OPINIONS

1. We don't need perpetual growth, Earth cannot sustain it.
2. Overpopulation is turning the world into a wasteland that will soon be fit only for robots, everything attractive and interesting is being destroyed.
3. South American people are spreading through the Amazon rainforest like locusts, destroying every living plant and turning the land into a desert (after one or two crops the land is exhausted and the slashers and burners move on). The rain forest acts a bit like blotting paper to carry water across the continent, the rain falls, evaporates in the heat, gets carried on, falls again etc right across the continent, once most of the forest has gone this cycle will stop and most of Brazil could become like the Sahara, there will be little chance of ever restoring it to it's former glory. The basic cause, as with locusts, is excessive breeding leading to over-population, it threatens to devastate the whole world. Large families were necessary when most people died young, now they are a disaster. South America is largely a Catholic continent and that could be a large part of the problem. The lunatic belief of the Catholic hierarchy that nothing should interfere with their hypothetical God's production of children will condemn us all to a life like that of locusts or lemmings very soon if nothing is done to stop the rot. I heard an interview with a Brazilian woman on a Radio 4 program a short while ago, she lived in an area in the north of the country currently badly affected by drought and was having a hard time but she had nine children, quite likely she had nine brothers and sisters too, Chinese style birth control seems to be the only way to solve this problem.
4. The whole world will be adversely affected by what is happening in South America but the international community does nothing to intervene effectively. It is essential that nation states are prevented from allowing things to happen that are detrimental to Earth's environment.
5. In the last hundred or so years human activity has been catastrophic for many animal species, including some of the most attractive ones, largely due to the destruction of their habitats. The human race has already demonstrated it's capacity and willingness to destroy and degrade large parts of it's own habitat for short term benefits, there is clearly a very real risk that human activity could have catastrophic effects on the human race itself.
6. The world is already grossly over-populated with human beings but the total population is still rising rapidly, particularly in the poorest countries. The world population cannot go on rising indefinitely, if we don't control it in a benign way ourselves it will eventually be limited in nature's crude and cruel way, any form of civilisation may become impossible, human life itself could become impossible.
7. It is predicted that the human population of Earth will peak at about 10 billion, about double the present figure. How is it going to be limited at that level and is it sensible to allow it to rise to that level?
8. It seems to be taken for granted that by the time we have completely fouled up Earth we will have conquered Space and will be able to find other planets to live on. The only other body in our solar system that might possibly be made just about habitable is Mars. (Scientists think that by a process called terraforming, Mars could be given an atmosphere and climate that would make life there possible although probably not very attractive. It is estimated that the process would take tens of thousands of years. It starts with the production and release of powerful greenhouse gases on the planet, this warms the surface causing the frozen carbon dioxide at the poles to become gas. This increases the warming effect and releases more gases believed to be trapped in the surface layers. I think ice below the surface melts at some stage then bacteria are introduced to produce oxygen and gradually a succession of more and more complex plant life forms are introduced. Even after completion of the process I think it is expected that humans would have to live inside sealed, pressurised structures and use respirators whenever they went outside. I don't think Mars is going to provide a solution to Earth's population problems.)
9. It doesn't seem very likely that large numbers of people will ever be able to leave our solar system and move to a planet orbiting another star, the distances and difficulties are so great. It may very well prove impossible for anybody to do this. Star Trek, Star Wars and other such stories give a false impression, they ought to be categorised as Future Fantasy rather than Science Fiction. The biggest obstacle to interstellar travel could be something called the Oort Cloud, a deep (1.5 light years deep) band of debris thought to completely surround the Sun (and similar stars probably) in all directions and starting somewhere out beyond the orbit of Pluto. Getting a space craft through this safely at a reasonable speed could prove to be an insurmountable problem. (A flake of paint can do serious damage to a satellite orbiting the earth at about 20,000 miles an hour. A space craft travelling at a constant 20,000 miles a second, approx. 1/9th the speed of light, would take over 36 earth years to reach the nearest star which is over 4 light years away.) I have read (in an article in Scientific American I think) that thermonuclear power can't provide sufficient energy for an interstellar space flight, the same source seemed to suggest that the reaction of normal matter with anti-matter, in which all the mass of both is turned into energy, could. Only a tiny amount of anti-matter (a total of a few grams or milligrams, I don't remember which) has been produced on Earth, transiently in particle accelerators and no doubt at great expense. I also read recently that an American University has been given a contract to develop a storage container for anti-matter, it is difficult to see how a safe container for more than a very tiny amount could be constructed from normal matter as the two substances annihilate each other with extreme violence if they come together. It is difficult to see how a matter/anti-matter propulsion system can ever be developed. I don't think warp drives, worm holes or anything else is much more promising, it certainly isn't sensible to gamble that these things are going to be developed. There must be some limit to what humans can do and there must be a possibility that it has almost been reached. We have already developed very much further and achieved very much more than all the species that are now extinct managed to.
