I tend to agree with your opinion about timing; events may proceed slower than he predicts. However if methane increases much, things could go faster.
I don’t see how we can decommission the reactors; it takes too long and costs too much.
David
This is a very important topic, and a great post.
Regarding the overpopulation problem, I suggest that it is not necessary for all 7.8 billion people to participate in reducing the world population. Many people speak of the overpopulation issue as if it’s a problem equally spread throughout the world. But the reproduction rate of the natural citizens of many countries is either declining or has been somewhat of a flat line since the last World War. The elephant in the room is the exploding birth rates of African countries. These countries cannot feed and support their populations and have sought, and received, monetary aid from other nations for many years. And yet, I am not aware of any government requiring that the African countries take control of their situation. Other nations continue to give money to African countries and don’t effectively mentor them to help their people become self sufficient and responsible. Other countries don’t effectively work with them to help them control their exploding populations. Offering free birth control for example, especially for every female of child bearing age, would be one simple and inexpensive step, and would also help to curb the incidence of child pregnancies resulting from rapes of young girls, and of child brides. A series of reward systems could be set up to facilitate the goal of population reduction and other improvements, both for the governments and for individuals. These could include financial aid, education programs, gifts etc. But by simply giving money and medicine to these countries in the absence of birth control, education, and mentoring, the rest of the world is enabling the problem to continue.
It’s interesting that reform worked on a local level in 1910 when socialist kicked corrupt politicians out of Milwaukee. They ran on good government and balanced budgets.
Then their ideas were co opted by the New Deal Democrats, who unfortunately had no commitment to fiscal responsibility and were plagued by a history of government corruption (Daily, Hoffa, Tammany Hall).
onmilwaukee.com/history/articles/americas-socialist-experiment-film-pbs.html
So perhaps the alternative is to take our lives back one small city at a time. It’s true that large cities have to unfairly appropriate provisions from the hinterlands under the current system. Perhaps smaller cities with access to local food and other resources could try such systems.
Looking at some of the things Milwaukee did local between 1910 and 1950, perhaps there are a few examples of old practices we could model from. What it requires is honest politicians who can balance a checkbook and who look to the interests of main street, not wall street. Take a look at the summary on the link. I’m not sure you can see the full video unless it’s running on your local PBS.
Yep, I have been saying this for years. We are dumbing down significantly. The most intelligent population is having less and less kids and the dumbers are having more and and more… Intellect has to be receding … no other way about it,
JWhite, yes, good idea. However, the goal here is to reduce the population to 750 million people and quickly, I don’t see where that’s remotely possible until someone comes up with a virus that can’t be controlled. Oh wait!, Dr. Fauci tried this already, we are living in this nightmare scenario and it hasn’t gone as he supposed it would. Darn it. I cannot believe he is still walking around. Peace
I tend to agree with your opinion about timing; events may proceed slower than he predicts. However if methane increases much, things could go faster.
I don’t see how we can decommission the reactors; it takes too long and costs too much.
We seem to think along similar lines David. I agree methane is a significant consideration. The frequently postulated 50 gigatonne ‘burp’ is a wild card that could erupt at any moment. However the likelihood of it occurring in say, the next 5 years, could well be lower than Guy thinks. Again he seems to have latched on to the most alarming data and discounted what doesn’t fit his narrative. Have you seen any of Peter Wadhams Youtube talks? - he is Cambridge Professor of Polar Ocean Physics and seems like a voice of reason to me. He concludes also that we are past the point of no return and now and the only way out is to sequester massive volumes of carbon.
The nuclear issue is also one that has concerned me. This is a bitter pill for those of us who initially thought a collapse out of industrial civilization could see a recovery of the natural environment and a diminished number of humans once again living in harmony with nature. Fat chance of that; We seem hellbent on wiping ourselves off the face of the planet along with all creatures larger than a mouse.
I believe intelligence was an evolutionary mistake. (humans are the only species that have it) Consider that most species that move around have excellent eyes, ears, smell, locomotion etc. buy not intelligence. Intelligence allowed us to defeat the forces of evolution; we simply don’t like those “survival of the fittest” forces so we figured out how to beat them. Thus, we destroyed our habitat or will destroy what is left. Nature eliminates evolutionary mistakes. Always has. The population explosion is a result of all of these things. Let’s tell it like it is.
