Discussion Consumption of Products & Services 2014

there is not a lack of resources on the planet, rather there is a surplus of humans >(mostly useless ones.) As long as there is a rapidly increasing >population there will always be too few resources for all. With all the >problems that brings on (including climate change issues.) Think on that.

Too many in the envioronmentalist camp dream of a world with less "useless humans" where they can enjoy a high standard of living in harmony with nature;if only all thes parasitic humans would stop producing. This is elitism at it's worst. The "useless" love and live as well as anyone and contray to thought in much of the environmental movement the earth can support a higher population of humans with a high stanard of living if we work at it. -Use nuclear power now to replace GHG producing pwer generation stations. -Use GMO crops that are high yeild, low footprint to produce food and continue to develope drought resistant, high food value crops along with implemnt other moder approaches to getting the most food out of the least land instead of reverting to so called sustainable practices that need large amounts of land to produce low yeild. Your "organic" crops use disproportionate resouces for the yeilds produced. -Develop education programs to raise people out of ignorance which results in the "Uselessness" you posited. As people become more aware of and better able to deal with the problems they face better solutions will result. There will allways be groups that feel they cannot suceed in such an environment that will try to drag people back into buisiness as usual; thes groups over time hopefully will be coirnered into a box wher they can live in the sqaulor they want while the rest of the world move on. Hoping that half the people on the planet will just go away so we can build some utopian garden for ourselves is rubbish. We must get humanity to strip off the magical thinking and cultural restrictions foisted on us by our ignorant anscestors and use reason and rational thought to design a future that works for the majority of mankind.

If sustainable development means anything, it has to be about the quality of life of all these "useless" humans now and in the future. While reducing population may reduce pressure on the environment I can only think of two ways to achieve that: war and education. In the 20th century we thinned out the population by some 100 million as a result of civil and international wars. Not the best policy. Education, however, has been shown to reduce population growth by making children more valuable. Aside from population the pressure on the environment comes from 'Western' or rich world consumption patterns that are being learned by the rapidly developing BIIC states (Brazil, India, Indonesia and China) and others. Education could play a part here, too. Especially in the First World but increasingly elsewhere, consumption per person could fall if education taught ways to avoid the temptations of unnecessary consumption dangled by producers. Now there is a plan that permits freedom to "love and live": persuade to consume less.

promote local industry....less transportation/shipping! Push for products that have recycling plan...like what to do with old cell phone/batteries (sustainable development tax credit for companies?!?!) OH yeah! Buy less crap!