10. The few areas of rainforest left are still being destroyed at a rapid rate, it is crazy that it is allowed to continue.
11. Large parts of Brazil seem to be in serious danger of becoming a desert similar to the Sahara just to provide a fairly small proportion of the population of the country with a very temporary subsistence. This isn't just Brazil's problem, it has global implications but our politicians stand by and do virtually nothing even though there are known to be ways of making the forest much more productive and able to support a larger population without destroying it or damaging it unacceptably.
12. Similarly irresponsible vandalism, dangerous to the world's ecosystem, is going on in other places, either because of population pressure or profiteering (from hardwood logging for example) but it seems that nothing will be done to stop it until it is too late.
13. We should be working hard to turn existing deserts back into productive land not creating new ones. If terraforming Mars is a possibility then reclaiming barren land here should be fairly easy. It is being done successfully in some places. Yesterday I came across a superb Atlas in the local library, leafing through it I came across a photograph of Saudi Arabia, taken from a spacecraft, which showed a band of farms/smallholdings on a plateau in the middle of the desert. Apparently these farms are possible because there is an aquifer beneath them which contains water that has accumulated over a very long period. The water is being used for irrigation and is enabling Saudi Arabia to be self-sufficient in food. The water will only last for a limited time, it isn't being replenished at anything like the rate at which it is being extracted, but it illustrates that food can be produced even in the most barren and unlikely places. There are other examples of desolate places that have been made fertile in a sustainable way. According to a recent article in New Scientist, satellite images indicate that the Sahel region just south of the Sahara has got noticeably greener over the last decade or so, this is thought to be partly due to the introduction of simple new farming techniques such as the introduction of goat rearing and the slowing of water run off from the land by means of rows of stones along the contours.
14. We are letting the world be destroyed.
15. It seems highly unlikely that human beings will ever be able to reach any solar system other than the one we are in, except in very small numbers perhaps, since the amount of energy required to get them there in a reasonable amount of time is so prodigious. Worm holes and warp drives are probably just fantasies. Thousands of species have come into existence and disappeared into extinction without achieving the feat, there is little reason for our fate to be any different. We have to preserve this planet, it is the only one we are ever likely to have.
16. Back in April (2002) the BBC broadcast a weather forecast before the 8am news that predicted a peak temperature of 104 degrees fahrenheit, it turned out to be a projection forward to what the temperatures are expected to be in April 2100 if nothing effective is done about global warming. More recently we have heard of six hundred Indians dying in a heat wave in India in temperatures up to 49 degrees centigrade, 120.2 fahrenheit; if their temperatures rise by the same amount as ours appear to be expected to (104 - 74? = 30 degrees F ???) I should think millions of Indians will die in heat waves.
17. The Fat Rats have found a new way to feed their egos and get one up on just about everybody else, take expensive joy rides into space.
18. The current, chemical reaction powered spacecraft are hopelessly inadequate for any serious sort of space travel.
19. Another Fat Rat takes a joy ride into space to inflate his poisonous ego even more. He tells us that Earth is unbelievably beautiful from space. Most of us are able to judge this for ourselves from the photographs published in glossy magazines, we don't need to peer through the probably not very clear window of a spacecraft. The planet wouldn't stay beautiful for long if everybody else was as self indulgent, the profligate waste of resources and energy this would entail would probably destroy it. Russian launchers used to be powered by hydrazine/nitric acid propellant and probably still are, the products of combustion of this deadly mixture lay waste to the area around the launch site causing the death of farm animals, serious sickness in the human population and the birth of badly deformed babies. People, however rich, shouldn't be allowed to exacerbate these problems merely to satisfy their vanity and be one up on everybody else.
20. The greed, self-indulgence and decadence of the rich are destroying the planet.
21. Some radioactive waste with a long half-life can be converted to short half-life material by irradiation with neutrons, thus making it easier to deal with? Has it been established whether this can, or is likely to significantly reduce the radioactive waste disposal problem?
22. A recent issue of Scientific American reported significant advances in the design of nuclear reactors, largely in the direction of making them smaller and therefore much cheaper to build, (and easier to decommission?). Work on nuclear power station development needs to continue, at least at a low level, in case this form of power generation becomes essential in the not very distant future. France generates about 80% of it's electricity in nuclear power stations while we only get about 20% of ours from this source. The French standard of living is now higher than ours, perhaps this is part of the reason (although that probably isn't very likely).
23. Commuting more than five miles to work to be forbidden?

