[ExI] Are Cities Dead? (was Re: moving bits, not butts)

[Eugen Leitl]

On Tue, Mar 01, 2011 at 08:22:22PM -0800, spike wrote:

> Oy that's a lot of people.  I am surprised this old planet can feed all of
> us.

It can't, actually. Not with today's technology. Not on the long run.
We're in overshoot.  We're saddled with debt not such economical, 
but we're also into ecological overdraft.

Current agriculture in US operates on 10:1 fossil (mostly natural
gas for nitrogen fixation) input on food calorie output. Fossil
aquifers are globally being depleted at an alarming rate, while
causing ground salination and runoff which causes dead zones in coastal
areas. While we're loading the seas with our crud we're simultaneously
fishing them empty, while damaging the ecosystem.

(When talking about CO2, don't forget precipitation shifts,
potential dry spells not seen in last 75 kYrs and seawater pH 
changing to the point aragonite can't be deposted).

I hope your bag of popcorn is big enough.

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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