Draining the Earth's Battery

[Beaker]

Humans viewing the Earth as a resource rather is rapidly pushing us past the carrying capacity of the planet. This article uses the metaphor of a battery to help illustrate in more understandable terms. Scientists understand that you pass carrying capacity BEFORE there is a crash. It takes awhile, but once that point is passed, a crash is inevitable...even if things seem ok for a time after the point is passed. The problem is, humans will not change as long as they are comfortable. They will not change until forced to change. The sad part is, once that tipping point is passed, there will be a huge price to pay despite any change. There will be literally millions of lives lost.

http://www.resilience.org/stories/2015-08-11/the-earth-s-battery-is-running-low?ref=yfp

[CageTheBengal]

(08-11-2015, 12:21 PM)Beaker Wrote: Humans viewing the Earth as a resource rather is rapidly pushing us past the carrying capacity of the planet. This article uses the metaphor of a battery to help illustrate in more understandable terms. Scientists understand that you pass carrying capacity BEFORE there is a crash. It takes awhile, but once that point is passed, a crash is inevitable...even if things seem ok for a time after the point is passed. The problem is, humans will not change as long as they are comfortable. They will not change until forced to change. The sad part is, once that tipping point is passed, there will be a huge price to pay despite any change. There will be literally millions of lives lost.

http://www.resilience.org/stories/2015-08-11/the-earth-s-battery-is-running-low?ref=yfp

Yup. Why deal with a problem unless you absolutely have to? Let the next generation deal with it.

[Hoofhearted]

And to make it worse, they make movies about said things (2012, day after tomorrow, etc) and people are in "aww" with what it would potentially be like. Now if we could actually do something about it to help prevent this from potentially happening...

[BengalHawk62]

I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You're a plague and we are the cure.

[6andcounting]

Batteries become completely drained all the time. Just throw it away and buy a new one. Problem solved.

[Tiger Teeth]

(08-11-2015, 12:58 PM)BengalHawk62 Wrote: I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You're a plague and we are the cure.

[fredtoast]

(08-11-2015, 12:58 PM)BengalHawk62 Wrote: There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You're a plague and we are the cure.

To take this analogy up another level.....

Humans were still in equilibrium with the resources of this planet until we punctured the surface and started using fossil fuels.

Petroleum based fertilizers enabled us to grow more food so that the population could continue to grow.

Petroleum and coal powered industry propelled human growth and resource consumption in an exponential curve.

So things didn't get bad until the virus broke through the surface and got "into" the planet.

[XenoMorph]

There is a gaint ball of fire visible every day that could provide more energy than we could ever hope to use. And they had tech that used it 300 years ago.... But it wasnt profitable so here we are.

[*Awful Llama*]

(08-11-2015, 06:09 PM)XenoMorph Wrote: There is a gaint ball of fire visible every day that could provide more energy than we could ever hope to use. And they had tech that used it 300 years ago.... But it wasnt profitable so here we are.

This giant ball of fire will kill us all!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

[Interceptor]

(08-11-2015, 12:21 PM)Beaker Wrote: Humans viewing the Earth as a resource rather is rapidly pushing us past the carrying capacity of the planet. This article uses the metaphor of a battery to help illustrate in more understandable terms. Scientists understand that you pass carrying capacity BEFORE there is a crash. It takes awhile, but once that point is passed, a crash is inevitable...even if things seem ok for a time after the point is passed. The problem is, humans will not change as long as they are comfortable. They will not change until forced to change. The sad part is, once that tipping point is passed, there will be a huge price to pay despite any change. There will be literally millions of lives lost.

http://www.resilience.org/stories/2015-08-11/the-earth-s-battery-is-running-low?ref=yfp

Sounds like our coaching.

[Tiger Teeth]

(08-11-2015, 08:52 PM)Awful Llama Wrote: This giant ball of fire will kill us all!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

LMAO!

It'll be the end of the world!  The giver of life, taketh away.

[Bengalzona]

"We cannot take action on climate change until everyone in the world agrees that gay marriage vaccines won't cause our children to marry goats who are going to come for our guns." -- Jon Stewart

[XenoMorph]

(08-12-2015, 12:05 AM)Bengalzona Wrote: "We cannot take action on climate change until everyone in the world agrees that gay marriage vaccines won't cause our children to marry goats who are going to come for our guns." -- Jon Stewart

[SteelCitySouth]

(08-11-2015, 06:09 PM)XenoMorph Wrote: There is a gaint ball of fire visible every day that could provide more energy than we could ever hope to use.  And they had tech that used it 300 years ago....  But it wasnt profitable so here we are.

Please cite your statements.

I mean...this is a thread about a scientific topic and should be treated as such.

[Brownshoe]

(08-11-2015, 06:09 PM)XenoMorph Wrote: There is a gaint ball of fire visible every day that could provide more energy than we could ever hope to use.  And they had tech that used it 300 years ago....  But it wasnt profitable so here we are.

Solar power would be a good method if it could handle the power spikes we produce. That's solar energies biggest downfall. People use most of the energy at night, and that's spiking up the power usage. There's no efficient way to store the solar power for the night time. Once people find a better way to store solar energy then that industry will boom. One good thing for now is the EPA is cracking down on coal plants, so more natural gas plants are opening. Natural gas causes a lot less pollution than coal powered plants.

[XenoMorph]

(08-12-2015, 01:19 PM)SteelCitySouth Wrote: Please cite your statements.

I mean...this is a thread about a scientific topic and should be treated as such.

Quote:In 1865 a French math instructor, Auguste Mouchout, invented the first machine that could transform solar energy into mechanical power. The machine worked by allowing the sun to heat water until it turned to steam. Concerned about people's dependence on coal as an energy source, Mouchout strove to find other power sources. His invention, a steam engine that could also be used as a refrigeration device, is known as the first solar motor.

http://www.crestcapital.com/tax/history_of_solar_energy

[Beaker]

Solar and wind power do not replace the energy stored via photosynthesis. That stored energy is being depleted and not replaced. We are viewing the Earth as a resource instead of learning how to live along with nature...which is what we should be ding as technology advances.

[SteelCitySouth]

(08-11-2015, 06:09 PM)XenoMorph Wrote: There is a gaint ball of fire visible every day that could provide more energy than we could ever hope to use.  And they had tech that used it 300 years ago....  But it wasnt profitable so here we are.

(08-12-2015, 04:21 PM)XenoMorph Wrote: http://www.crestcapital.com/tax/history_of_solar_energy

I asked you to cite this "And they had tech that used it 300 years ago....  But it wasnt profitable so here we are."


You then attempted to cite this "And they had tech that used it 300 years ago....  But it wasnt profitable so here we are."

Your citation only corroborated approximately 140 years not 300  http://www.crestcapital.com/tax/history_of_solar_energy

Your citation had nothing to do with this "And they had tech that used it 300 years ago....  But it wasnt profitable so here we are."


I am looking for a citation that shows this "And they had tech that used it 300 years ago....  But it wasnt profitable so here we are."

[fredtoast]

(08-12-2015, 06:49 PM)Beaker Wrote: Solar and wind power do not replace the energy stored via photosynthesis. That stored energy is being depleted and not replaced. We are viewing the Earth as a resource instead of learning how to live along with nature...which is what we should be ding as technology advances.

This.