Of course it’s all about prevention. OTOH the climate data and resource data demonstrate that unless we can reduce population levels globally by 60% and consumption levels in the wealthy nations by 60%, in at most 10 - 15 years, we are headed for a dieoff to the tune of about three billion humans. That’s realistic for you. Can’t get more realistic than that.

Anything we can do along the lines of prevention will only soften but not cancel the consequences.

Then you condemn textbook distribution and in the same sentence say “people will need to learn how to grow and prepare raw materials into goods…” Learning minus textbooks equals an oral tradition culture. I need hardly say more about that. Textbooks or their equivalent are a necessity for spreading and preserving the knowledge needed to deal with the likely future. And there will be plenty more textbooks written on the relevant topics before we’re halfway done.

And as for microlending, it’s a way to maintain relocalized economies while the global economy is going down the drain. That along with local currency systems. Both of these are also critical for maintaining regional trading relationships that in turn are also critical to preventing an increase in violence in a given area. I’ve studied these subjects in excruciating detail, and rather than write another 3-page posting, I’ll just say that you’re mistaken and no amount of ad-homina (plural of ad-hominems : - ) can disguise that.

Jonathan, I’d like to suggest the following: If this site gets to the point where there’s a lot of discussion about specifics: technologies, educational strategies, etc., then find a way for it to self-organize by region. For example each person posting would start off with their country, state/province, and city/town/region, and readers could search by those keywords. Or set up differnt topic headers by country and region, and encourage people to post accordingly.

Reason I say this is, regionalism, or more specifically bioregionalism, is an essential consideration given the different climate situations and legal/political situations in different parts of the world. Something that works in one place may not work in another place; or it may work in unexpected places. In any case, sorting by region provides a higher degree of resolution to the data.

Speaking of which, anyone here from the San Francisco Bay Area, California USA?

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Interesting observation: While reading David’s posting, I dyslexed Denalis into Denials. Interesting coincidence, that. As if whoever named that vehicle had made a Freudian slip. So now we have, “Hummer, the car named after the act that got a Presidenti impeached,” and “Denali: If you’re into denial, get into a Denali.” It’s also a national park in Alaska, with Mt. McKinley.

The supreme irony is, if global temperatures rise +5 Celsius, Alaska might be the only habitable part of the USA. Thanks in part to all those idiots who were driving around in Denials, er, uh, Denalis. See also James Lovelock re. what happens at various degrees of temperature increase.

As for the Denial itself, no wonder GM is teetering on the edge. Whoever decided they produce that ugly monstrosity ought to be not only fired but sued by the shareholders.

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Also re. David re. sick of politics: At least it would be good to avoid overt partisanship here since that could generate enormous digressions particularly in a presidential election year. There are plenty of partisan sites such as Daily Kos (Democrats) and Free Republic (Republicans) for that purpose.

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Meg, what’s with the stereotypes about $4 coffees and $80 sandals made in China, etc. etc…? “silly… fatalistic… naive…” and “don’t live to learn”…?! You’re not making sense, and your language is counterproductive.

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It might be useful to have a listing of links for all those other sites folks have found. Each of us no doubt has a bunch to add to the list. And some of the stuff on those sites could make good starting points for discussion here.

http://www.article-25.org/default.htm