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reforestation and rewilding of the planet will require a vision of 'terraforming earth'. for every human habitat, farm, land used to sustain humanity, an equal
by jelliclesfarm 5y ago
reforestation and rewilding of the planet will require a vision of 'terraforming earth'. for every human habitat, farm, land used to sustain humanity, an equal acreage of land should be allowed go 'back to nature'.
example: if someone were to build a factory on an acre of land or a dense residential neighbourhood of an acre or farming on an acre land..all these activities should be compensated by re-naturing land or conserving habitat elsewhere where human activities arent feasible.
the problem with solutions like high density housing being touted as 'sustainable' is that they are truly sustainable only if the goal is to consume less. putting multiple high human density settlements next to each other and even looking at non habitable terrain to build homes and grow food is just daft because as super apex predators we need habitat and other species for our survival. if we cant eat or breathe or maintain air quality or bring down global temperature by 2 degrees, its the literal end of humanity.
even if we manage to survive, depopulation is a guarantee. when the world has lesser humans, we need sufficient resources for them to thrive and survive. if we dwindle or become handicapped due to no foundational habitat to rely on, again it will just be a slower and more deprived extinction of the species.
the replacement rate has been 2.2 forever. and we are living longer and our population has doubled in 40 years. population grows exponentially. resources don't. human needs also grows exponentially. thats the problem in the nutshell.
it's already too late. the carrying capacity of the planet is likely 2-3 billion. we can comfortably exist at 1 billion. people will die. our descendants need to survive. creating more people will jeopradise the entire species and shrink resources to a dangerously low level.
if our population continues to breed at the current rate, i would say that in 250-400 years, we might face the danger of extinction. but if we control population to 1/2 surviving child per woman, maybe in 150 years, we can stabilise population to carrying capacity.
we must also need to find ways to preserve genetic material for diversity of our species. only recently we have been able to create pluripotent and embryonic cells from skin/dermal cells. ectogensis or artificial wombs will be useful to create not just carefully curated humans but also for cloning purposes. it is possible that we might become an immortal species. it is certainly within the realm of possibility.
we could clone bodies to swap or replace failing organs or congenital illnesses. we could be our own children. we could have progeny with multiple partners and dna combinations.
if religion would permit us. that is the only stumbling block i see for us to become immortals.
because..if we could be immortal, we would be gods.
but thats thinking too far ahead. first, survival. for that we need to reforest and rewild planet earth. starting with soil and then forests and then protect watersheds and marine ecology. the sooner we get started the better.