Sigh

Okay, Tripp and Mary, how exactly are we destroying ourselves?

Pollution? Levels have been decreasing for 30 years [link] [link]. Overpopulation? I think I've already expressed my thoughts on that. Global warming? I've yet to hear convincing arguments from meteorologists that it even exists, despite being taken as canon by non-meteorologists everywhere. Deforestation? Were you aware that the US's (and the world's) forests are growing yearly [link]? Trees are a cash crop nowadays, both for the furniture and paper industries, and changes in livestock grazing patterns have allowed previous overlogging to correct itself. The effect can be shown in the seldom-reported fact that North America is actually a large CO2 sink, and not a producer, as was alleged by the people who assembled the Kyoto protocol. [link]

Here's another perspective: the human race is approaching six and a quarter billion souls. This is not because of increased birth rate, but because we've learned to take better care of ourselves over the course of history [link]. Women globally have won and are continuing to win equal rights and treatment in more locations than ever. Totalitarianism, militarism and repression are continuing to decline everywhere. Remember slavery? The nuclear arms race? The Black Death? Imperialist Communism? All gone, and unlikely to return.

Tell me again where the problem is.

-Rich