Posted on 06/17/2012 4:57:49 AM PDT by jmcenanly
John S. Dykes
In Rio next week, we'll again be told the Earth is on the verge of collapse— but for new reasons.
Part of the preamble to Agenda 21, the action plan that came out of the Rio Earth Summit of 1992, reads: "We are confronted with a perpetuation of disparities between and within nations, a worsening of poverty, hunger, ill health and illiteracy, and the continuing deterioration of the ecosystems on which we depend for our well-being."
In the 20 years since, something embarrassing has happened: a sharp decrease in poverty, hunger, ill health and illiteracy and a marked reduction in these global disparities. The conference that begins next week in Rio de Janeiro, on the 20th anniversary of the first Earth Summit, will nonetheless remain resolutely pessimistic about the planet's ecosystems and their capacity to support human beings indefinitely if economic growth continues. The reasoning has changed over time, however.
The original claim, based on the influential 1972 best seller "The Limits to Growth," by the Club of Rome, was that resources would have begun to run out by now. Instead supplies of minerals have increased, thanks to ingenuity, technology and demand
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
When you are limited only by how fast you can print money - everybody can be a millionaire!
By that measure, Weimar Germany and Mugabe’s Zimbabwe are among the wealthiest nations in history. However, due to technological advances, many of the necessities of life are cheaper to produce than they would have been. It is also these Malthusians who rail against any technological advance.
eating or damaging just 23.8% of the vegetation growing on landDoes anybody have any idea WTF they even think they mean?
If I clear weeds in my back yard and plant carrots, and then eat the carrots and replant them every year, what am I "eating or damaging", and WTF does it even mean?
These people are not just lunatics, they are 100% clinically insane.
How much do they get paid? Who's paying them?
The Malthusians should lead by example. Funny, but they’re still here and living. How odd.
There is one constant to their ever-changing story— destroy liberty and prosperity.
If they cared about the environment, they would all be at home on their computors watching the proceedings. But no, they have to dine on the very best, sneer at poor people, and polute the water waste system of Rio.
If they cared about the environment, they would all be at home on their computors watching the proceedings. But no, they have to dine on the very best, sneer at poor people, and polute the water waste system of Rio.But what you probably don't understand is that the masters think better when they can get together in luxurious circumstances, especially at a location where the servants work so cheap.
And what else you probably don't understand (and I've actually been told this by a wanna-be-maaster), that we're beyond the point where limiting personal consumption can actually do any good.
What we need now are massive global government steps to coerce the non-masters into a "smaller footprint", and if this requires that the masters get together in luxury to come up with ways to advance this cause, then so be it.
And by the way, masters also think with a clearer head when they return to comfortable homes, so that explains why they leave the airconditiong running while they're away.
As for the wanna-be-masters I alluded to a moment ago, they are the run-of-the-mill leftist schmucks who picture themselves as part of the Master Class but who, in reality, will be kept around as long as the masters need foot soldiers but who are all totally expendable. They are just too stupid to know it.
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