So much for rhetoric and insult - now switch off the light
There are none so blind as those who won’t see. It has so often struck me that with such people argument is almost impossible because, How do you argue the “bleeding obvious.” Creatures and their habitats are disappearing at a faster rate than ever before. Evidence is now so overwhelming that man’s activities are causing climate change that now even the Americans, always slow to recognise a crisis, are beginning, albeit too late, to “wake up and smell the coffee.” So, there is as a close to a consensus, at least among the scientific community, as there is likely to be about climate change and man’s responsibility for it. There is certainly a part that technology could play in stemming this trend, cleaner factories etc. The elephant in the room, still unseen is, of course over population. It is so utterly obvious, and understood throughout nature, that any given area can only sustain a given population. As food, and more importantly, water supplies, vary so will a population of fauna and flora. This applies as much to the human as to the animal. Take as an example Hong Kong. Hong Kong was not leased; it was a British Colony. Highly successful, vibrant, with a booming economy BUT – hopelessly overpopulated. It was not technology that enabled the population to survive it was, of course, the New Territories with their farming resources, which were leased for 99 years from China. When that lease was up, as Margaret Thatcher said, “They don’t have to send in the army they only have to switch off the water.” The South East of England is suffering a water shortage. Go there and you will find you will still need an umbrella; The Kent coast is no new Riviera of sunshine. The never-mentioned fact is that the South East of England is now so hopelessly overpopulated that even such abundant supplies are inadequate. In fact,in England nowadays it is almost impossible to find a place where you cannot hear the drone of a motorway. The problem with Mr.Worstall’s article is his misrepresentation of rhetoric for facts and his use of insult rather than argument. The so-called equation I = P x A x T is perfectly meaningless unless the terms are defined. How do you measure affluence, camel’s or cars? And Technology, flat panel televisions and computer games or software modelling climate change to foresee and perchance avert disaster? Easy to call Mr. Worstall an idiot, if he were he could be ignored – but the Worstall’s of this world are sufficiently articulate to give the appearance of credibility and that is, in part, what the Optimal Population Trust major obstacle is. The likes of Worstall, who have there backs to the elephant of population and can’t see it, distract too many others from seeing it too. Dream on Mr Woestall. Oh, and don’t forget to switch off the light.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
