Jaime, There's no question that the projection of a carrying capacity of 9 billion for the planet is based upon certain assumptions. Can we expand that by changing our consumption habits and lifestyles, and by configuring human habitat to increase density, etc.? Perhaps. But the point is, when you look at that Earthrise there is a parameter. It doesn't go on forever. At some point all the adjustments will have been made and we will hit a wall, and that point is closer now than ever before. And yet we continue to live, certainly in the developed world, as if there were no limits. The "big lie" that we can have unlimited growth (population, economic, etc.) on a finite planet must be replaced by a new story that acknowledges abundance and the possibility of equity for all, but within limits. In the process we have to assure that the developing nations and people everywhere living in poverty, upon whose backs the economic prosperity of the developed nations has been accomplished, from this point forward have the same opportunities as the rest us to a meaningful, quality life. But without acknowledging the limits, and now, the future is bleak for all, regardless of economic status. Randy Sent from my iPad
On Aug 11, 2015, at 6:32 AM, via OE <oe@lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:
I think it was JFK who said that there are no immigrants on planet Earth.
If I am not mistaken, the 9 billion projection of the earth's holding capacity is based on a consumption pattern that keeps the US using 80% of the world resources. That is certainly negotiable.
Africa is mother country where all of us derive 97% of our DNA. The US immigration policy is different for the Mexicans as it is for the Canadians. Why do we need to follow European proprietary definitions of continents and countries.
Did we not repeal the Chinese Exclusion Act less than a century ago?
The projections on the life and demise of planet Earth is, at best, grossly exaggerated, on the on hand, and favoring a particular life style on the other. The Earthrise image projected one home. That's where I live.
IMH naturalized American O!
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