it comes in pints?

What she said.

I don't know. CNN pointed out that this is now a world that is vastly different than the one the baby boomers grew up in. I mean, won't somebody think of the baby boomers for once?!?!?!?

That's a bone of contention for me too, Marc. Jeebus, the world is a "vastly different" place for twenty-year-olds than it was when I was their age. I hate people who romanticize eras like that.

That, and these articles are the same damn story that comes out every year for probably 30 maybe even 40 years. I'm shocked I haven't seen Paul Ehrlich quoted in any of the stories yet. It's always a "wake up call", and the bold solutions are always the same: Forced (or strongly encouraged) centralization of living and commerce ("build up, not out" as Al Gore liked to say) and public transportation.

I'm not saying either are inherently wrong, but "bold" ideas tend to lose their edginess after half a century of constantly being offered up as new. Either that, or I'm just sick of reading them every year and want to make it their fault.

Hahaha. I've actually seen the likes of enviro-minded Guardianistas cite Paul Ehrlich as a reference in the past. Um...do you mean the guy that said we'd all be eating each other by now under industrial-induced blackened skies?

There's a certain arrogance to the "overpopulation" crowd. I once saw an interview with film director Gore Verbinski, where he was talking about trying to scout locations in the Caribbean for the first Pirates movie, complaining that they had a hard time finding a deserted island for one of the scenes because there were "too many people in the world." What an asshole. Even if the world's population were cut in half, the Caribbean would still be really crowded because it's a nice fucking place. Besides, the absolutely stunning hubris of essentially saying "how dare these people have the nerve to exist when I've got a movie to make?" pisses me off.

Go make Pirates of the Gobi Desert if you don't want to deal with the hassle of other people living their lives.

Oh lordy-loo. Hey asscaptain, there are plenty of very deserted places. But one of the things that makes them deserted is that they are, like, far and stuff. Not conducive to cost-efficient logistics or having comfy places to sleep or party at night.

That, and they insisted on shooting the exterior shots in the actual Caribbean itself. They could have gone to Pacific Islands, which essentially look enough like Caribbean ones to more than pass off as a substitute and had no trouble finding more plentiful locations that had little or no local populations to interfere with their filming. But no, they had to do it in the real place and actually have the gall to complain that other people were there too. Asscaptains indeed.

There is a simple solution to over population - terraform Mars and Venus.

I prefer the B Ark solution, but that's probably just me.

Well, personally, I like the "two spaceships" solution that was used on the Simpsons once: the first spaceship, filled with "useful" folk, going to the New Earth, and the second, filled with Rosie O'Donnell and that like, that has a trajectory aimed for the sun.

of course, I'd expect that I'd be on the New Earth-bound ship, so that's probably why I like the idea. (And really, I am "useful" folk. I can do all kinds of things, both intellectual and more conventionally-useful like cooking and sewing.)

I have relatives that still worship at the feet of Paul Erlich (you remember how the USA started having mass famines back in 1980, right?)

Tex,
I am seriously having a hard time comprehending anyone that would worship Paul Ehrlich sharing the same blood as you. The brains of the family must have been concentrated in a select few or something.

I've always wanted to ask, and tonight I feel wicked enough, so here goes: if we DO need to eat each other, then isn't overpopulation an ADVANTAGE? It would suck if we couldn't find a ready source of food.

There is a simple solution to over population - terraform Mars and Venus.

Or how about terraforming the Australian outback?

Hmmm...the world population is 6.7 billion. Australia covers 7,741,220 square kilometers. If the entire world is relocated to Australia, that's an average population density of 865.50 per kilometer. That's about two-thirds of the population density of Houston, Texas (1,301.8/sq km)...

I offer up [Clams - edited by administration for purposes of self-defense] as the first ones "voted off the island", or in this case, voted off the planet. Either that or make new bumperstickers: "Prevent overpopulation. Eat a [Clam - see first edit]".

Julie,
The Clams are a very notoriously dangerous, vindictive cult that have minions of slave labor trolling the internet looking for critics so that they can dispatch their thugs to destroy the lives of anyone who dares to question anything about their "church." It's not a good idea to actually type out their name, here or elsewhere, unless you want to wake up one morning and find every car in your neighborhood blanketed with flyers that contain nothing except your photograph and the word "pedophile."

Whew! Thanks for the save, Emily! I didn't know they were so "connected" (in the "Cosa Nostra" sense of the word, as well as the internet sense of the word).

"If the entire world is relocated to Australia"

F*ck off!! We don't want the French here thanks very much.....

Oh, but you'll claim Mel as one of your own? :-P

Um, nope.

You could put the French on Tasmania.