Your ideas simply do not work to reduce populations, comprised of poorly educated and mystically controlled individuals. If one’s culture and religion and traditions fight against your solution of using volitional birth control, it will not be effective in reducing said population.
If birth control is then made mandatory in this population by their current government, that government would shortly be overthrown for doing so.
If you try to educate people in an effort to alter their religious beliefs and social folkways, they will conclude this “foreign” effort to destroy their traditions is simply a plot to destroy their culture and depopulate them…which such efforts ARE. The schools will burn and the teachers killed by the local leaders with the aid of their followers.
We tried all your notions way back in the 1960s & 70s…
The only way to reduce the human population is via targeted diseases…that is…IF you wish to avoid political responsibility for the resulting deaths, which can be managed much easier than using any other means of population reduction.
Back in the 1950s, we thought of just using nuclear weapons to control Third-World populations…using them here and there…as needed. Luckily, a unified consensus for doing this never manifested and the idea was dropped.
Now, with the advent of advanced biological sciences, those wishing to act to reduce our population no longer NEED A CONSENSUS to do so. It is not even necessary to inform those outside of one’s organization of your population reduction plan, or activity. And, the ability to shelter your efforts in doubt and confusion offer one a concealing fog in which to dwell…let alone the power of having the ONLY cure brings.
Since most of Humanity is far less intelligent than is required for volitional agreements to work, volition shall not be required of them. They will simply be managed by engineered pathogens they can never hope to cope with, or, escape from.
It is true. The more unintelligent a woman is, the more children they are likely to have, and the more intelligent…the less they shall bare. Thus, more and more people become dependent upon less and less people to solve problems, create fixes to issues, and to sustain their lives…right up until things fall apart…and Evolution acts.
Methane “burp” from somewhere in Siberian Arctic: recent temp there 100–increasing likelihood in the short-term (We Can’t Breath)
Aerosol Masking: this will be tested this Summer as the Sun heats up the surface and diurnal variation churns the lower atmosphere making pretty T-storms and tornado or completely dries out the moisture. BBQ anyone?
As the arctic heats the lessening variation of temps between the arctic and equator is slowing the jet stream. This in turn will cause it to meander and widen, (“which way did it go George?”–Looney Tunes)
What about equatorial heating, oops we’re ignoring that.
Economic systems (Capitalism primarily) evolved to benefit greed for the few at the expense of the many, have become very complex and therefore fragile. The inevitable cycles of greed, and or debt which religions have warned against starts turning, not once, not twice, not three times but apparently (according to bean counters) four times. “Who’s going to do the dirty-work when the slaves are free?”–Joni Mitchell
Let the famines begin, loose the dogs of War, but first listen to your spouse and take out the garbage and bring in the mail.
State initiated violence in the 20th century resulted in the deaths of over 200 million people. Add to that the Spanish flu which added at least 50 million and you are close to 300 million added deaths.
That should give some idea of the scale necessary to reduce population since with those numbers in mind we are still at 7.8 billion and counting. We are adding the population of the US every 4-5 years. I seem to remember a concept here called TIME, SCALE, COST
Maybe they should be educating men. LOL
When in India I have a family that is our watch(men/women) The family is composed of a father , mother and 6 children. The mother did not want 6 children she only want 2. She had no say in the matter. The entire family is illiterate. They are tribal people. The children are following the same pattern.
I have worked for over 2o years in India, Ghana, Argentina, and the Dominican Republic. The story is identical. Few of these people have access to the cheap energy slaves that most of us do. ie. fossil fuels. Manual labor is far more prevalent. Land is plowed with animals using animals and wooden plows. There is no social safety net. There is no social security. Social security comes in the form of children taking care of the parents in old age. There is no crop insurance. If the crop fails there are real consequences. A little anecdote; We primarily work with education and medical care. I always go into the classrooms and look at the children’s work. I went into a 7th standard class in India and picked up one of a girls note books. She had written an essay about her life. It included stories of farmers committing suicide. Does anyone in the US expect to read a 7th grader’s notebook telling about farmer suicide?
In many poor countries people survive by animal husbandry. Goats in particular are very prevalent. They are a double edge sword. They are able to eat just about everything, and do. Biomass is used for cooking and heating.
