[GratuitousApplesauce]

I suspect that the survey probably shows how unrealistic many of us are in our thinking about what is required for global ecological sustainability. As many people know if everyone on earth lived the way the average first-world citizen does we would need about 5 Earths worth of agricultural resources, natural resources and energy. Also, climate change would destroy us very quickly and we would run out of fossil fuels in a short amount of time under that scenario.

So clearly the status quo is not a model for the entire planet. Yet we in the first world try not to think about that very much, if at all. With our heads firmly planted in the sand and our exposed butts waving up in the air, we imagine that if the rest of world remains impoverished and using little maybe we can limp along at our current rates of use for a generation or two before just our own use comes up against Earth's limits. The underdeveloped rest of the world might have something to say about this though and it's clear that they are moving quickly to get a piece of what we have.

So what's it gonna be folks, resource wars or support for changing the way we do things and taking leadership in those directions for the world to follow? It won't be so bad for someone my age coz I'll be dead in a few decades or less, (I'm 50), but if you're younger than that or if you have kids that you care much about, you might want to really think about how long we can just carry on with the status quo.

 

[GratuitousApplesauce]

Buying fictitious carbon credits with a carbon tax will do zero, other than destroy the economy.

Carbon credits are a figment of some people's imaginations. But, then again, some people still believe in the tooth fairy.

Canadians will not stand for a carbon tax on their gas supply. And every party and politician knows it or it would have been implemented ages ago. Simple as that.

It looks like you're mixing up the issue of revenue neutral tax shifting via a carbon tax and carbon credits.

As for the tooth fairy and your "rolleyes" icon SINC, I would say that's more appropriate for those who think the earth can remain an endless cornucopia of resources forever. There's some truly magical thinking based on fairy tales.

 

[GratuitousApplesauce]

I think I remember this speech from "The Limits to Growth" that forgotten tome from the early 1970s--boy were they ever wrong!

How so? Don't know the work, so enlighten us. Not sure how your estimation of this straw man makes my concerns invalid though. Are there some extra Earths stored somewhere that I forgot to mention?