably doesn't...

[smittims]

I expect the population will fall eventually, and slowly, when climate change makes the equatorial and tropical areas of the planet uninhabitable, resulting in mass migrations many times larger than at present, and an awful lot of fighting with those who don't want to let them in. Then there will be a lot of disease and 'survival of the fittest' until human and mammal life at least , gradually dies out. After that, I hope, the birds and insects will start it all again, and make a better job than we have.

You'll have gathered from this that I believe humanity will fail in its current attempt to reverse climate change. I think it's already too late, as not enough people care. There are still too many people burning fossil fuel, too many governments continuing with civil engineering projects which should have been cancelled .

I won't see this as I'll be well out of the way by then , but I feeel sorry for my grandsons' generation. Even in fifty years' time I expect the world will be very different.

[ahinton]

I expect the population will fall eventually, and slowly, when climate change makes the equatorial and tropical areas of the planet uninhabitable, resulting in mass migrations many times larger than at present, and an awful lot of fighting with those who don't want to let them in. Then there will be a lot of disease and 'survival of the fittest' until human and mammal life at least , gradually dies out. After that, I hope, the birds and insects will start it all again, and make a better job than we have.

You'll have gathered from this that I believe humanity will fail in its current attempt to reverse climate change. I think it's already too late, as not enough people care. There are still too many people burning fossil fuel, too many governments continuing with civil engineering projects which should have been cancelled .

I won't see this as I'll be well out of the way by then , but I feeel sorry for my grandsons' generation. Even in fifty years' time I expect the world will be very different.

Interesting thoughts. The reversal of climate change is indeed a vexed question, with undue fossil fuel use a major factor but, whilst success in this field certainly remains open to some doubt, researches continue which could result in measures of which we can so far know little and so I would temper any pessimism with mindfulness of that.

Mass migration will almost certainly occur, principally from the southern hemisphere to the northern and it seems inevitable that climate migrants will vastly exceed those of refugees from political and military actions, a point which governments in relatively stable countries, especially in Europe, need to take on board and for which they need to prepare. On the other hand, developments in medicalo science such as T-cell and stem cell therapies, gene altering, genetic modification and the like (and no, I admit to knowing VERY little about any of that!) could well come to halt the spread of the disease factor that ou mention, although these will almost certainly come with potential political risks and consequences.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

But without mass culling it is likely that the population will never fall as long as measures are successfully developed to deal with major diseases with the consequence that human life expectancy rises to a point at which death other than by war, accident or crime becomes a "lifestyle" choice; although "death and taxes" were once cited as inevitabilities, the latter is widely avoided so why not also the former?...

Population reduction would fall naturally if parents were to stop at two. It would affect the way economies would need to be run. The current policy of pryramid growth would need to be revised. And yes, there would be a financial cost.

[vinteuil]

.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Robert_Malthus

... there is a rather fine memorial to him in Bath Abbey

.

[Old Grumpy]

Boris doesn't have quite that many, does he?

Someone -Smugg might!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Someone -Smugg might!

Rees-Mogg has 6. Boris has 7 (approx)

[Serial_Apologist]

Dartmoor has plenty of Sitka spruce plantations used in paper and musical instrument manufacture. They are ugly (in my view) but if the energy consultants are to be believed sequester more carbon per acre than broadleaf (twice as much ) . Hardly surprising as they are so densely planted.

One of the drawbacks of conifer plantations of any kind is not just reduced light levels at ground level, but acidification of soil from the dropping of the needles. Wander around any confier wood; the most apparent initial impression is one of lack of undergrowth of any kind. This in turn deprives the ground surface of flora and fauna making up for a rich ecosystem on nutrient-rich soil, whose detrimental consequences serve to imbalance any ecological benefits overall in terms of carbon capture, I would have thought.