Of water, as well as people.

One big problem that remains is the unfortunate fact that much of our economy currently DEPENDS on population growth. For example: the social security system is viable only if there are more people paying into it than living off of it, which is why much of Europe is heading for trouble now that the Baby Boomers are retiring.

Actually, I just finished reading this a couple days ago. Harrison did a great job of conveying what life would be like in a massively over-crowded NYC.

I want. I’ve never actually read the novel. I saw the movie when I was about six, and it has imposed itself on my psyche in a vague gathering of images- and the tendency to use the ‘is people’ line among my generation, the majority of which who were not parented by such a woman as I, and therefore have no idea to what I am talking about.

Probably should wait until I finish my summer reading projects which are due this Monday, at start of school, though… Brit-Lit year in English, and according to the rumor mill, a handsome British teacher has moved here to teach!

Or maybe this new edition is intended to head off that entire process.:-P

Sol has a wonderful rant about the greenhouse effect early on. Later, he and his bookie friends read some Soylent Corporation research papers and realize that the marine ecosystems have collapsed and that humanity is utterly fucked.

Not many people recall that the other thing that Charlton Heston screams at the end is “The oceans are dying!”

Get over it, the overpopulation scenario (on a global level) is about as realistic these days as Jules Verne’s journey to the core of the earth.

Example: There is a mention of farmers dynamiting the aqueducts to the city because it was taking water they needed. Coming from southern California, I can believe in the relevancy of that scenario.

Even though the overpopulation scenario seems a bit exaggerated now some of the other things in the book, like rioting over scarcity of food and water, seem very plausible.

And I’m so glad they didn’t “re-brand” the book to be more like the movie in order to pump up sales. Or do the movie-remake and subsequent novelization trick mentioned by Chuck.

I have fond memories of the original Bill The Galactic Hero (who knew there were so many sequels before I googled him), and The Stainless Steel Rat, and The Technicolor Time Machine, and The Man from P.I.G..

Huh. I hadn’t thought of Harry in at least 25 years. I wonder if he and Ted White are still feuding over the dead remains of Amazing Stories magazine.

It’s the difference between being hit by a train traveling one hundred miles an hour and another moving at fifty. No difference. You’re just as dead. Just takes a little longer.

Overpopulation is the cause of almost all wars, the disaster in Africa, AIDS, deforestation, desertification, the death of animal species all over the world – esp. major fauna, global warming, garbage mountains, dust bowls, amazing death tolls in monsoons, wage depression, the ascendancy of 19th century robber-baron capitalism in the 21st, food shortages, starvation, watershed depletion, floating garbage islands in the Pacific, dead zones off our shorelines, massive illegal immigration with all the attendant ills, increases in crime rates, the rise of militant Islam for the last thirty years (OP+poverty+religion=loonies in great numbers), the utter destitute poverty in Central and South American countries, poverty in the US – almost always connected with too many kids usually for social and religious reasons, annihilated school systems, crime culture, the overfishing of the oceans, the pollution death of phytoplankton, overdamming and straightening of rivers and the attendant flooding, the invasion of Iraq and Iran for the oil, Tibet’s annihilation, let’s see… too much, can never stop. All because we won’t regulate our numbers. We are still growing; Islamic and Catholic culture will not ever allow birth control, so the die is cast. We’re seeing a slight pause as the religious poor ramp up the baby factory into high gear. Their billions will increase the rate of population growth, and somehow it will be a “surprise” – one easily seen for the last century or more. Make more babies than dead people, and you grow. Have lots of babies, and you have a world of angry children and teenagers who will make war for any random reason. Put too many animals of whatever type – including us – into a box, and war always breaks out.

http://www.amazon.com/Baaa-David-Macaulay/dp/0395395887/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219413356&sr=8-1

Pass the mint sauce!

Okay maybe thats harsh.. lets just say their heads are filled with wild eyed ideas that just don’t add up when you statistically look at landmass vs population.. capitalism in its 1st world incarnation (which almost invariably causes negative pop. growth).. and a plethora of other realities that some people choose to ignore, frantically clawing away at life for some doomsday scenario to wrap themselves in.