permaculture

[Tom Gorman <tom@honeychrome.com>]

In many ways "global warming" and whatever its causes, possible  
solutions, etc. etc. is beside the point.  Whether global warming is  
happening or not, the broader (and related) issues of finite resource  
depletion and a population growth that has overshot the renewable  
carrying capacity of what is a limited system (the planet, that is)  
are to my mind far more important to have people fundamentally  
understand.  Global warming is already being used as a marketing  
'opportunity,' and though more and more people are becoming aware and  
accepting of it's reality, it is being understood as something we  
will solve through some sort of 'technology' and by simply altering  
our consumer choices to 'greener' ones.  Without understanding the  
mathematics of growth and a system of limited resources there won't  
be acceptance of the unavoidable conclusion that the solution to our  
problems is "less."  Less consumption, less economic activity, less  
people, less travel, etc.  Even if global warming wasn't an issue at  
all we'd still be coming up against all the same fundamental problems  
of overpopulation, environmental poisoning, resource depletion.   
Personally I don't see how the tools of our current global system of  
activity and interaction are possibly going to even attempt to solve  
the problems we face when the very 'toolbox' is built of the  
impossible notion of perpetual growth.

All of which is a windy way of saying global warming is a symptom,  
not the disease.