The very first Indian girl I sponsored has graduated from college. She will not have six children. Is it enough? Probably not. Is it something? Yes. If we take some of the resources we donate to China through Walmart and apply them to the issue then maybe a critical mass might be able to achieve some change.
I am not optimistic. I have lived with the problem. The alternatives on the other hand , which are pretty much guaranteed are not very appetizing. The problem of resource depletion is not so much a problem of the third or developing world but the first world. The US is less than 5% of the world’s population and consumes 25% of the the resources. Add other western countries, Japan, China etc. and there is not much left for the poor.
If you think population is the problem you have a choice to be either be part of the problem or part of the solution. Of course it is a predicament with no solution only coping mechanisms.
Also, while I don't dispute that the system rigged to encourage concentrating wealth, evenly distributing wealth means - ipso facto - shooting productivity in the head.It's not about evenly distributing wealth, which everyone except die hard socialists agrees doesn't work. It's about preventing runaway wealth concentration. I'm sure there are many trillionaires in the world we aren't told about. Reducing them back down to mere multi-millionaires is a far cry from evenly distributing wealth. The heart of the "solution" is a wealth tax. A wealth tax is not about punishing profit -- far from it. It would actually punish capital gains and profit less than taxation today does. I'd go so far as to say that it would actually encourage profits. This is because people lower down on the wealth scale would not pay any tax at all. They wouldn't pay tax until they become wealthy. It would be the ultimate boost for Main Street. Currently, income and capital gains taxes specifically target profit -- unless you are rich and can afford lawyers to help you use loopholes. So, essentially, today's taxation system punishes profit by Main Street, and rewards profit by Wall Street. It rewards the freeloaders at the top.
some people, and some cultures, encourage wealth creation and some just squander resources and "poke holes in the bottom of the boat": feeling entitled to receive more than they produce through the whole of their lives.The best part about a system based on a wealth tax is that those lazy people would not succeed so well as today. There wouldn't be a need for massive social welfare programs in a wealth tax system. Because people would only be taxed once they reach near-ridiculous levels of wealth, with excess assets then being sold off into the market, assets such as land, houses, anything really, would be affordable for everyone due to simple supply and demand forces. But you'd need to get a job to afford them first. And wages and the work week would automatically adjust via market forces to provide liveable wages for everyone who wants to work. This all sounds nice but I'm not naive since the only way a wealth tax would be implemented would be by the elites who are in control. Since the wealth tax would specifically target them, it won't happen. Instead expect to see some phony wealth taxes (in name only) implemented which actually just target the middle class and allow the elites to use loopholes to again avoid paying taxes. But it's important to start spreading the message now about what a proper wealth tax entails and how it works so it becomes more widely understood and accepted for what it is and why the current system based on income tax will inevitably fail.
This entire post ignores the basic reality of human population growth:
- Humans are animals. Like all animals, we breed until we fill our environment. If certain people decide not to for some personal reason, no problem. Nobody will miss you. Just don’t expect anyone else to go extinct willingly.
- Humans are still growing in population, and thus (by definition) have not yet filled our environment. We will only know we have hit this limit when death due to resource depletion occurs.
- The only way to restrict natural population growth is a) by force within a political structure (like China does), AND b) closed borders to prevent growing populations from coming in (like Japan has).
- Give up trying to “persuade” people from restricting children. Somebody will always wish to have large families. Check out Africa or the Amish.
- Give up trying to “educate” women to not breed. This may work for some Western women, but only for so long; for example, when you look at large families in the US, it’s bimodal as both poor/uneducated women AND wealthy/well-educated women tend to have >2.1 children. This is basic Darwinian logic, and totally predictable.
- If anyone wants to restrict population growth in the USA (give up trying to enforce this over the whole world, esp Africa), the only practical solution I can posit is to A) build a massive border wall with zero immigration, and then B) pass draconian laws against having >2.1 children. Good luck with that! As for myself, I’d possibly go along with A, but promise you that I (and nearly all people like myself) will fight you tooth and nail on on B, with violence if necessary.
Interesting question about how to raise IQ. Before he died he was working on computer software to increase human intelligence and creativity.
Perhaps there is a parallel need to increase heart. Perhaps achieving a balance of IQ and heart is a useful goal.
