
The return of nature - hmsln
http://thebreakthrough.org/index.php/journal/issue-5/the-return-of-nature
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bro-stick
It's a mixed bag. Reintroduced wolves are breeding like crazy in some areas
northern US states like Montana while not as much in Michigan or Wisconsin. 1

Also, this should not be taken as a free pass to stop conservation or
efficiency efforts because of obvious anthropogenic climate change and the
Holocene extinction.

I think we need to investigate "no arable land" ag in ultra-high density
hydroponics and other approaches to dedicating less land (and urban colocation
in buildings), inputs, energy and waste to boil down crop raising to the
minimum necessary processes. And also consider cultured animal products.

The US and other countries must push much more aggressively to replace carbon
fuels with renewables and non-carbon energy generation as the EU is
undertaking. Big coal cannot be allowed to play Russian roulette with our
planet to squeeze out more profit by maximally delaying critical changes to
industrial habits through political corruption, PR talking-head FUD "expert"
shills, ostensible issue groups and many other means. In parallel, the EU and
US must help China and other emerging economies deploy technologies faster to
cut pollution and reduce net long-term greenhouse emissions, or our
grandchildren will face a much tougher battle for survival in the coming
century.

At the same time and irrespective of supply-side revolutions, consumers must
be educated do their individual part to reduce demand of wasteful
growers/crops and avoid currently resource-intensive crops like almonds,
cotton, irrigation-flooded rice, palm nuts/oil, livestock meat and similar ag
products.

Globally, we're going to need uniform, strong, local environmental protections
and industrial regulations to avoid turning the whole planet into Easter
Island.

1: Wolf 2014 population report [pdf]
[http://www.fws.gov/midwest/wolf/monitoring/pdf/Year1PDMRepor...](http://www.fws.gov/midwest/wolf/monitoring/pdf/Year1PDMReportSept2014.pdf)

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Bartweiss
Honestly, that first graph showing the de-link of corn production and land use
should be at least as alarming as it is inspirational. That sort of breakaway
from a limiting factor doesn't come for free.

In this case, it represents the outcome of GM monocultures and intensive
irrigation.

GM crops are, so far, a nearly consequence free gain. The use of monocultures
presents a bunch of risks, but until and unless they pan out, it's a simple
gain.

The aggressive irrigation required to produce so much corn from so little land
is rather more hair-raising. In the midst of a serious drought, we're finally
facing the question of whether the Ogallala Aquifer is going to give out on us
altogether. At current consumption rates, the answer appears to be 'yes'. This
isn't about using the world more efficiently, it's about diminishing land use
in favor of massively unsustainable water use.

When we see our production break away from it's usual constraints, that's not
a time to celebrate the preservation of nature. It's a time to ask what we're
consuming _instead_.

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mlinksva
Podcast interview with the author
[http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2015/08/jesse_ausubel_o.htm...](http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2015/08/jesse_ausubel_o.html)

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akamaka
Can anyone explain how to read the CO2 vs GDP graph near the bottom of the
article? Is there a name for this type of graph?

[http://breakthrough.turing.com/images/elements/Figure_13.png](http://breakthrough.turing.com/images/elements/Figure_13.png)

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hammock
It's a scatter plot with a line connecting the points in chronological order

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pvaldes
mmmh... yes and no. This is only a part of the whole picture.

Nature is not returning, is being reinvented. This is a 'totally new
rebranded' "american" fauna and flora.

New Jersey wild areas have currently: Japanese honeysuckle, Asiatic elm
disease fungus, Japanese crabs, Chinese Chesnut blight, Red Bellied Pacus and
Oscars from the Amazonas, Chinese grass carps, Freshwater jellyfishes from the
Yangtze river, European green crabs, Northern Snakeheads from Russia and
Korea, Nutrias from Argentina, Chinese softshell turtles, english Ivy,
Australian Mimosa...

So you can remove the corn and end having a polyculture of mostly asiatic and
south-american weeds and shrubs instead. Something totally new and that never
coevolved before.

To the untrained eye, this could seem 'american nature', but in fact is 'now
enriched with a 72% of alien plagues'.

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rpedela
This article makes me wonder if we are headed toward a "peak resource" as a
civilization. If so when and how would that change society?

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Daishiman
We sure are. There's been a significant amount of research on this and there's
a vas number of mined materials which will peak within this century.

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13thLetter
Only if you assume that accessible minerals are restricted to those that can
be found on the Earth, which is not the case.

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Daishiman
Explain to me how the energy expenditure required to extract minerals from out
of orbit will ever be accessible considering the energy cost of exiting the
Earth's orbit.

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kryptiskt
Getting from Earth orbit to Solar orbit is cheap but slow with solar sailing.
And the pure energy cost is not that high in getting up to Earth orbit, just
33 MJ/kg (need another 32 MJ/kg to escape Earth orbit). Rockets are of course
very expensive, but mass production would change that. And there is the
possibility to bring material from the Moon to build stuff in orbit before a
metal asteroid is captured, so everything doesn't have to be lifted from
Earth.

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RyanMcGreal
> Americans now grow more food on less acres

Arrgh. We would have accepted "fewer acres" or "less acreage".

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throwaway1967
Wrong. "Less" instead of "fewer" has been standard English for over 300 years.

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yarrel
Apparently so but I've not heard it before and it's jarring.

Everyone else is clearly marching out of step.

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pc2g4d
I always thought "less" preceded mass nouns and "fewer" preceded count nouns.
"less acres" feels slightly sloppy to me. But we all understood what was
meant, so maybe it doesn't matter.

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subliminalzen
The article reminds me of this quote from Carl Jung: "Nature must not win the
game, but she cannot lose."

