Will Earth Expire By 2050? 1638
_josh writes: "Will overconsumption force humanity off this planet in less than 50 years? It may sound sci-fi, but according to the WWF in this story at the Observer, it's entirely possible. Maybe now I can convince my brother not to buy that SUV ..." Take with as large a grain of salt as you think appropriate.
WWF (Score:4, Funny)
You can't possibly believe this.... (Score:1, Funny)
Everybody knows that the WWF is all scripted! None of it is real!
WWF! (Score:3, Funny)
World will end January 19 2038 (Score:0, Funny)
I'm waiting for my PDP-11s to explode then although I'll be in my 70s
Thomas Dzubin
You consumption weenies better watch out! (Score:4, Funny)
How much salt? (Score:5, Funny)
I'd do that, except with the amount of salt which would be appropriate, the world would likely run out of salt long before 2050.
The Planet... (Score:2, Funny)
Way to go,people!
2010 MS colonizes Moon to aovid Anti-Trust Ruling (Score:2, Funny)
Stop over consumption now!
Boycott MS!
Re:Bah... (Score:5, Funny)
"It's a self correcting system...The Planet is fine.....The PEOPLE are fucked!"
Committed to education (Score:5, Funny)
Re:the short answer: no (Score:1, Funny)
RIAA predicts universal music famine in 50 years! (Score:2, Funny)
With no further funds to create such masterpieces as "Lady Marmalade (remake #37)" and "Who Let The Dogs Out?", humanity will either suffer a collective silence until the econom^H^H^Hsystem can mend itself, or radio telescopes will need to comb the sky for new intergalactic hits.
"You could say that our demise began with dubbed Queen cassettes, decades back. Napster and LimeWire have only served to seal our fate... unless you no-good thieving scum start paying our 500% markup. Do it for the children!"
Re:World Wrestling Foundation? (Score:5, Funny)
~jeff
Who Cares? The world will end in 2038 anyway (Score:3, Funny)
Re:World Wrestling Foundation? (Score:5, Funny)
Which is PRECISELY why I haven't cleaned out my fridge in over 3 years... I'm just trying to do my part for the cause!
Re:You may be onto something... (Score:1, Funny)
2 Words... "Soylent Green" (Score:4, Funny)
Come on, we all know what's going to happen, and there's even been a documentary about it.
Two words for ya... Soylent Green. [scifi.com]
Re:WWF! (Score:3, Funny)
Yet another crippling bombshell hit the beleaguered Earth community when the WWF confirmed that the Earth will be uninhabitable by 2050. Coming on the heels of a recent National Academy of Sciences report that the average temperature has risen yet again, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. The Earth is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Galaxy-Wide species diversity test.
You don't need to be a Kreskin [amdest.com] to predict Earth's future. The hand writing is on the wall: Earth faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for Earth because Earth is dying. Things are looking very bad for Earth. As many of us are already aware, Earth continues to lose species. Extinction flows like a river of blood.
The rainforest habitats are the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of their area. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time species black rhino and tiger only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: Earth is dying.
Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
Earth leader Bush states that there are 7000 species left. How many mammals are there? Let's see. The number of mammal versus amphibian posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 mammal species. Rainforest reptile posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of amphibian posts. Therefore there are about 700 rainforest reptiles. A recent article put mammals at about 80 percent of the species market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 mammal species. This is consistent with the number of mammal Usenet posts.
Due to the troubles of the rainforests, abysmal slash and burn agriculture, the drug war and so on, Columbian rainforests went out of business and was taken over by Brazilian rainforests who sell another troubled rainforests to international logging interests. Now Thai forests are also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.
All major surveys show that Earth has steadily declined in wilderness and species. Earth is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If Earth is to survive at all it will be among human dilettante dabblers. Earth continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, Earth is dead.
Re:WWF! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Who Cares? The world will end in 2038 anyway (Score:1, Funny)
Renew that license! (Score:2, Funny)
Quick! We better renew that license... The question is who do we call, the manufacturer or um... the reseller?
Re:Another option? (Score:5, Funny)
My econ teacher (referenced above) was also my government teacher. We had a Mock Congress. I chose to be a Republican after losing a week-long fight to be a Libertarian ("No, we're only doing the two real parties", she says).
So I'm the Senate Minority Leader, with 22 Republicans (this is Northern California). I manage to get my friend elected as the Senate President Pro-Temp, primarily by telling all the Democrats I knew that I would *hate* for her to get elected - so they voted for her.
She then turns around, and to be "fair", gives the Republicans HALF of the committee chairs. Not none, like in real life, or even 20% as a fair ratio, but 50%! As you can imagine, the committee chairs killed every single Democratic bill.
When we got to the floor, I used every trick in the book to kill bills. I made sure my two whips were the student body leader and the football team captain and suddenly Democrats were defecting left and right. I even pulled off a fillibuster.
End result: Two bills passed that Senate. And they were both Republican bills. That's with 22 out of 100 members... pretty darn successful.
And my grade? I got a D. Why? Because, in the words of the teacher, "I wasn't being cooperative and participating in a constructive manner.."
I was the MINORITY leader!! Since when am I supposed to be cooperative?!?!?!
Anyways, sorry for the long rant, but some of these teachers... some of them are great, but others just need to learn about the real world before trying to teach it to others.
EARTH FIRST, DAMMIT!!! (Score:1, Funny)
Re:No. (Score:5, Funny)
We passed by at least 5 SUVs of the type that are made and marketed to those who never take it on a rougeher road than their driveway, all stuck helpless in the snow while our fucking MINIVAN was having no problems.
Tim
Flamebait? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:How much salt? (Score:5, Funny)
It's a shame that most environmental groups that once were (at least somewhat) legitimate are now a bunch of ideologically driven radicals. WWF did some useful work in the 70s & 80s. Now they're reduced to publishing this kind of tripe. They especially should know better.
As much of the report's methodology as can be gleaned from the Observer article seems inherently flawed. Comparing wildlife populations from only 1970 to today is disingenuous at best, deliberately misleading at worst. Some animal populations have surely declined, but others have increased. More importantly, due in part to WWF's earlier work, some animal populations were drastically declining, and have since increased or stabilized since 1970.
People have been predicting the imminent demise of the Earth for as long as there have been people. One of the most famous this century was Paul Ehrlich, author of The Population Bomb in 1968. He predicted massive, worldwide food shortages and starvation within 30 years. Unfortunately (for him at least) this obviously didn't happen, but somehow he still has funding and a faithful following, Al Gore among them.
Anyone who makes such broad, sweeping predictions as Ehrlich, or WWF in this report, either has an ulterior motive, or smokes a lot of dope.
Re:Take it with a grain of salt (Score:3, Funny)
Borg!
That's The Answer!
Just give Bill Gates time. He is getting closer and closer.
BTW, do Borg have B.O.?