Planfortomorrow – thanks for sharing your opinion – not everyone will agree on solutions as we try to solve all the problems of the world 
I did read of Ision’s solution of releasing deadly pathogens until the desired world population level has been achieved, but I confess I’m not overly enthusiastic about it. One problem is that it could kill me, you, and/or our families. It seems doubtful that someone, or a group, would purposely release such pathogens, partly due to the risk that the plan could also come back to affect them, and/or their loved ones.
Of course, Africa isn’t the only area with high birth rates, where religion, personal beliefs or superstitions, and simple failure to take conscious decisions results in overpopulation. Since most other countries have flat or declining birth rates, I believe the other nations need to focus a spotlight on these specific areas and pressure them to take action.
Even the simplest of people respond to incentives and rewards where they can get things they need and want in return for behaviour modification. This is true for leaders and citizens, men and women, boys and girls. And what 12 year old girl would not take a tablet or other form of birth control if it would prevent her from suffering the consequences of rape? What 17 year old girl would not wish to avoid having more children if she’s given birth to 3 or 4 already, especially if they can’t be afforded? I like the idea of education of girls too, although many females in overpopulated countries with exploding birth rates do not have the freedom to make their own choices and it is the man or men in their life who make the decisions. So in poor countries where richer nations are already giving generously, incentives and gifts (and the withholding of them) could be used to motivate and effect change among males as well as females, and made a condition of receiving the aid and gifts. Also, religion needs to take a back seat here, and it is possible to effect this – it happened with the Roman Catholic religion, where very large families were the norm a few decades ago but now attitudes have changed.
It may not happen as quickly as you’d like, but it could be a good start.
Peace to you as well….
Like the blind men and the elephant we are all holding a part of the elephant.
My part of the elephant is the sacred. I have been blessed to live among indigenous people. It has shaped my perspective in profound ways.
This site presents a very specific paradigm. It is based on the three E’s. It is a very mechanistic view which enables one to make sense of a mechanistic world. It is a map but it is not the terrain nor is it the journey or goal. The human condition, progress(regression lol) cannot be encapsulated in charts.
Western mechanistic culture has come to be the dominant paradigm on the planet. If this post is any indication it does not appear to be working to well. Most of the “solutions” proposed are mechanistic. It would seem that doing or operating in ways that got us here is not going to get us out of here…
Western culture sees things through the lens of competition. It is very Darwinian. It is survival of the fittest. I got mine , I don’t care if you got yours. (ex. Black Friday) Indigenous culture views life through cooperation. There was once an experiment where a group of “anglo students were given a test. They all dutifully sat in their desks, all in a row and worked the test. A group of Native American students were given the same test and they immediately arranged the desks in a circle and worked the test together. They got 100%. The concept is we all pass together or we fail together. A completely different paradigm.
Individual property ownership is a uniquely mechanistic paradigm. It is inconceivable to indigenous culture to “own” the earth. It separates us from not only our mother but each other. The idea of tribal land joined the tribe to the mother. It joined the people to the sacred. There is nothing that is not alive. Everything in creation has its place.
A Lakota elder once asked me , “Do you know why the white man uses a chainsaw to cut down a tree?” I said “no why.” " Because he does not want to hear it scream”
At one time we walked directly on the earth. We slept directly on the earth. We now walk with shoes and sleep on beds and insulate ourselves from the earth.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3265077/#:~:text=Earthing%20(or%20grounding)%20refers%20to,the%20ground%20into%20the%20body.
The mechanistic paradigm relying on competition as it does has made a point to eliminate any and all competitors. Those competitors are the indigenous people. Those people who hold the all life is one, that we are all connected, that none of us makes it if we all don’t make it. Ishi was the last known member of the Yahi tribe in California. They were wiped out in the 18th century. Tens of millions of Native Americans were killed and the survivors placed in gulags. The Aborigines of Australia, the Maori, the Polynesians, the Bushmen of Africa and more have been crushed by the global mechanistic paradigm.
Thom Hartmann in his book “Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight” posits at the end that perhaps where our future lies is in a return to small tribal groups. The knowledge necessary for such an existence is rapidly disappearing. We are rapidly depleting the resources all species need to live. We are displacing and causing the extinction of numerous species. Anecdote; I often visit a valley in India called Tiger Valley. Less than a 100 years ago there were numerous Bengal tigers. There has not been a tiger there in decades. There is now a water park at the top.
