Thread: Sand! Is civilization slipping through "It's fingers"?

Originally Posted by gssixgun

To many people

Just another naturally occurring item(s).

There is plenty of sand. Just not where we want it. It's one resource we will never use up. Nature produces more of it through erosion in one year than we use in 100 years or more.

Sand along the coasts migrate. It's depending on climate and currents and ocean dynamics. This has been going on forever and folks have been dealing with it for a very long time.

As an island dweller I am concerned about many things, sand, bees, ocean garbage, fish stocks are all on my mind from time to time. Part of our problem is our meddling. We as humans always want more, and we want it faster, and cheaper. It is all disrupting the balances that nature had originally put in place. We have polluted in ways and in volumes we have not even begun to fathom. We have messed with millions of years of genetics for faster growing and higher yielding crops that will resist the broad spectrum herbicides that would otherwise decrease yields. For that the bee may be the one that pays the price, however in the end, without our helper, we may pay too. We have done a lot of damage for a long time, and there is way too many of us, in centralized locations. We easily have enough food to feed the world, just not where everyone is. By having high expectations that are unsustainable there is an inevitable consequence, that we are yet to discover. If every year we make more than we did the year before, and higher percentages of people have a higher standard of living, and more and more it is an unsustainable curve. We cannot continue and not expect that it is not going to crash.

I will start with I am a beekeeper and so have interest in the issues relating to them but many times I wonder if people realize that the European honey bee is an invasive species that was introduced by man to most of the world?

Apropos ..........;

Expert to Rio athletes: 'Don't put your head under water'

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Apropos ..........;

Expert to Rio athletes: 'Don't put your head under water'

Got to love the politically correct geniuses at the IOC. I have traveled to Rio many times in my life. You want party, thats your place, no doubt about it. God knows how much fun I had. For the Olympics? Not a chance.

Originally Posted by RezDog

As an island dweller I am concerned about many things, sand, bees, ocean garbage, fish stocks are all on my mind from time to time. Part of our problem is out meddling. We as humans always want more, and we want it faster, and cheaper. It is all disrupting the balances that nature had originally put in place. We have polluted in ways and in volumes we have not even begun to fathom. We have messed with millions of years of genetics for faster growing and higher yielding crops that will resist the broad spectrum herbicides that would otherwise decrease yields. For that the bee may be the one that pays the price, however in the end, without our helper, we may pay too. We have done a lot of damage for a long time, and there is way too many of us, in centralized locations. We easily have enough food to feed the world, just not where everyone is. By having high expectations that are unsustainable there is an inevitable consequence, that we are yet to discover. If every year we make more than we did the year before, and higher percentages of people have a higher standard of living, and more and more it is an unsustainable curve. We cannot continue and not expect that it is not going to crash.

Pretty much, well put.

Bob

I don't know how many of you have cultured bacteria in a shaker flask, but they have a standard growth curve that I often think of when considering our planet's population growth. This curve always happens when you have exponential growth with finite resources; and no matter your leanings politically or scientifically, the resources on this planet ARE finite.

Originally Posted by Utopian

I don't know how many of you have cultured bacteria in a shaker flask, but they have a standard growth curve that I often think of when considering our planet's population growth. This curve always happens when you have exponential growth with finite resources; and no matter your leanings politically or scientifically, the resources on this planet ARE finite.

So you're saying there are only so many coticules and J-nats ?

I have always wondered about these doom and gloom stories and how the oceans have risen hundreds of feet, we are all going to die. Then I look at this and think - if the oceans have risen as much as they say - why isn't the end of the great wall of China - that was built in to the sea - under water?