Hugh Montgomery is a respected physician and scientist who discovered the first gene related to fitness. His side interests apparently include running 100 km ultra marathons, authoring children’s books, and climate change activism.
In this talk he provides a superb big picture summary of the human overshoot predicament.
This was my first exposure to Montgomery and I’m really impressed. He’s intelligent, articulate, and refreshingly direct.
One of his many insightful comments stood out for me:
Without climate change we are in terrible terrible trouble.
If you add in climate change our situation becomes absolutely desperate.
But wait, there’s more.
Montgomery does not mention the depletion of affordable oil, nor our (related) rapidly growing debt bomb.
So I’m wondering, what adjective comes after “absolutely desperate”?
Perhaps WASF.
In the Q&A session Montgomery confides that he thinks civilization is done and laments that we are not fighting to survive.
Where are the adults?
I think we’re doomed.
Thanks!
Here’s a couple from 2016 with good insight on denial from the “modern” monkey mind.
Why you can’t argue with a “modern”
https://resourceinsights.blogspot.com/2018/12/uber-moores-law-and-limits-of-technofix.html
Why a “modern” can’t understand the risks we face
https://resourceinsights.blogspot.com/2016/05/why-modern-cant-understand-risks-we-face.html
[…] Källa: By Hugh Montgomery: Are Humans Like a Virus on Planet Earth? […]
Leahy, S. 2018. 75% of Earth’s Land Areas Are Degraded. A new report warns that environmental damage threatens the well-being of 3.2 billion people. National Geographic.
http://energyskeptic.com/2018/75-of-earths-land-areas-are-degraded-environmental-damage-threatens-3-2-billion-people/
Yes, this is going to put a damper in any kind of back-to-the-land World-Made-By-Hand scenario.
The abundance of the North American continent 200 years ago is beyond modern comprehension.
Connie and I just watched this and can hardly believe how great it is. Thanks, Rob! Wow, you introduced me/us to two new bad-asses in town in the same week.
You rock it, bro!!
Rob, thanks for this. Montgomery’s message not as radical as Tim Garrett’s but very interesting and informative in its own right.
Re the You Tube version of the video — I could have done without the several pop-up ads. For those who prefer a pop-up-ad-free You Tube video of Montgomery’s talk (titled “Health and Climate Change: A Febrile Planet?”) here’s the link —
Thanks, I use the uBlock Origin ad blocker so did not see the same irritation.
“The consensus-breaking truth is that if we in the West wish to combat climate change, we need to stop consuming anything that requires fossil fuels in its manufacture… and that includes the solar panels, wind turbines and electric cars that serve only to perpetuate the fossil carbon system. Unfortunately, nobody is voting for that alternative.”
http://consciousnessofsheep.co.uk/2018/11/28/no-supply-side-route-out-of-climate-chaos/
Watched it as well, twice and will watch a few more times. Hugh has a winning formula for describing our situation. Rob says, “we need to stop consuming anything that requires fossil fuels”, there isn’t a city on the planet that can exist without FF! Die off is coming.
That was a quote from Tim Watkins. I agree with you that it is impossible to reduce fossil fuel use to zero but we are consuming a lot more than we need to survive.