Topic Tuesday #3 2012/08/07

Sustainability: The future is at stake.
Open your mind to the sustainability of our actions as a species.

When we run out of oil, what will we do?

When we run out of coal, what will we do?

When we have contaminated the water, and can't drink it or eat the fish, what will we do?

When the air we breath is toxic and the plants (not factories) all die from the acid rain that falls though the soup, what will we do?

We are literally consuming the planet. I'm not making it up. Fossil fuels (you know from the dinosaurs that died millions of years ago) are not renewable. We can recycle some of it, but not the gasoline that is converted into toxic hydrocarbons that we pump into the atmosphere.
Now the question, given the above as a primer:

If you were granted virtually unlimited financial resources and the best and brightest minds, what do you propose we do to ensure our species lives for the next 10,000 years and beyond?

Richard Feynman ♥

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bgaw9qe7DEE

Fun To Imagine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3pYRn5j7oI&feature=bf_

prev&list=PL04B3F5636096478C

Thanks to April for creating this and sending it our way.

Responses from Facebook (my wall is PUBLIC, so always remember that the world will see it.):

Share · August 7 at 10:13am ·

- Tom Houston The people in charge making these decisions will be dead long before it becomes an issue so they don't care as it will be someone else's problem. :P
  
  August 7 at 10:16am ·
- Andy Cowen But there is always someone to replace them. So what would you do? What would you hope that your children and grandchildren do to keep us going? The stock market punishes anything other than growth. We cannot grow infinitely (on this world). So how to we make sure humanity (such as it is at times) isn't a galactic flash in the pan?
  
  August 7 at 10:23am · · 1
- Jim Mathews Our civilization has been built on technology and abundant, convenient and cheap fuel. The infrastructure up till now has been very robust because we are still operating on much of that infrastructure. We are facing many challenges before we even try and tackle expensive, inefficient and so far not sustainable without major government involvement which is why industry has only taken only a research interest.....
  
  August 7 at 1:04pm ·
- Andy Cowen
  
  Again... What would you do if the limitations you specified were removed? Brainstorm with me. Science tells us some simple truths. As long as there is a difference, power can be generated. Take a fan that was still and put it into the flow ...See More
  
  August 7 at 2:08pm ·
- Andy Cowen
  
  Sustainability is not just power... It's also agricultural. Currently our farmland and crops have been engineered to over produce. It strips all the nutrients out of the land leaving nothing for the next crop. All the nutrients have to be ...See More
  
  August 7 at 2:15pm ·
- Jim Mathews
  
  Well, of course with unlimited resources and all those resources going to solve the problem instead of lining peoples pockets..... sorry, off subject, we could make anything we wanted. The technology is there. one of the problems is the pop...See More
  
  August 7 at 5:26pm ·
- Andy Cowen I think it may be a matter of population distribution.
  
  August 7 at 5:39pm ·
- Jim Mathews yes, that is definately a problem. the other problem is transporting food and resources to the population
  
  August 7 at 6:07pm ·
- Tom Houston Hydroponic Skyscraper Farms, about 1 square acre by about 100 stories tall. :)
  
  August 7 at 6:09pm · · 1

Responses from Google+ (my wall is PUBLIC, so always remember that the world will see it.):

AWE... Nothing today from G+