an old french riddle
July 16th 2008 00:32
Last night I attended a lecture at Sydney Uni given by Professor Jeffrey Sachs. He concluded the lecture with an old French riddle
The answer was the scary part, especially if you put it into the context of his speech, which was highlighting the explosive population growth the planet has experienced since the industrial revolution - when there was under a billion people to the current figure of circa 6.7 billion - and that this population growth is putting all sorts of pressure on the planet. No-one knows how close we are to capacity. Climate Change is pretty much just one of a plethora of things that can and already is going wrong because the earth is creaking under our weight.
or another way of looking at it is this quote click here for source
He was asking the question are we at the 29th day? The pond may seem ok because it is half full but by tomorrow, right before our eyes it could be full.
Among a lot of other interesting points he made he also stated we are in the Anthropocene Era defined on wiki as
I guess maybe that is stating the obvious but I found it interesting and very true. WE as humans are driving this planet, in effect we are nature, we can either destroy the whole thing or create a better place for all of us to live. We have a choice today, but possibly not tomorrow if the pond gets full.
cheers
Louie
P.S. hope those little froggies aren't gay, might upset a few people!!!!
''At first there is only one lily pad in the pond, but the next day it doubles, and thereafter each of its descendants doubles. The pond completely fills up with lily pads in 30 days. When is the pond exactly half full?
Answer: on the 29th day.''
Answer: on the 29th day.''
The answer was the scary part, especially if you put it into the context of his speech, which was highlighting the explosive population growth the planet has experienced since the industrial revolution - when there was under a billion people to the current figure of circa 6.7 billion - and that this population growth is putting all sorts of pressure on the planet. No-one knows how close we are to capacity. Climate Change is pretty much just one of a plethora of things that can and already is going wrong because the earth is creaking under our weight.
or another way of looking at it is this quote click here for source
The entomologist Edward O. Wilson uses this riddle to illustrate the urgency of our ecological crisis. ''Because earth is finite in many resources that determine the quality of life - including arable soil, nutrients, fresh water, and space for natural ecosystems - doubling of consumption at constant intervals can bring disaster with shocking suddenness. Even when a nonrenewable resource has been only half used, it is still only one interval away from the end.'' The 29th day can feel like a normal day - look how much room is left in the pond - but it can actually be the eve of catastrophe. Only those who are paying close attention may see the dire significance of the day, but by then their biggest problem is the complacency of those who do not know what time it is.
He was asking the question are we at the 29th day? The pond may seem ok because it is half full but by tomorrow, right before our eyes it could be full.
Among a lot of other interesting points he made he also stated we are in the Anthropocene Era defined on wiki as
The term Anthropocene is used by some scientists to describe the most recent period in the Earth's history. It has no precise start date, but may be considered to start in the late 18th century when the activities of the humans first began to have a significant global impact on the Earth's climate and ecosystems. This date coincides with James Watt's invention of the steam engine in 1784.[1] The term was coined in 2000 by the Nobel Prize winning atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen, who regards the influence of human behavior on the Earth in recent centuries as so significant as to constitute a new geological era.
I guess maybe that is stating the obvious but I found it interesting and very true. WE as humans are driving this planet, in effect we are nature, we can either destroy the whole thing or create a better place for all of us to live. We have a choice today, but possibly not tomorrow if the pond gets full.
cheers
Louie
P.S. hope those little froggies aren't gay, might upset a few people!!!!
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p/s-to-your-p/s...<LOL> ...luv the pix of the froggies!