Raise the Hammer

Kiely, i'm a little confused by your contradiction: you clearly advocate lifestyle changes including the most drastic of all (population reduction which can easily be achieved by death!) and then you advocate, against most evidence i see, that technology will get us out of this jam. My broad understanding is that the lifestyle changes you advocate will render technological advances unnecessary! If only 1/2 billion people are left as some suggest(90% of us eliminated), and they mostly live in (are restricted to?) cities, they can all have their SUVs without running out of oil or worrying about CO2, at least for 1000 years, i'd guess,with only minimal change in technology. By then, i'll grant a reasonable chance that renewables, fusion or teleportation are realistic expectations -- provided WW3 is avoided. Avoiding WW3 is unlikely the way we are headed, imo, so, despite that you are right to compare Climategate, i continue to support (and think we all should support) MacKillop's approach, even if it seems alarmist. Anything is better than a nuclear WW3 brought on probably by destabilizing, depressive forces similar to the 30s. Despite that it might achieve your population objective. Orwell's everlasting war against Oceana or whatever it was called, would be almost as bad, no?

Until/ unless we see that your suggested lifestyle changes are actually being adopted - openly/ willingly/ consequences understood too - i see any benefits from technology as being minuscule compared to the problem we face (less than 20%, completely overtaken by China/India, etc.) Hybrids, CFLs, renewables, nuclear, telecommuting, even conservation are all way too iffy since side effects exist and/or benefits too small. Nano solar is about the only thing that might change my mind but even that seems to be too distant to rely on. Now. Having developed one of the most cost effective solar concepts imaginable only to witness its complete failure in the marketplace of ideas, i remain quite disillusioned about the ability of technology to deliver us from the situation MacKillop describes.

WRCU2, methinks you would enjoy Atwood's Year of the Flood. I understand it is part of a trilogy about our present predicament and which i'm hoping to find and complete the reading of. Quite an enjoyable story, especially if you have heard her speak recently on CBC's Ideas or where-ever. One can even 'hear' her droll wit in her pages.