Posted: Dec 10, 2012 11:44 am
It's not going to happen. The human race is heading for a long period of painful adjustment, as out-of-control population/consumption levels runs into the physical limits to growth (the others, rather than climate change directly.) And in a situation where most people are getting poorer, the probability of the human race all pulling together to make the sacrifices required to avoid the catastrophe is precisely nil.
You can sum it up in one sentence: if we could not sort out the global problems during the "good times" on the upslope before "peak everything", then we certainly aren't going to sort them out during the hard times on the downslope.
Owning a Prius and buying green energy, shopping local and using your bike may make you feel better, may be good for your soul...but it isn't going to stop the eco-catastrophe. So the "possibility" you are talking about is an entirely academic possibility. It is logically and physically possible but biologically impossible. The human race is simply not capable of behavioural change and cultural evolution at the sort of rate that would be required to avoid a major die-off in the forseeable future. The Carnival is Over.
You can sum it up in one sentence: if we could not sort out the global problems during the "good times" on the upslope before "peak everything", then we certainly aren't going to sort them out during the hard times on the downslope.
Owning a Prius and buying green energy, shopping local and using your bike may make you feel better, may be good for your soul...but it isn't going to stop the eco-catastrophe. So the "possibility" you are talking about is an entirely academic possibility. It is logically and physically possible but biologically impossible. The human race is simply not capable of behavioural change and cultural evolution at the sort of rate that would be required to avoid a major die-off in the forseeable future. The Carnival is Over.