Sir Crispin Ticknell - Humanity Faces Stark Choices, Sweeping Changes

[hatrack]

ONE of Britain's leading environmentalists will today sound a doomsday warning to the world: humanity's very existence is under threat from climate change and, even if we survive, the population will crash to about a third of its current level.

Sir Crispin Tickell, the man who convinced former prime minister Margaret Thatcher that global warming was a real problem, predicts that, in 200 years, there could be as few as 2.3 billion people because rising sea levels and temperatures will make some areas uninhabitable and, coupled with social factors, depress birth rates.

But he also says our survival is "not guaranteed" and that the presence of humans on the planet could be "no more than a somewhat messy episode in the history of the Earth". Advances in genetics, he believes, could possibly result in the creation of different sub-species of humans, conjuring up the HG Wells nightmare of the Eloi and the Morlocks. Sir Crispin, a former British ambassador to the United Nations who is now chancellor of Kent University and director of the Green College Centre for Environmental Policy and Understanding, is the third major figure in the field this month to sound a warning of massive changes in the years ahead. The others were James Lovelock, who developed the Gaia theory of the planet as a living organism, and Chris Rapley, the director of the British Antarctic Survey.

Sir Crispin, who is due to give a lecture on this subject tonight, said: "The human impact on the Earth has slowly and then rapidly increased, most of all in the last 250 years. "The resulting transformation of the environment is unsustainable. The main factors are human population increase, degradation of land, consumption of resources, water pollution and supply, climate change, destruction of other species ...

EDIT

http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=132492006

[sasha031]

1. it certainly puts things in a different perspective

the priorities in this country are a disaster in itself.
hopefully this will get kicked :kick:
thanks so much for posting

[AuntiBush]

6. It Most Certainly does...

Kicked for a.m. crowd, hopefully.

[opihimoimoi]

9. Our Nation is saddled with a selfcentered President supported by

like kind.

Their vision is flawed to say the least.

These peeps will deny GW exists even as the artic turns to a desert.

Come, we go drink.

[brokensymmetry]

2. Sir Crispin may be too optimistic....

still, great article - kicked and nominated.

[Lorien]

7. He seems very optimistic from everything else I've read

many scientists think that the shit will really be hitting the fan in 10-30 years.

[orwell]

3. But...

...what about Mrs. Alito!

Did you hear the mean Dems made her cry?

Are there any blonde girls missing?

Did you see O'Reilly's overnight comps?

What about Fitzmas?

Look, over there, a bright shiny object?

(I agree, Tickell is an optimist...)

This deserves to be K&R'd as well...bigtime:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x40022

Insects and yams anyone?

[hatrack]

4. You forgot Brangelina!

To say nothing of Poland!!!!

:toast:

[Triana]

5. population control....

...nobody wants to address it. That is the basis for all the rest of the problems. It WILL control itself in disasterous ways - because humans are too dogmatic and lacking in awareness to do it for themselves before that happens. The phrase "sawing off the branches on which we're perched" comes to mind.

Oh well..

www.populationconnection.org

[BlueEyedSon]

8. Yay! The Rapture!!!

[NNadir]

10. This is a very stark and realistic assessment. n/t