: The Scare of the Week, what's next?: We were told by Ehrlich that "population", a euphemism for you average folks (and you average folks know who you are out there), was a "Time Bomb" waiting to explode back in the 60's. Population has since doubled and we are better fed now than then.
Untrue. If you check the UN Human Development Report 1999, it concludes quite unequivocally that the gap between rich and poor has never been wider (in real terms, not merely financial ones).
You may be better fed; however, as the 1996 Development Report shows, over 40,000 children under 5 die every year from poverty-related causes; more than at any other time in history.
As scarce natural resources like fresh water become harder to find, this will get worse.
: We were told that the earth will bake in 30 years time (perhaps now 29 and counting, thus more reason to worry, because it was stated last year) due to green house gases.
No we weren't, Robert, stop being ridiculous.
What has been said is that climatic change due to human influence will have a harmful effect on the human environment. So, for example, the effects of global warming will probably cause an extra 15% of the world's population to live in malarial zones - currently the figure is ~45%; this is predicted to rise to ~60% over this century.
I should point out that these conclusions come from a Christian-founded organisation; it is one of the conclusions of the 1999 Human Disasters Report published by the International Red Cross.
: Of course on the original so-called Earth Day in 1970, the jibe of the day was global cooling from emissions causing a massive freeze. I guess, in this case, 30 years is not a blip on the geologic time scale for such flippancy.
Environmental disasters in 1998 caused 58% of the total refugees worldwide; it is now the number one cause of refugees.
(Same source; the Red Cross.)
: Ozone depletion will scald you in a few years.
Actually, the largest yet Arctic ozone hole is due to affect Northern latitudes this spring and summer; last year's climatic conditions (frequent regions of slow-moving high-pressure) was particularly conducive to ozone destruction; anyone going outside in latitudes above 53.N would do well to use some form of sunscreen.
: One regular contributor to this chat page even stirred worry about a Y2K induced nuclear exchange between the Americans and the Russians. Whew, I'm glad we made it through the new year. Anyone in the market for 50 cases of bottled water? You can stock up now for Y3K.
Next significant date is 2038, actually; it's when 32-bit dates will run out.
: Apparently AIDS is now actively seeking you out. We were told in the 80's that it would double every year. At that rate there would have been well over a billion, perhaps even half the earth's population, infected by now.
Robert, you really don't understand this 'science' thing, do you?
Just for the record, here are some facts and stats; correct as of December 1998;
At the end of 1998;
1. Approximately 33.4 million cases of AIDS had been recorded; 32.2 million adults and 1.2 million children.
2. Approximately 1 in every 100 people in the 15-49 age group is HIV-positive.
3. AIDS caused the deaths of 2.5 million people in 1998; of whom 510,000 were under 15. The cumulative total estimate of AIDS-related deaths was 13.9 million people; 10.7 million adults and 3.2 million children.
(UN update; cumulative total at the end of 1999 is now 16.3 million.)
(90% of child cases were contracted through the mother prenatally.)
4. During 1998, roughly 7000 people aged between 10 and 24 became infected with AIDS per day; five new cases every minute. That's a total of 2.56 million new AIDS patients in the 10-24 age group alone.
(U.N. update; 5.6 million new cases in 1999)
5. Worldwide, 43% of those with AIDS are female.
6. In 1991, the percentage of heterosexually-contracted AIDS as a fraction of the whole was 8.5%. In 1996, the same fraction was 17.5%
7. AIDS is now the fifth-highest killer in the 25-44 age group.
8. Worldwide, the percentage of AIDS cases resulting from heterosexual contact is over 75%.
(Sources: the U.N., the Lancet, the American Medical Association.)
: Perhaps we should take a breather from this kind of sensationalism. Chill and be still.
How very un-Christian of you, Robert.
There are millions of people dying of starvation and poverty and disease every day; a greater fraction of the population than ever before are suffering and starving; and your response is that it's all a phoney, that we've never had it so good, and that the West should just lie back and ignore it.
In the last 20 years, 3.6 million children (under 15) have died of AIDS. How is it their fault?
Are you going to produce sanctimonious denunciations of AIDS victims as 'unnatural beings' (despite the solid evidence to the contrary)? Are you going to insist that it's really not your problem, because you're far holier than they are; far too holy to ever contract AIDS...
The holiest thing about you is your line of argument, Robert.
: Moreover, these types of scares are so politicised that rationality is the last thing considered.
Millions of people are dying of preventable causes. Action on our part could help them. Where's the irrationality in that?
: More often, there is someone reaping more control over the lives of the zealots who take up the emotional charge. What's the next Scare of the Week?
Really, Robert, you are incorrigable; you persistently flounce around declaring this and that to be an evil anarchist or 'Imperial Communist' conspiracy and yet ignore some of the basic beneficial tenets of Christianity (i.e. charity; forgiveness; tolerance).
You are a Pharisee and a hypocrite.
And you've had any amount of painstaking explanations of science from myself and Floyd; yet you persist in trying to twist our words to suit your purposes; you are deliberately bearing false witness.
And you'll now probably be poised to write one of your venomous and twisted replies dressed up as holy concern for my eternal soul.
Do us all a favour and stick it; I really don't care. Before you say it, I'm not upset by you, nor am I threatening you, I just really don't give a toss; your arguments are so flimsy as to be transparent; and whenever anyone demonstrates this, you start bullshitting and accusing them of Nazism.
You are always as blind as you want to be.
Farinata.