POLICIES

Far stronger measures should be taken to reduce green-house gas emissions and other forms of pollution and waste. These might include:-

1. The introduction of an upper limit of 1.5 (or 1.3?) litres for the engine size of passenger cars designed for normal use on the road. Engine sizes seem to be increasing to US levels in Europe. This week I have read of a new 400bhp Jaguar and a 270bhp W8 engined Volkswagen, both saloons. Cars like these and the monster 4 wheel drive vehicles coming on to the market are a criminally irresponsible, self-indulgent extravagance in the current circumstances. Most of them just poodle around no faster than a sub-mini with just one person on board most of the time, they are "I am more vain and irresponsible than you" symbols.
2. The use of high performance cars might be restricted to race tracks and, perhaps, the drive between home and track. It might also be possible to derestrict suitable roads for a period early on Sunday mornings so that speed freaks could get their fix.
3. A priority should be given to the development of lightweight electric vehicles for use in towns and cities, the tonnage of metal that is being shifted around now to move a couple of hundred pounds of human flesh and bone is ridiculous. Hopefully, it would be possible for these vehicles to pick up their power from conductors in the road rather than carrying around a large weight of batteries, fuel cells or whatever (the trams in central London used to get their power from a slot in the road, Scalextric style). The weight of racing cycles for events such as the Tour de France can be less than 15 lbs now and the riders can average over thirty miles an hour in short time trials (25 miles) with their power output of about 0.5HP but even the lightest cars, the Lotus Elise or Fiat 600 say, weigh about 1500 lbs and need far more HP. It ought to be possible to build a one adult + one (or two) child vehicle weighing less than 250 lbs with a 5 HP motor that would be adequate for use around town, (towns without steep hills anyway).
4. Cars might be made public property so that far fewer would be needed. One would simply grab the nearest one, swipe one's credit card through it's meter and drive off. The meter might communicate details of the usage to a billing centre by radio or other means. A solution to the problem of all the vehicles tending to collect in one or two places would probably be necessary.
5. The design of most new homes seems to be archaic, much more energy efficient designs ought to be feasible without the development of any startlingly new technology.
6. A considerable amount of attention is being paid to wind power generation now but it seems to be concentrated almost entirely on wind farms on bare hill sides or at sea. I would have thought that banks of small wind turbines between suitably shaped tall buildings, or possibly arranged down the corners of conventionally shaped tall buildings could generate useful amounts of energy and would be less of an eyesore. The power generated could be used for heating the buildings directly, feeding into the distribution system or for producing hydrogen by electrolysis. It might be difficult to achieve acceptable noise levels though. Could wind turbines in the roofs of domestic homes be cost efficient?
7. Plastic packaging to be banned except for foodstuffs that have to be kept in sealed containers. Even in this case, aluminium foil should be substituted for plastic where possible. A lot of aluminium foil (the thicker stuff used for pies, cakes and take-away meals at least) should be recycled.
8. There should be a ban on free newspapers and restrictions on advertising that just wastes paper and the recipient's time.

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