economics as a solution

There are many problems that plague our planet today. However, I find that environmental activists have greatly exagerrated many of the problems. We recently watched a video with Edward Norton in it (what Edward Norton has to do with saving the environment is a bit of a mystery to me). In the video it has a segment in which a team of "conservationists" go to Brazil or some such rainforest and try to save it from some horrible purple plant. First of all i very much doubt that a purple plant will take over all of the Brazilian rainforest. Secondly, WHO CARES. it is a purple plant. purple, green what is the difference? Thirdly, if the Darwinian view of nature is true then what do invasive species matter? it is survival of the fittest. We just happen to have sped the process slightly. If a species takes aversion to the color purple and dies out then it obviously wasnt all that strong or fit to survive. Now you may be reading this and thinking to yourself that it is a digression and has nothing to do with the original problem at hand. however, it leads me back to the question of do i think that the human population explosion is a true threat?

There have been many booms and busts in human population. Human population as a whole has increased dramatically since the beginning of time. But so has every animal in the history of everything everywhere. To begin with there were not millions of reptiles, fish, mammals and birds. If darwinian thinking is true then only a few were spontaneously burst from the primordial soups. Now if this is true then there was a dramatic increase in animal population when they reproduced continually to create more organisms that inhabit our earth today. the same is true of human kind. I am not saying that there arent a lot of us. there are. but perhaps it is not the huge ordeal it is made out to be.

Industrialized countries are proven to have shrank in size after they have reached the post- industrialized stage (Japan, Germany, Italy, United States). Now if this is true then eventually once every nation has reached its peak of industrialization then its population will begin to reduce. this will not happen all at once. however one by one each nation will industrialize and its population will decrease. the truly worrying thought is that for some reason some nations may not industrialize. Given the right environment and support, any nation can become industrialized. the trick is keeping out dictators and those who oppress their people and keep them in a bondage of perpetual poverty. With the right stimulation from countries that have already industrialized this should be possible.

There have been many other areas that have been cast in a decidedly negative light. Global warming is a specific area that is described as definative and exact. There is much debate between scientists today as to the validity of global warming or even its existance. It is shown to the students today as an absolute truth. Perhaps it is, but there is simply not enough evidence to conclusivly say either way.

It is interesting to note on this graph that the CO2 level appears to increase BEFORE the temperature does. The theoretical proposition of some scientists claim that CO2 levels do not change the temperature, instead the temperature affects the CO2 levels.
this is never discussed or even mentioned in the class.
ineteresting