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Eric Webb

The World at 7 Billion: Can We Stop Growing Now? by Robert Engelman: Yale Environment 360 - 1 views

shared by Eric Webb on 18 Jul 11 - No Cached
  • Did someone just remark that these impacts don’t stem from our population, but from our consumption?
    • Eric Webb
       
      Why might our consumption of natural resources be more problematic in the future as countries like India and China become more developed?
  • It’s as though a geometry text were to propound the axiom that it is not length that determines the area of a rectangle, but width.
    • Eric Webb
       
      I think this is a great analogy for environmental problems in general. There are usually more than just one root cause for the problem. It's often multiple causes working in conjunction that create the issue. Thoughts?
  • It is precisely because our population is so large and growing so fast that we must care, ever more with each generation, how much we as individuals are out of sync with environmental sustainability.
    • Eric Webb
       
      Do you really think that your generation is more out of sync with environmental sustainability than your parents generation?
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  • Fresh water is now shared so thinly that the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) projects that in just 14 years two thirds of the world’s population will be living in countries facing water scarcity or stress. Half of the world’s original forests have been cleared for human land use, and UNEP warns that the world’s fisheries will be effectively depleted by mid-century. The world’s area of cultivated land has expanded by about 13 percent since its measurement began in 1961, but the doubling of world population since then means that each of us can count on just half as much land as in 1961 to produce the food we eat.
    • Eric Webb
       
      These figures suggest that we haven't been living sustainably on this planet for some time. Why is the Industrial Revolution often blamed for this nonsustainable lifestyle? Could the Agricultural Revolution be more at fault?
  • We can elevate the autonomy of women to make life-changing decisions for themselves. We can lower birth rates by assuring that women become pregnant only when they themselves decide to bear a child.
    • Eric Webb
       
      Is this easy to do? Are there countries/people groups whose culture will have to change in order for this to take place? How easy is it to change culture and whose culture is actually right?
  • Simultaneously, we need a swift transformation of energy, water, and materials consumption through conservation, efficiency, and green technologies.
    • Eric Webb
       
      How quickly is our country moving to green forms of energy? What/who is holding us back?
  • No human being has the right to consume forever more than any other.
    • Eric Webb
       
      Do you agree with this statement?
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