Sorry, I didn't choose my words well. Limited was used in the sense of finite. Coal is not a renewable energy source so at some point in the future it will be gone. But I believe you are correct as far as the estimates go. At current consumption rates we should have hundreds of years of coal supply.

Of course some of that is due to the fact that we choose to use other, less-pollutive energy sources such as oil. If at some point we choose use more coal (possibly when the oil is gone) the estimate may change.

Hopefully, we will move towards more renewable and less pollutive energy sources such as solar technology.

Nuclear energy isnt a bad short term solution. It is well contained, efficient and environmentally friendly.

My prof, last year, said that the resources were not a problem. There are many alternatives, it's just that oil is the cheapest right now. Once that runs out - we move on.

Edward Wilson, a professor at Harvard (quite dogmatic in his support of the environmental causes....) believes that we are destroying ourselves as a race. Read The Future of Life .

white trash (or all trash in general) breeds at a much faster rate than normal, intelligent people. A generation or 2 from now the US will be extremely overpopulated with white trash. It starts when they have kids at 16 and then by 25 they have 4 or 5 kids and 15 years later those parents have 20 grandchildren.

I think mandatory abortion should be enforced

I don't think I would categorize nuclear energy as environmentally friendly. Nuclear waste is extremely hazardous.

It comes in small quantities due to the enthalpy of the reaction. Really, when compared to Hydroelectric and coal, it is a godsend. Plus we can launch all that shit into space at a later date.

Of course we are, I never said we aren't. I'm saying the world won't end once we run out of oil.

I actually believe that long-time welfare moms should be sterilized. There should, IMO, be a time limit for welfare benefits. Need short term help? Fine society will help you. Need long term help? Ok, but there is a price you must pay. Anyone who exceeds a reasonable time limit can still receive the benefits but will be sterilized. I don't mind helping someone for a short time until they can support themselves (mistakes do happen) but I don't think that society should allow one to make a career out of having children one cannot afford.

I think the same thing of fathers who knowingly and willingly fail to pay child support.

Can't afford the kids you have? Ok, society will pay for your mistake but society will make sure that offenders have no future mistakes that society has to pay for.

50 years ago, no one could fathom feeding 5 billion people. Ag technology has done wonders. Even if we don't improve technology at all going forward, I'll bet there are millions of people in China and India that will triple or sextuple their productivity once current technology reaches them.

As for the energy thing and pollution, it's cleaner in most American cities than it was 50 years ago. The Third World will catch up eventually.

Once something is recognized as a problem, humans solve it, or at least mitigate it. The only thing we have to fear is a huge, fast-moving surprise.

How Naive... Lets look at the ozone and global warming again.... or the irrepairable damage done to ecosystems?

I'll bet you $50 that we've satisfactorially addressed ozone and global warming issues within 40 years, unless it turns out that they're naturally phenomena outside human control. (And if that's the case, we'll adjust to them.)


And as for irrepairable damaged to ecosystems, define irrepairable. And then define damage. I think that perhaps 1 percent of local damage to local ecosystems can't be fixed within a hundred years, and if that's the case on the local level, it's the case on the global level.


I'm not saying that humans can't screw stuff up. I'm just saying that they can fix their screwups.

Well, look at the 1000x increase in extinction rate for starters...

Cavemen wandered around with mammoths, giant sloths, sabertooth tigers, and all sorts of other animals that don't exist today. Didn't seem to hurt things any.

Extinctions have occurred as long as there have been creatures.

There has been an INCREASE in EXTINCTION by 1000 times. I dont care who you are, you can't contort that statistic into some normality.