So the world is gonna end

[The Straight Story]

No matter what we do, no matter how much we conserve our resources, etc and so on there is one simple truth we cannot escape:

At some point the earth is doomed either by the sun going bye bye, asteroids, the poison belt (ok, just threw that reference in there because I love that story from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which you can find on Project Gutenberg along with thousands of other works), super volcanoes, ... well hell you get the idea.

The best hope to keep our species as well as those of others going for the long haul is to work together and get off this rock.

And going by the numbers, the more people we make the better chance of us bringing about the next great scientist(s) who will help us overcome problems we face (and those faced by the rest of the creatures we share the earth with). Of course we need better education and so on to boot :)

I don't view us humans as a stain on the earth, I see us as the only hope to save the life forms that earth has produced long beyond whatever doom may befall this rock we call home. Better than those damned dolphins who just swim around in ignorant bliss eating tuna (without even mixing them with mayo and crackers. Damned uncultured brutes.)

Of course, that does not mean that we should trash it while we are here, and the we should not stretch our resources to last, etc and so on.

Earth is doomed, and we cannot stop it although I admit we can help accelerate it.

-------

All that said...I can see where one would make the case to limit population, use better education, and get the same results.

The point though is, to me: Quit telling me that having more than a few kids, smoking, driving anything other than a prius or a bike, being a meat eater, and so on is what is going to end the world as we know it.

It is a foregone conclusion that it is gonna end, regardless of what I do. What I want to hear is how the hell we get off the planet and keep the species flowing.

Of course, once I am dead I won't give a rat's ass :rofl:

[MichaelHarris]

1. The

Mayans told me it would, I already know whose heart I'm going to cut out first.

[tavalon]

4. I'm projecting here but I don't think said person actually has a heart

just a dark, wormy writhing mass with a pacemaker.

[MichaelHarris]

7. dammit

wonder if a wormy mass with electrical leads will count as a sacrifice? I was really counting on holding that bad boy over my head at the alter.

[The Straight Story]

9. Might count as more, I think batteries count as extra if they are duracells

:)

[MichaelHarris]

11. bless the

bunny and his little drum!

[tavalon]

17. Another problem with your plan, and I'm pulling a Frist here, I'll admit

That was no back injury that had the Vader in that chair. He won't be around in 2012, methinks.

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

6. Remember to eat it to gain his courage.

His juicy courage.

[MichaelHarris]

10. mmmmmmm

juicy courage.....wait, he had courage?

[tavalon]

18. I didn't think we were supposed to name the heart in question,

but given that it spent way too much time in an undisclosed location, assuming it even exists, I am doubting this courage thingy.

[razors edge]

29. It was a special type of courage, deferred,

again, and again, and again, and again.....

[MUAD_DIB]

23. I (heart) Aztecs?

[MichaelHarris]

31. hahahahahahahaha

man what a T-shirt idea, I can see it now. A fist in the air with a dripping heart with the words, "I heart Aztecs"

[MUAD_DIB]

34. I'm an Idear man I tell ya!

[EmeraldCityGrl]

20. Human's are a remarkable species, by Earthly standards.

I'm all for contributing as much as possible to keep evolution on the right track.

Can't buy into life after death but am sure hoping time travel is possible.

[tavalon]

2. I don't believe this is a dead rock we live upon and I do kind of think of us as a cancer upon her,

so I'm unsure if I want us traipsing around the universe. But, that said, no matter whether we stay or go or how our species ends, Gaia will be here long after. She's the closest thing to immortal that we can see. Sure, she's going to look different through the ages, just as she did through the previous ages but she's not the fragile one, we are.

[The Straight Story]

5. So if she is not fragile

Why are we so worried (well, not everyone of course) about the human affect? Or is that just arrogance on our own part (and I think it is to some degree)?

[tavalon]

16. Well, it's being framed as Save The Planet rather than Save the Bald Apes,

because huge numbers of us think it arrogant to try to save our own asses. It's something from the Puritan era, I think. Earth is in no way shape or form, fragile. She is inordinately flexible, it's just that the things she will do to adjust for man made changes will destroy mankind and most of the other, though not all of the other, species. Then she'll readjust and new creatures will come. And so on and so on and so on. Even if we destroyed her covering with 1000 nuclear bombs, she would recover but you see, her time measures in eons, not years. We don't have that benefit.

I do what I do to ameliorate global climate change because it's a personal ethic for me. I believe that we have already gone past too many tipping points to save our skins but I still do those things I do because I think they're the right things for me to do. And when she adjusts, as she is already doing, I will adjust as long as I can and then I will die. Dying for Gaia's health is not the least noble kind of death, I think.

[Sal Minella]

19. Considering the way humans are trashing this planet, I think we don't deserve a chance to trash

another one. "Keeping the human race going" is certainly the least of my worries. We seem to be killing off everything else (except jellyfish and slime molds) with our overpopulation and our fetid stupidity.

[tavalon]

21. I just read your profile

Modest is well loved in we women, but really, if you look in the mirror, I think you should be able to see the wise. I saw it in this post and a number of others by you. Shed the modesty. One of the joys of becoming aged, is not having to play the coquette. Actually, we never had to, but were too young and too unwise to realize that.

[Lyric]

22. Gaia's going to be space toast in a few million years

when the Sun goes all Red Giant and consumes the planets of the inner orbit.

She's old, but not even close to being immortal. And we are not a cancer; we're just extremely arrogant, extremely selfish children who must learn better before it's time to grow up.

[MUAD_DIB]

24. More than a few million years for that, but I get your solar drift.

[NeedleCast]

28. Billion, actually

Unless something physically anomalous happens to the sun.

[tavalon]

30. As close to immortal as we'll ever see

Hella more immortal than me and thee.

[CLANG]

3. I guess I wouldn't lose sleep worrying about it

We must all accept our fate. Hopefully we'll have luck on our side.

[The Straight Story]

8. Well, see that is kind of what I am getting at

So many do lose sleep over it, and then try to save us all by making new laws.

Sensible legislation is one thing, but feel good is another IMHO.

That, of course, opens a whole new can of worms...

[CLANG]

14. Damn, I'm already swimming in worms

Time for another scotch.

[Canuckistanian]

12. The end of the world by natural means is probably far, far off

Our most immediate danger is because of our own actions.

Overpopulation is our biggest threat. Global Climate Change is second, IMO. Although they're linked.

Of course the world is going to end. It's OUR CHOICE whether it goes in a hundred years or 50,000 years.

[panader0]

13. "make more people"? But I had a vasectomy.

On the other hand, my children are brilliant and have vowed to save the earth.

[Lex]

15. You're going to die too, but you don't just say, 'Screw it' and play in traffic

either.

[Ilsa]

25. I know there are alot of fundies who feel the same way. They want to

rape Mother Earth for all they can. Screw future generations.

[quaker bill]

26. George Carlin

put it another way. The planet will be fine. It is largely a lump of rock that will continue to orbit with or without us. It is the people who are in trouble. (he was a bit more colorful in his choice of terms)

[NeedleCast]

27. Not to nit-pik

but it's not so much the sun going bye-bye as it is the sun expanding into a Red Giant which will expand to encompass the Earth's orbit, burning the planet into a waterless, airless rock.

That's only a problem if you plan on living another 4.5 to 5 billion years though.

[Deja Q]

32. To answer your question, build a rocket and impregnate lotsa chix.

:hide:

[MzShellG]

33. Well at least we have until 2012.

Then there's no telling what's in store for us or the planet.:sarcasm: