"It's worse than we thought." Sound familiar?

[GliderGuider]

64. I am one of those who think that the worst-case scenarios are the dominant probability.

Last edited Mon Nov 12, 2012, 07:48 PM - Edit history (2)

I think it's virtually certain that we (the global "we&quot will do nothing whatsoever about carbon mitigation; that climate change, methane feedbacks, extreme weather, ocean acidification, crop losses, genomic disruptions, peak oil, an ongoing global economic recession and international political dysfunction will team up within the next two to three decades to give humanity the biggest kick in the head we've had since Toba.

I think that this scenario is unavoidable, that people have the right to be psychologically prepared for it, and that people like Light and McPherson and I have not only the right but a responsibility to talk about it.

Hemp is great for smoking, but it suffers from massive problems of scale when compared to the 12 million tonnes of oil, 21 million tonnes of coal and 8 million tonnes of natural gas we consume each and every day. We consume 15 billion tonnes of fossil fuels per year. Hemp yields 4 tonnes of biomass and between 15 and 100 gallons (0.3 to 2.5 bbl) of oil per acre. Do the math.

Not to mention that high yields require intensive fertilization, with all the issues of soil depletion, fertilizer runoff and habitat devastation that come along with industrial agriculture.

The idea of using hemp to replace fossil fuels is a pipe dream. I'd rather see us legalize marijuana than try that.

There are no solutions to our predicament that do not involve two things: the massive reduction of human "economic" activity and the massive reduction of our population.