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| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| Gaia's wrath is upon us!!!!1!!!! |
| 2010-05-24 |
| Amy Turner, The Times (UK) The world is becoming so overpopulated that nature will one day wreak its revenge, claims Jeremy Irons, the actor. Launching himself as a green campaigner, Irons has revealed plans to make a documentary about sustainability and waste disposal, likening himself to Michael Moore, the controversial film maker, although “not as silly'. That's a pretty low bar there, Jeremy... The increasing global population would put an intolerable strain on the world's resources, Irons said, and the gulf between developing countries and westerners living a bountiful “pie-in-the-sky' existence must be addressed. “One always returns to the fact that there are just too many of us, the population continues to rise and it's unsustainable,' he said in an interview with The Sunday Times. “I think we have to find ways where we're not having to scrap our effluent junk and are a really sustainable planet.' Natural systems of selfregulation may stop population growth, he said: “I suspect there'll be a very big outbreak of something because the world always takes care of itself.' The 61-year-old actor went on to speculate that either disease or war, “probably disease', could become nature's way of halving the population. "And that'll be, like, really cool 'cause only people I don't like will be croaking in the streets, an' after they're all gone, there won't be any, like, undesireables in, like, Rawanda or Wal-Mart an' stuff." The actor, who says he is apolitical although he is a former Labour donor and his wife Sinead Cusack is “deeply socialist', has already made a plea for action in a short video for an organisation campaigning to end world hunger.... Irons, who owns seven houses, including a pink castle in Co Cork, Ireland, (thus setting a good example of socialist egalitarianism and resource-saving sustainability) believes a new economic vision is needed in the wake of the global financial crisis. “We are facing an economic revolution,' he said. “I don't think things can ever be the same again. The next generation will have to think laterally and find ways to cope with this.' |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #19 Ah, Jeremy, Jeremy, Jem. It's tyme ta be soylent Laddie. rip. |
| Posted by: Asymmetrical 2010-05-24 21:42 |
| #18 So, Jeremy...tell me about this "economic revolution" plan of yours. I take it you and Mrs. Deeply Socialist will be right out there in front, right? Maybe unload the pink castle for starters? Spread the proceeds around amongst the "little people"? Or does the plan only apply to greedy bastids like...them? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2010-05-24 20:02 |
| #17 Over populated? No. Limited resources? Yes, but is not the problem. Effective distrobution of said resources is - due mainly to current levels of redistribution. |
| Posted by: Rex Mundi 2010-05-24 19:51 |
| #16 Jeremy Irons is an actor. He is very good at pretending to be someone else. I saw the Dungeons & Dragons movie and I'm not buying this at all. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2010-05-24 19:12 |
| #15 I agree, lead the charge, so to speak. |
| Posted by: bigjim-CA 2010-05-24 18:38 |
| #14 Well Jeremy, you could always help out the population by extracting yourself. Lead by example, you know? Of course there's no gaurantee anyone will follow your lead, but hey, Visionaries aren't always understood. |
| Posted by: Charles 2010-05-24 16:25 |
| #13 "Soylent Green is ...." oops, already taken |
| Posted by: Frank G 2010-05-24 15:57 |
| #12 Jeremy will be fine in his pink castle. |
| Posted by: tipper 2010-05-24 15:38 |
| #11 Spoken like someone who has never had to live in a human metropolis pile with feces smell in the street and everyones clothes lines tangled together. |
| Posted by: GirlThursday 2010-05-24 15:17 |
| #10 IIRC from my econ class, as a society grows more prosperous, something called the "demographic transition" occurs: first, death rates go down because of improved medical care, then a generation or two or three later, birth rates go down as the culture adapts. If you think there actually is such a thing as overpopulation--I don't; We are all God's children, and God by definition cannot have too many children--the solution is easy: encourage prosperity. |
| Posted by: Mike 2010-05-24 15:15 |
| #9 Our complex natural system probably does have corrective mechanisms to maintain an equilibrium of maximum population. I don't know what a shitty B-rate movie is going to do to prevent that, but essentially I think he is right about nature attempting to correct. The third world is the fastest growing population if I'm not mistaken, and they usually don't respond immediately to the wishes of wacky hollywood semi-stars. Disease, war, sterilization, those are the vectors for limiting population growth. Or perhaps birth control, education, lower child mortality rates to discourage over birthing, if you are an optimist. |
| Posted by: bigjim-CA 2010-05-24 14:35 |
| #8 Overpopulated? a damn lie, I can get in my car and drive in any direction and see Open fields, crops growing, ocasional houses and much dense woods. Overpopulation only occurs when you visit India, or places like that, I have pictires of railway trains absolutely dripping with thousands of people riding on roofs, hanging on the sides, and wherever there is a handhold. THAT's Overpopulated. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2010-05-24 14:16 |
| #7 The 61-year-old actor went on to speculate that either disease or war, "probably disease", could become nature's way of halving the population. I wonder which half Jeremy counts himself as being in? I could probably guess... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2010-05-24 12:42 |
| #6 Conditions on Earth vary and are mostly not under human control, think of epidemics, volcanoes, meteorites & ice ages. So the limit of human population also varies, and is also not under much human control. I wish there was a limit on idiots like Jeremy Irons and Thomas Friedman who want to play God. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2010-05-24 12:15 |
| #5 The problem with population control is that no matter what method used, it invariably involves going out of one's way to target the innocent for slaughter. Who died and made you God, Kodos? |
| Posted by: Korora 2010-05-24 11:56 |
| #4 Jeremy Irons is an actor. He is very good at pretending to be someone else. While saying words written by someone else, while doing things as told by someone else, while wearing makeup so as not to look like himself. Did I get it all? |
| Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 2010-05-24 10:28 |
| #3 He's not wrong - there IS a limit to the human population the world can support, but we don't know what it is. And we'll probably find out what the limit is when war and/or disease stop growth. The problem is that developed nations already have limited their growth, but others have not, and will squeeze out the self-limiters if the natural limits (or developed nations armaments) don't stop them first. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2010-05-24 07:51 |
| #2 Worrying about overpopulation is how liberals can be racists. |
| Posted by: Formerly Dan 2010-05-24 07:25 |
| #1 Jeremy Irons is an actor. He is very good at pretending to be someone else. Therefore, we should listen to his opinion on things like this because ...? |
| Posted by: Rambler in Virginia 2010-05-24 07:05 |