Climate Change

"quis custodiet custodies?"

It is all a matter of education, not coercion, isn't it? But very full on education, and it is not going to happen quickly. Planning too is of the essence; I don't think there is any doubt that overpopulation is at the root of many of the world's problems.

(As are greed, self interest and general selfishness on the part of more economically developed countries.)

Sorry, nag, just being naughty

Bags! No need to apologise!

I got all excited then, I thought the wide lines had gone, but it was only another page starting... (I have 50 on posts on a page)

Sorry, back to the discussion in hand...

nag Bags

Heyariadne that's MY LATIN TAG ( its the only one I know!) hands off!

'Quis custodet ipsos custodes' to be accurate. [smug emoticon] Why are we suddenly spouting Latin?

I did it much earlier in this thread but nobody noticed my erudition!
That's my word of the day "erudite" and it's deririvatives! I've used it three times so far!
Have to go and think of a word for tomorrow now?
Might use esoteric! Not to be confused with erotic!

I did! I noticed!

I say, jeni! I noticed!

I thought it perfectly apt.

Apt. There's a nice word.

I noticed your erudite usage too.

Esoteric is one of my faves too.

Hey, guys (whispering!), some people might get a bit cross at all this frivolity.

Mind you, it does ease the tension.

As you were

Oops sorry! ( humbly crawls away)

The important message seems to me to be - educate women. This applies to population control as well as to alleviating child poverty and progress towards world peace. (Let's not underestimate the effects!) It does appear that if women have power to control their own lives they will have fewer children, if only because they know enough to keep the ones they have as healthy as possible. Surely Gransnetters can support the principle that girls should be educated to as high a standard as boys.

All civilised people recognise that, when, by definition — because if they don't, then they aren't civilised.

Like Angela Merkel?

"what are you on about? "

Well. that's a nice way to put it!

annobel seems to have managed to understand what I meant.

"Quid custodet......" There was a song in my youth that went "Who takes care of the caretaker's daughter Who checks and sees that she's doing what she oughta while the caretaker's busy taking care?"

Sorry, that was a frivolous aside and irrelevant to population control or climate change but now the tune is running through my head.

j04 what have I managed to understand? I can't remember...

Well I have been accused in the past (ie people got personal about me rather than addressing what I was trying to convey) and I suppose it has made me a bit sensitive but I apologise if I got it wrong. So now I just have absolutely no understanding of what she was saying ??

Yet another paper confirming, yet again, that current warming and current temperatures would appear to be nothing new, this time from the East China Sea

I suspect that the human race will bring about its own demise – with a bang, not a whimper. At any given time, there are umpteen wars going on all over the world. Weapons of mass destruction already exist in the form of nuclear weapons and the search goes on for ever more destructive devices. Senior military in the Pentagon have, from time to time, expressed impatience with not being able to deploy their most recent toys and it's extremely likely that senior military figures elsewhere share this resentment. I reckon it's only a matter of time before the world's population is dramatically reduced or wiped out all together. Not that this is a comforting thought.

It's not a particularly a bothering thought either since there's damn all we can do about it. Plenty of other things to tackle in a practical way that we actually can change (and are changing) in a relatively short time-scale.

Bags and I agree. When the time comes for humanity to vacate this planet, there will be no turning back. So, as we're custodians for a relatively piddling length of time, enjoy the moment and let's do what we can to improve that which can be bettered. Which reminds me...Pepper's portrait calls.

absent, thanks for those words of solace. Perhaps we should all go over to the Antipodes where it might - just might - be out of the way of the loonies....?

Oh, Annobel, have you never read "On the Beach" by Nevil Shute? It gave me nightmares and I've never dared to read it again, but it describes what happens to people in Australia after the Northern Hemisphere has had a nuclear war, and it is so depressing as they know what is going to happen to them and can do nothing about it.

But there is stuff we can do - and most of them benefit us in any case.
I think we owe it to our species but I am sure there are philosophical arguments that say we do not. The question is: do we have responsibilities? to the human race? Think about it, because, if we don't, then that leads to out and out anarchy or total nihilism!