General Discussion

marmar

(77,084 posts) Sat Jul 11, 2015, 08:54 AM Jul 2015

Stephen Hawking’s catastrophic end for Planet Earth

by Paul B. Farrell

Yes, Stephen Hawking says Planet Earth is headed for a “catastrophic ending.” The good news, he wants you to become a hero, save the world. Maybe work for the World Bank, United Nations on climate change, maybe NASA or Peace Corps. Except they’re all chasing a no-win scenario. An impossible dream with no solution. Why? Overpowering opposition.

So go work for the opposition? For someone we’re blaming as the cause of global warming. Yes, join and change their culture from the inside: Big Oil, Big Ag, the GOP, Koch billionaires, far-right conservatives, and all their climate-science-denying donors and lobbyists. Yes, maybe you’ll be lucky, a new savior changing the deniers from within ... and save Planet Earth before it’s too late. The clock is ticking faster, louder, but since all the science deniers rally around a rigid faith in a capitalist ideology, change from within is probably a dead end too.

Work for leftist idealists? Or hard-right ideologues? Unfortunately both are headed for the same “catastrophic ending” Hawking sees for Planet Earth in the “not-too-distance future.”

.....(snip).....

The human race is “trapped in a vicious circle” according to the World Bank’s agriculture manager, “we will need to grow 50% more food by 2050 to feed 9 billion people ... but agriculture, which is paradoxically vulnerable to climate change, generates 25% of heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions that lead to climate change.”

This is essentially a no-win scenario, a zen koan, the ultimate question that has no real answer: The more food “we grow using conventional methods, the more we exacerbate the problem. It’s time for a climate-smart agriculture. But first we must address a few manmade problems.” So here are the World Bank’s four obstacles that must be solved before we can save Planet Earth from the “catastrophic ending:” ..................(more)

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/stephen-hawkings-catastrophic-end-for-planet-earth-2015-07-09?link=mw_home_kiosk

2 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Stephen Hawking’s catastrophic end for Planet Earth (Original Post) marmar Jul 2015 OP

kick, kick, kick.... daleanime Jul 2015 #1

Read " The Story of B" and its prequel, "Ishmael," by Daniel Quinn. Excellent novels that tblue37 Jul 2015 #2

daleanime

(17,796 posts)

1. kick, kick, kick....

Reply to marmar (Original post)

Sat Jul 11, 2015, 08:59 AM

Jul 2015

tblue37

(65,442 posts)

2. Read " The Story of B" and its prequel, "Ishmael," by Daniel Quinn. Excellent novels that

Reply to marmar (Original post)

Sat Jul 11, 2015, 09:22 AM

Jul 2015

offer an analysis and some intelligent suggestions focused on food production and excessive population growth.

The Story of B is clearer, more detailed, and more interesting to my analytical mind, but it is an elaboration of the ideas set up in Ishmael. If you read Ishmael first, don't be put off by the fact that the title character is a telepathic gorilla philosopher trapped in a zoo. It has that fantasy element, but it isn't really an issue in the explanation of Quinn's points. It is just the device he uses to set up the scenario where the wise Isshmael can teach the narrator important lessons about how and why the world is so screwed up--and about what might be done about it.

I have given or recommended these books to at least 20 people, and all of them have been blown away by them. I have been told over and over again that these books are not merely explosively illuminating, but downright life changing.

If you do read them, please PM me and let me know your reaction. And if you are impressed by the books, maybe recommend them to others.

I do like The Story of B better, but in many parts it leans more toward treatise than story, whereas Ishmael presents the ideas in a gentler way, with the familiar structure of a wise, patient teacher instructing a naive but willing student in matters of great import. The structure of Ishmael reminds me of the rather treacly Tuesdays with Morrie, but its substance is not at all similar.

**BTW, another book in the series (My Ishmael) can be skipped. It's OK, but it is just a somewhat thin rehash of the ideas in Ishmael, plus a story about his followers' efforts to return him to the jungle.**

Reply to this discussion