I was once involved with a group studying the differences between "modern " society and indigenous ones. We looked at many different elements from, education to art, to politics and war, religion and everything in between. It was really quite striking just in the area the knowledge of the bioregion where people lived. Indigenous people knew all the flora and fauna. Very few modern people know those very important items and it is left to experts like entomologists, zoologists, etc.
There was a great schism in western thought in relation to nature. St Benedict the founder of western monasticism was concerned with stewardship. St Francis was concerned with living in harmony with nature. It is clear which one dominates.
The Hopi have a word for the current state of affairs. It is Koyaanisqatsi. It means life out of balance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4MXPIpj5sA&t=442s
The Hopi have prophecies about our situation.
https://sacredland.org/hopi-prophecy/
https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-americas/hopi-prophecy-and-end-fourth-world-part-1-002280
They are well worth paying attention to.
Specifics are good to discuss but imho the macro means a return to the sacred. An understanding that all is one. That there are many different paradigms and they all have hold of a different part of the elephant. There are other ways of knowing besides logic and reason. Mysticism is just as valid. Just as humanity first functioned by instinct then moved to reason, we are now moving into the age of intuition. It is not an easy transition and clearly painful. Maybe to move into the future we need to look to the past, which is still barely here.
“5. Give up trying to “educate” women to not breed. This may work for some Western women, but only for so long; for example, when you look at large families in the US, it’s bimodal as both poor/uneducated women AND wealthy/well-educated women tend to have >2.1 children. This is basic Darwinian logic, and totally predictable.”
You completely miss the point. Educating women “not to breed” is almost certainly destined to fail. Merely educating women in a general sense is the point. The more education people undertake, the more likely they are to pursue professions that make having children inconvenient. They are frequently less likely to marry, and when they do they are frequently two income households with both partners doing what it takes to advance in their professions.
Among my social group are many Ph.D.s, many Masters and virtually all have at least Bachelor’s degrees. There are surprisingly few children among them. None of the couples I can think of off hand have more than two children. Many have none. None were coerced to not have children. All were the result of personal choices. The average overall is well below replacement. I don’t think my experience is unusual. We are not controlled by hormones to reproduce endlessly.
BTW, where did you get that stat of everyone averaging >2.1 children?
I understand your fears and concerns regarding the use of pathogens for population control. However, I must point out this technique is already in use, and shall continue to be in use, until the goal is achieved.
You see, the managers of the “Plandemics” are not afraid of their released diseases, as they are protected from their effects, due to the prior development of nucleotide serums, which alter certain abilities of the pathogen…even though this same pathogen cannot be defended against via vaccines.
Any such effort to cull population numbers would include safeguards against political fallout, such as allowing the pathogen to manifest worldwide. No Nation would be free of the pathogen to make it stand out and be suspect, as the managers make a great show of trying to fight the pathogen and provide substantial aid in the international efforts to create an effective vaccine (even if they already know no vaccine is possible.)
This is just the Confusion Game at work.
Behind the scenes, the cure for the managed pathogen is used to obtain cooperation and achieve other goals, besides population reduction. Further, the use of bio-weapon population control is effective to prevent such things as nuclear exchanges and avert a nuclear holocaust.
As I have said, do not waist your time fretting about population control, Global Warming, or your Carbon Footprint. Just concentrate on the next six months and what you might do if your electricity no longer works…and do your best.
The Future will be exactly as it shall be…
Chris,
Maybe you are already going to address this in your video that you release today, but in case you hadn’t seen it, I am wondering if you think these calculations are legit? I am also wondering if it’s actually as “safe” out there as a lot of people are seeming to think it is. I personally don’t, I think we’ve got to see what happens after all the roits and people being out in the street. But would love to hear your take on it, as different parts of the US have vastly different curves. Would also love to know if there is any further evidence about the virus mutating and losing it’s leathality, as you mentioned in a recent video. Case rate vs death rate.
https://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2020/06/22/mass-lowest-covid-transmission-rat?fbclid=IwAR0lHV8tyZBgt8lxzr-SrUVAZI_7XVx-h-VzQ4OgHVAyJIzdV8R_sV-P9oc