Guys the world is getting destroyed by humanity, it is heating up and major parts of the ecosystem will fail. We will run out of plastic, fossil fuels and many other important things If we don't do anything now. I am aware that this forum alone will not be able to save the planet on our but we can get the word out and we can get ideas to help. I am not a full on tree hugger but I do think that we all realize that without this planet we will suffer or die.
Please post your comments below.

This isn't a non-twisty puzzle. It's a premise fraught with religious and political opinions / implications. It doesn't have any place being discussed on this forum (including the off-topic section). I'm not saying ignoring the issues you brought up is the way to go, I'm just saying this isn't forum isn't the right the venue for tackling them.

"isn't a non-" sounds like a double negative to me. Who knew solving the worlds problems WAS a twisty puzzle?

Ok... sorry for my zero value added post... just me and my poor sense of humor again.

Carl

I completely disagree. The world is much stronger than you think. Don't believe all the hype. Every day the newspapers are full of scare stories. Didn't they say a few years ago we would all die from aids, sars etc? Relax and enjoy your life.

Oh I fully agree... have what fun you can before that asteroid hits tomorrow at 3pm. Then you can compare the dent left by humanity to another 'dent'.

If you've read this far... yes, I'm still trying to be funny.
Carl

@wwwmwww: *laughs*

@Tony Fisher: I agree that the Doomsayers more often or not are exaggerating the world's problems and proclaiming the absolute worst possible outcome as being probable. That said, there is reason for concern, but one should not worry themselves to death trying to combat the world's problems. One should strive for a balance between working for the better of humanity and enjoying themselves, and ideally, one can do the former through something that accomplishes the latter.

Don't worry, the planet will be fine.

GC was a genius, and spoke more sense that many many scientists, politicians, greens etc.

Going by the temperature in my office at the moment I wouldn't mind a bit of global warming.

Unfortuately there is a fundamental paradox with human nature, which means that disaster is inevitable: we are simply programmed at the deepest evolutionary level to do everything we can to adapt, survive and reproduce as individuals, and everything we consider as "good" is ultimately aligned with population growth. Thus we will continue to grow until the planet can sustain us no more, and anyone who thinks and acts differently is simply putting themselves at an individual survival disadvantage while everyone else continues to grow stronger while destroying the planet. The only choice we have is between short and medium term survival, and so I also say relax and enjoy the day while it lasts.

I am simply not that bothered for the following reasons.
I only exist on this world for a tiny amount of time and I am certainly not going to spend much of it worrying about what happens after I have gone.
What does it matter when mankind ceases to exist? It will happen sometime so who cares when? The only people who suffer are the ones caught up in the ending but that can't be avoided and is not related to when it happens.
If mankind ends sooner then fewer people will have existed. Since there is not a conveyor belt of babies ready to be born that doesn't actually matter. I really can't get upset over people who have never and will never be born.
How do we even know the future will be a place we want to live in? There are constant wars in the world and who is to say that some kind of horrendous situation doesn't emerge where most of us are kept in concentration camp conditions for generation after generation?
Just a few cheery thoughts for you.

Indeed, Happy Christmas!

[Darryl The Moderator]Let's try to keep this civilized so as to not get it locked up. It's a ripe topic for getting out of hand. So far so good

[Darryl The Twistypuzzle Collector]
Necessity is the mother of invention. I feel if we burn through all of our fossil fuels and can't make any more plastic or fuel, we will either find a way or use something else that ends up being better. As for the world heating up - it will be impossible for the world to cut back on CO2. Just looking at India and China's middle class growing and their population and you will see why. I think other solutions will be more practical in the long run. I don't know what they are at this point. If models are accurate, then we should be exploring other ideas.

-d

Inventions work only while there are energy and resources to make and power them, but no invention can break the first and second laws of thermodynamics to create energy and resources from nothing. Weaning the world off fossil fuels will be the most painful, biggest shock to mankind we have ever experienced. Even now we burn 10 calories of oil to grow and distribute 1 calorie of food, and we burn another 10 calories of oil just to get that oil out of the ground, and the overall process is becoming ever more difficult and less efficient while the population and demand for energy and resources continues to grow exponentially. Yet alternative energies don't even make up for the annual *growth* (increase) in demand for energy, let alone have any hope of replacing the existing demand and supply of fossil fuels. When you do the basic calculations, the implications are scary, but also unavoidable. For that reason, I'm with Tony and prefer to carry on and enjoy our time while we can.