Second Planet Needed to Meet Natural-Resources Demand

Second Planet Needed to Meet Natural-Resources Demand

www.bloomberg.com

That's what humans will need by the mid-2030s to keep up with our demand for metals, fossil fuels, timber and waste disposal, the environmental group WWF said in a global survey that found the United Arab Emirates to be the most wasteful country.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Quite an interesting article. There's been a lot of space-exploration headlines recently, and could this be the / one of the reasons why?

Is it our time as humans to move forward now? Are we starting to realise?

I personally think we have plenty of resources to make space mining a reality.

What do you think?

www.bloomberg.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I've heard that if population levels rise as expected, by 2050 we will need 4 Earths.

It makes you think when you consider the current financial crisis and the lack of resources.....

Basically, this century is going to see some very, very big changes. Hopefully innovation can solve some of our problems.

It doesn't look good when you consider a 2 - 6 degree mean global temperature increase by 2100 either. Entire ecosystems will collapse.

Edit: We're going to have to solve these problems long before extra-solar planet colonisation becomes an option unfortunately.

[edit on 29-10-2008 by seenitall]

I don't know about timber, but apparently the moon has a hell of a lot of metals just from meteorites. That would have to be the first stop... or are we or something else already there ?

This is why people should be afraid of aliens. I mean really.... look at what we would do if we were to find another planet with something we want? Exploit it for all of its resources of course. If we deem whatever life we find as insignificant, we would eliminate it without blinking an eye. Why would we expect anything else from an alien race?

Sorry if that was off topic. I have been thinking about this for a while.

Supply and demand are elastic.

Just look at the oil price fall in response to anticipated lower demands.

If the supply goes down enough, the price will skyrocket, demand will decrease and the price will settle.

In context to your post, this means there will be mass starvation; mass poverty as only those who can afford it will live on. That of course has been going on for a while now. Hence the starving, underdeveloped third world.

It should be plainly obvious that since there is no second planet for us, we as a species will have to lose half our numbers. Perhaps the NWO's goal of population control may not be such a bad idea...

I'm not a fan of the "more more more" mentality.
I think less is more.
Sure, it'd be sweet to galavant around the cosmos exploring other worlds and the vast nothingness, but how about dealing with what already have instead of the constant consummation?
Can you honestly say we are doing our best at preserving natural resources? That we have mastered our own planet? Doubt it.
I worked for a company that had just gone through a chapter11 bankruptcy and all the employees were concerned about was when the "next round of funding" was going to come from either an "angel"(or the "devil") despite the obvious fact that the company was seriously floundering and not making a profit...yet there was that sense of self-preservation and seeking outside resources for sustainance.

We need to reduce our population...NOW. Either that or we need to stop raping our planet and start recognizing the value of nature and the bounty that exists right before our eyes.

Live more fugally. Walk instead of driving when you can. Stretch your capabilities...it'll be good for you.

It doesn't seem to make sense that we should venture out into space and transfer mass from another celestial body to our own. There WILL be reprocussions...perhaps not immediately apparent, but they'll happen, I can be sure of it.

edit for spelling

[edit on 29-10-2008 by 4N6310]

Second Planet is available right next door...

Mars Just needs a magnetic field again and i think with the right effort it could be done...

We need definitive research, some believe that there is a Nuclear reaction that drives the core of a planet like earth with a strong magnetic field, it makes some sense if you assume the heaviest elements will head for the center over time but we would need to verify this

IF

this is the case

we could restart Mars and find a real use for all that nuclear waste a fissionable material we have accumulated particularly the stuff wasting away in warheads...

Given that Mars is basically dead internally drilling in deep enough to punch the material to the center should be possible

Real numbers would have to be worked out

But potentially mars could be given a jump start... a Global effort sure, but no more expensive than the combined cost of endless wars and military expenses

Once the planet had a real magnetic field again, the radiation goes down, a huge problem out of the way, the core surrounding liquify again and heat the planet... both from being able to hold additional atmosphere and from internal heat, Olympus Mons turns on and here comes your co2 and more atmosphere, if the surface water trapped in the ground melts, we'd be all set, water vapor, clouds, rain and additional oxygen

Air pressure would never be as dense as Earths nor air content as high... but an environment like the mtn tops on earth would be possible, thinner air, less pressure, but liveable

When I was born there were 2 billion humans and we were all going to run out of resources by the 1960s... and die because of an ice age in the 1970s.

I see they have augmented that assessment.

The Good earth will provide. I've watched Earth's populations almost quadruple since my childhood, each time it doubled 'they' said the world could not handle it.

Fact: If Florida was as densely populated as Tokyo, every single Human could fit into that state - so long as they were willing to tolerate the crowding.

Fact: The Russians don't even ascribe to the peak oil 'theory'. They accept that hyrdrocarbons are created abiogenically, only the uneducated/propagandized West still falls for the peak oil scam.

There is more oil than you will ever be told about. All this 'scarcity' nonsense is just Communist Eugenics.

Notice how they always offer one solution - Population Reduction, More Laws, More Jails, Less Rights... but it is for the Earth!

These same people will tell you that co2 is bad and must be taxed - stop breathing and you don't have to pay taxes...


[edit on 29-10-2008 by TruthTellist]

This is why people should be afraid of aliens. I mean really.... look at what we would do if we were to find another planet with something we want? Exploit it for all of its resources of course.

That's only assuming "aliens" are arrogant resource whores like we are, which is in fact an arrogant viewpoint funnily enough.

