Re: RE: Re: Cuban Genetic Engineering (was JesseLemisch)

[Doug Henwood]

Mark Jones wrote:

>Yoshie Furuhashi says:
>>
>>  It's best if ecosocialists focus on this aspect of the problem: toxic
>>  chemicals endangering workers' health.
>
>Is this discussion taking account of the fundamentals?
>
>"If just the present world population of 5.8 billion people were to live at
>current North American ecological standards (say 4.5 ha/person), a
>reasonable first approximation of the total productive land requirement
>would be 26 billion ha (assuming present technology). However, there are
>only just over 13 billion ha of land on Earth, of which only 8.8 billion are
>ecologically productive cropland, pasture, or forest (1.5 ha/person). In
>short, we would need an additional two planet Earths to accommodate the
>increased ecological load of people alive today. If the population were to
>stabilize at between 10 and 11 billion sometime in the next century, five
>additional Earths would be needed, all else being equal -- and this just to
>maintain the present rate of ecological decline (Rees & Wackernagel, 1994)."
>http://dieoff.com/page110.htm

Dieoff indeed. At least Jay Hanson, like Dave Foreman, is honest 
about what he sees for the future of the human population. Tell us, 
Mark - how many people will have to disappear, how, and by when?

Doug