Tuesday, June 07, 2016

No Exit

2 comments:

David said...

If climate change due to co2 is real, why aren't world leaders and scientists encouraging and incentivizing growing trees to absorb co2? They will happyily take a co2 tax alright. I really wonder what will be a solution to a problem people tell us exists. Which people try to tell us we are stupid not to accept.

I'm totally ignorant lol, living in hobbit land (Ireland). We don't have population problems here. We don't have extreme weather. We don't have droughts or severe floods. A few streets and houses got flooded this year but so much development on river basons you would expect a bit of that.

When i look at google map, I see lots of open space around the world. I see population density continueing to grow in cities. This is the disconnect i feel is worse for the enviroment than someone having over the average children. If a significant percentage of people went back to the land, I feel we could change the way things are. Recreate a world where people produce there own food and there is value in respecting the land and working with it, compared to the mono culture which we are building and using to feed everyone in the city.

I think the real enviromental problems are driven by economics, not some people who are too poor to use contraception.

PBurns said...

As you know, Ireland was once so overcrowded you exported half your population to the U.S., Canada, and Australia. You lived on a potato bubble until it collapsed due to a water fungus, and then you starved and died in droves, or jumped borders to other nations.

Today, you are still overcrowded.

Ireland imports most of its energy (See http://www.seai.ie/News_Events/Press_Releases/2016/Ireland-still-heavily-dependent-on-energy-imports-costing-%E2%82%AC5-7-billion-in-2014.html ) as there are not many oil wells in Eire, and you depend on other nations for oil security and for national security (it's not the Garda that will fight the Nazis or the French).

You import about half your food. See http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/half-of-nations-food-bill-goes-on-imported-goods-26871990.html

You import most of your metals from irons and steel to aluminum. From the car frame to the bottle cap, it was imported.

The good news is that the Irish have good sense, and so they practice birth control. The bad news is Ireland still has a much higher rate of fertility than most of the rest of Europe -- about replacement level, which would be great if Ireland did not import half its food, and most of its energy.

Today, Ireland exists on the cusp of another bubble, every bit as dangerous as the potato bubble. The new bubble is a form of tax shelter that encourages vast wealth-laundering through Ireland as companies like Apple, Facebook, Forest Labs, Novartis, etc. engage in the "Double Irish" (See >> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement )

Quick changes in US and European tax law could devastate Ireland's economy overnight. It's not a question of if that happens, but when. The attraction of Ireland for big tech is entirely artificial.