No need to worry actually, Earth can handle 10x times the present population, we are very very tiny compared to it.

This is a planet of plenty, those fear mongers don't know it.

Originally posted by mopusvindictus
potentially mars could be given a jump start...

Indeed, Total Recall made it all seem possible to me as well. Now all we need is a "planet mechanic".
Imagine all the jobs that's gonna create.

Humanity will need to go out into Solar system and maybe beyond. But there is no need to destroy this planet in the process. Earth is best place for humans because we evolved here. No other place can be adequate substitute. So there should be efforts to make our civilization planet-friendly without stalling technological process and reducing current population. I do not pretend to know how to do it. But i do not see any attempt to "brainstorm" this issue not from major world powers and not from UN. So while option to go to space after we completely ruin our home exists, even the infinity of planets in the galaxy will not help without change in behavior of our society.
We need to grow up as a species, from kids/teenagers to responsible adults.

Originally posted by GodForbid


I personally think we have plenty of resources to make space mining a reality.

What do you think?

I still think the same boring, unpopular thing I have thought since I was old enough to consider the matter.

That we should learn to live within our means, and this means limiting our population to fit the planet.

If there were an Earth-like planet near enough and not inhabited with a competing intelligent life form, I would say space would be a good move. As it stands, I do not think space is the answer. I think management of our species is.

One thing the space travel, mining, immigration people never seem to take into account is how much it will cost in resources to gain more resources. If you cannot clearly show that there is a net profit, (not in money but in terms of gaining more than you lose) it is a foolish proposition.

They also never seem to take into account the real state of our technology.

The only thing we have the technology and the resources to do NOW is manage ourselves.

However, the actual answer is never the answer people want.

Sadly, I think that there will be some sort of readjustment in the population of the earth before it gets to that point.

The possibilities include starvation, epidemic, war etc.

In any case I think that we'll see a much smaller population before we need a new planet.

But, I can see that the opportunity exists to exploit the mineral resources on the moon in the foreseeable future. I do think that we will be seeing more and more missions to the moon from a variety of countries.

almost everything we need is renewable, the problem is we have been doing it wrong for decades and wont switch to renewable or better technology.

FOr instanc i own a 1984 honda CRX, its get 55mpg, thats better than any hubrid on the road.. its carberated, and its get 55mpg!! we had better solutions in 1984 than we do now.. sad

As for timber, timber is renewable, as for fuel, fuel can be made renewably, enbergy, solar is how old of a technology, but not adopted becuse it still to expensive.. what will happen when prices soar on fuel and electricity solar and wind will be cheaper and will become the dominate source for electricity, and once oil becomes to expensive, bio based fuels will take over.

Heck iI have a mercedies benz that runs on veggie oil.. this isnt rocket science its simple economics and suppy and demand.. hopefully we realize that everything we need and use could come from renewable resources and could be done NOW not later..

I have been buying solar panels and switching to renewable and products that use less resources for years.. And I'm even moving (already bought the land) to a place that has a better footprint for doing solar and wind and has a longer growing season.. End goal, be totally self sufficient, generate my own power, grow my own food and enjoy life.

Truth tellist and people who think 'its all a cycle' and 'nature will balance itself out' should google ecological deficit.

Nature would normally balance itself out yes, but climate change is coming and we have harvested too much.

In this context it doesn't have much to do with peak oil. The real issue is how much arable land we have, and how much land we have trashed/urbanised versus how many people are living on the globe.

The increased CO2 in our atmosphere due to human activities (yes about half has been put there by us - the isotopes of carbon you get when burning fossil fuels are different to those that enter the atmosphere naturally) will probably increase plant growth, but if we get less rainfall (which is predicted) there are going to be problems.

It is going to affect different parts of the world in different ways, but in Australia we are in some very serious trouble.

Edit: As for the planet being able to sustain 10X more people - this is flat out nonsense. Where are you going to grow your food? Where are people going to live? Maybe (a big maybe) it would be possible with extreme advances in technology but at this stage - no way. There is strong science behind all of this, unfortunately there are a lot of people stuck in their own little paradigm. I could link some studies for yourself and truthtellist if you like (yes its real science) but I doubt you would bother to read them properly as such papers get quite lengthy and use a lot of jargon.

[edit on 29-10-2008 by seenitall]

Originally posted by butane bob

This is why people should be afraid of aliens. I mean really.... look at what we would do if we were to find another planet with something we want? Exploit it for all of its resources of course.

That's only assuming "aliens" are arrogant resource whores like we are, which is in fact an arrogant viewpoint funnily enough.

I think this is why we should NOT be afraid...
We have nearly stripped the planet of anything useful to the point that there is nothing for them to come for....

reply to post by seenitall


This sums up your last post and will serve to act as my rebuttal to it. I don't have time for Eugenicist Communists....

Originally posted by Karlhungis
This is why people should be afraid of aliens. I mean really.... look at what we would do if we were to find another planet with something we want? Exploit it for all of its resources of course. If we deem whatever life we find as insignificant, we would eliminate it without blinking an eye. Why would we expect anything else from an alien race?

Sorry if that was off topic. I have been thinking about this for a while.

"With something we want"

Most of the resources on earth (unless it is organic, like wood - but I don't think that ET makes their spaceships out of wood, perhaps wood is a luxury) are found en masse in comets, asteroid belts, and all the rocky and ice bodies surrounding our solar system. To visit earth for our paltry supply would be a waste of energy.