The Great Disintegration
The world has followed a long route towards globalization, perhaps most triumphing through communication networks - radio - phone - satellite - internet.
Cheap energy has increased the speed and decreased the cost of going long distance as well. I have to think that the end of cheap energy will be the end of wide-spread air travel, and certainly it is a luxury unneeded by 90% of the population. The Al Gores of the world will be flying even in 100 years, even if not in as great of luxury as now.
But there is a slower flow of population that needs no fossil fuels at all. The mode of transportation is our feet, and the motivation is a desire for wealth and opportunity.
I don't have any clear progressive view of immigration, legal or illegal. I mean like the border with Mexico - fences maybe can slow the flow but the only progressive solution is to work with Mexico to empower people there to have what they seek here. Spending money on "national defense" is justifiable for nations, but part of defense is to strengthen your weaker neighbors.
It seems impossible to really imagine what the future might look like under population pressures and lower resources. On the issue of population there is a reality yet that nations and communities will set up "defenses" to their land, especially in a future where local land and resources support the population.
Well, all you have to do is imagine perhaps a decade like the 1930's where temperatures and rainfall make crops insufficient to produce enough food. Given the level of waste and food going to animals, I'd imagine there's a large margin for failure before actual wide-spread starvation, but there may yet be in our lifetimes and locales such challenges, and hard decisions.
It's said that civilization arose with agriculture and the ability to concentrate stores of food to support larger populations and free more people from food production to alternative occupations.
I give up, too hard to imagine how things might change. I don't trust our consumption levels, our collective debt, our population, our dependence upon economic growth and cheap energy to keep it all running.
It would be nice to think things like the internet may survive a depression, but I couldn't hope for it. It is curious to question what technology is "sustainable" through depression. Maintaining and protecting infrastructure is vital to our world now, but what will be the priorities under harsher conditions?
Cheap energy has increased the speed and decreased the cost of going long distance as well. I have to think that the end of cheap energy will be the end of wide-spread air travel, and certainly it is a luxury unneeded by 90% of the population. The Al Gores of the world will be flying even in 100 years, even if not in as great of luxury as now.
But there is a slower flow of population that needs no fossil fuels at all. The mode of transportation is our feet, and the motivation is a desire for wealth and opportunity.
I don't have any clear progressive view of immigration, legal or illegal. I mean like the border with Mexico - fences maybe can slow the flow but the only progressive solution is to work with Mexico to empower people there to have what they seek here. Spending money on "national defense" is justifiable for nations, but part of defense is to strengthen your weaker neighbors.
It seems impossible to really imagine what the future might look like under population pressures and lower resources. On the issue of population there is a reality yet that nations and communities will set up "defenses" to their land, especially in a future where local land and resources support the population.
Well, all you have to do is imagine perhaps a decade like the 1930's where temperatures and rainfall make crops insufficient to produce enough food. Given the level of waste and food going to animals, I'd imagine there's a large margin for failure before actual wide-spread starvation, but there may yet be in our lifetimes and locales such challenges, and hard decisions.
It's said that civilization arose with agriculture and the ability to concentrate stores of food to support larger populations and free more people from food production to alternative occupations.
I give up, too hard to imagine how things might change. I don't trust our consumption levels, our collective debt, our population, our dependence upon economic growth and cheap energy to keep it all running.
It would be nice to think things like the internet may survive a depression, but I couldn't hope for it. It is curious to question what technology is "sustainable" through depression. Maintaining and protecting infrastructure is vital to our world now, but what will be the priorities under harsher conditions?
posted by Ares Olympus at 4:47 PM
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