Sir David Attenborough: “We are a plague on the Earth"

Sir David Attenborough's cheerful message to humanity:

The famous documentary-maker, who is set to launch new series David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities next week, explained in an interview with Radio Times that humans have become nothing short of a "plague" on this planet:

“We are a plague on the Earth. It’s coming home to roost over the next 50 years or so."

“It’s not just climate change; it’s sheer space, places to grow food for this enormous horde... Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us, and the natural world is doing it for us right now.”

Will the broadcaster soon tell us who is going to make the decisions about life and death on planet earth? 

This is what experts say:

The global population will continue to grow for decades. "But," says Wolfgang Lutz, "that shouldn't distract us from the fact that an entirely different development has been underway for some time." Lutz is the director of the Vienna-based International Institute for Applied System Analysis (IIASA) and one of the world's most prominent demographers. As he sees it, it is "highly probable that mankind will begin to shrink by 2060 or 2070." --

Africa's growing population could by all means feed itself in the future. Agriculture is still very unproductive in many places, admits Harald von Witzke, an agricultural economist with the Berlin-based Humboldt Forum for Food and Agriculture. But, he adds, "harvests can be greatly increased with a little fertilizer and a few technical tricks."

As Witzke sees it, the vision of doom associated with a rapidly growing population merely blinds us to the actual solutions. "The causes of underdevelopment and hunger don't lie in large numbers of people," he says.

My message to Sir David: Time to retire. 

Oxford professor mesmerizes "progressive" theater audiences with one-man global warming and overpopulation show

"Ten Billion isn’t quite a play but it’s certainly the most scary show in London"
Mail on Sunday


The winners of UK Theatre Awards 2012 will be announced on October 28. In the category "Best Horror Performance" Oxford professor Stephen Emmott, head of Microsoft's Computational Science Laboratory, should easily be the winner. Emmott's one-man show "Ten Billion", devised by theater director Katie Mitchell, has had a successful two-week run at the Royal Court Theater in London.

Liberal and "progressive" audiences were apparently mesmerized by professor Emmott's tale of an "unprecedented planetary emergency" (due to human induced global warming and overpopulation):

“I’m here because I’m concerned,” the computer scientist began his presentation in somber tones to hushed, expectant audiences in London. “I’m concerned about the state of the planet.”

He proceeded to narrate his vision of a world that is a “living hell” in which we are at war over land, food, and water as a world population of 10 billion scrabbles over resources.

Indeed, migration will be motivated not by choice or economic necessity by the end of the century, but by human survival.

“By 2100, the terms ‘climate conflict,’ ‘water wars,’ and ‘resource conflict’ will become highly likely in parts of the world,” Emmott told CNBC. “I envisage a world of severe land, agricultural and water stress as a result of population growth, land degradation, and climate change.”

Emmott believes global average temperatures could rise by as much as 6 degrees Celsius (around 11 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100, an “utterly catastrophic” possibility.

As people flee to cooler climes, Britain will develop militarized borders to stave off mass immigration. “Climate migrant” could become an everyday term, he said.

Indeed, "we are screwed” when the world population hits 10 billion unless we stop having children and curb our rampant use of energy and water, Emmott said, reeling off everyday facts to exemplify the energy use we take for granted every day.

The production of a single cup of coffee requires 100 liters (26 gallons) of water, while a chocolate bar draws upon 27,000 liters (7,132 gallons). Even a simple computer search for www.CNBC.com consumes the same energy as boiling a kettle.

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“People say we can ‘technologize’ our way out of this, but I am unconvinced of this ... to avoid some catastrophic outcome, we are going to radically change the way we live, and our economies, principally, consuming much, much less."

He added: "[I’m not] confident at all, to be honest.”

Read the entire article here

PS

If professor Emmott's chocolate bar computation is true, Greenpeace, the Friends of the Earth and other envirofundamentalist NGO's should immediately stop their campaigns against fracking (which they are blaming for wasteful use of water) and start a global anti-chocolate movement instead. After all, the water needed for fracking pales in comparison with the production of choco bars!

Of course Dr. Emmott's show also has an official sponsor, the European Commission, an institution that lavishly supports almost any project featuring human caused "climate change" .