Consider these two statements:

"Over the next 20 years, the global population is expected to grow by a quarter - that's an extra 1.5 billion mouths to feed."

"Water is also under pressure as never before. Today, some 500 million people do not have enough water. By 2025, that number is expected to hit 2.5 billion. The World Resources Institute in Washington DC estimates that 160 million cubic metres more water is pumped from aquifers each year than is flowing into them. This is enough to grow grain for 480 million people. So, these people are being fed from a source that cannot be sustained."

Source: http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/population/populationtrends.jsp

Forget terrorism. Forget nuclear proliferation. Forget Iraq. Let's talk about a real problem: Like the fact that the world is about to have a water shortage. This is all assuming the ice caps aren't melting and we're not endanger of having all land under 6 meters above sea level flooded over the next century or so.

People need to wake up to the real problems, not the flashy "Oh, the psychos might be able to kill a few thousand people" ones that make great media headlines. We are entering an era of environmental crisis and we're talking about Sadam Hussein and Joe Millionaire.

I quite agree with you. But the fact that there are bigger problems doesn't prvent us (and our govts) to address smaller issues too.

Well said astrapol2.

Leper the world will take care of itself it always has even way before us so perfect humans arrived. Eventually we will die out and something new will take our place. The reason, it is just what you described, we believe ourselfs to be so perfect that we have everything under control(WRONG). It is sad, but people will vanish, because they as a whole are to stupid to see how they are slowly killing themselfs.

astrapol2-

I agree, but if we're going to address issues, let's address primary issues first. If your house is burning down, you shouldn't be spending precious moments plotting against your hostile neighbor.


Mad dog-

Your defeatism is as worthless as anyone's apathy or ignorance.

Leper I am not admitting defeat in anyway I am a realist. If you think humans will be here for ever you are saidly mistaken. I do as much as I possibly can to not waste, ALOT more then most, but the fact remains we will die out. We humans can't even agree on a God, which causes war. Then we have the people that think there way is the right way and there is no other way. So my question is why do humans go to war at all?
Lets say that all the nations and rulers agree to a certain way of life. That doesn't mean your neighbor is going to. Sooner or later there will be an argument then a conflict then a war. If you don't believe me just take a look at history.

As far as your comment about the house burning down. Well if my neighbor burned down my house you bet your arse I'ld be plotting. It's called saving your own a**. This time he burns down your house the next time he sticks a bomb in your car. How long to you let a person threaten you, your family, and your way of life before you do something? It's not like we're just going after Sadam for the heck of it, did you ever hear of a little man known as Hitler. History does repeat itself we are the ones that have to change the out come. It would be nice if we had a big brother that could take care of us, but sometimes a person (country) has to stick up for itself.

What a load of crap. Of course I don't expect humans (And no, I don't limit my concerns to humans as you seem to assume) to thrive til the end of time, I'm just interested in making the existance of life as lengthy and as pleasant as possible. I tell you what. If I ever see a guy named "mad dog" drowning and all I have to do is throw him a life-saving intertube, I'll say "Well, he's gonna die anyways, so there's no point saving him now."

What I really think is I don't need to tell you this. This is an excuse I've heard plenty of times before. It's an excuse commonly employed by those people who don't wish to own up to their responsibilities.

Some examples?

"Q: Why didn't you maintain your vehicle?
A: Well, my car wasn't going to last forever."

"Q: Why don't you stop smoking when you have kids?
A: Well, I've gotta die sooner or later and my kids need to learn to live without me anyways."

"Q: Why did you crash a plane into the World Trade Center?
A: Well, it's not like the World Trade Center was gonna last forever."

This isn't realism. This is an idiotic attempt to cover up your carelessness.


As for comparing Sadam to Hitler, that's almost as ridiculous. Sadam is contained and the Iraqi army is not even a comparable threat to that of the Third Reich.

And I'm not saying ignore every threat out there, I'm saying we need to get our priorities straight. Sadam is a minor threat when compared to threat of exhaustion of resources.

Thanks for twisting my words, you have done a real good jop of it. I thought we were going to have an intelligent debate, but now I see that is not going to happen. Oh Well.................

Or is it too much First World scum?