I've realized a bit of a conundrum. As we move more and more towards 'off the grid' circumstances, we become more decentralized, more disconnected, etc.
And we make it *easier* for this plague of human flesh to further it's domination of the planet.
The point, folks, is *not* to get the people in the third world to have power, lights, running water, full medical/dental/etc.
The point is that if they want to live out there in the forest, they need to live by the rules of the forest. They shouldn't be allowed to have any tools that they can't produce in the forest, and they SURELY shouldn't have what amounts to divine intervention (in a forest) in the case of modern medical chemicals.
If we help them, they will turn the forest into condos, eventually. Overpopulation drives agriculture which drives housing which drives utilities.
The previous question, city or country, was more biased in favor of the country (since cities were hotbeds of multiple diseases). Since cities fixed that little problem (not like any 'farms' are noted for their doctoral programs), they grew (which wouldn't be bad if they were limited by the food coming in from the countryside). But they transferred that knowledge to the country folks and allowed *them* to multiply and take over more of the Earth than they were capable of doing before (since they didn't die off like they used to).
Many of the neo-luddites hereabouts favor the 'off-the-grid' idea, but really, they are advocating turning the rest of the Earth from wilderness into 'real estate'.
I have great admiration for aboriginal peoples. I want to ensure that there is plenty of space for them to be aboriginal in. I would like to ensure that they don't do what the earlier aboriginal people did (turn into us).
I mean, do you *really* want to go to the Amazon and end up at some kind of Disney 'Amazon' theme park run by Oompa-loompa looking 'aboriginals' and featuring all sorts of 'native foods' in a little cart next to the roller-coaster?
Seriously, that's where we're going with this.
If we don't start 'withdrawal' from vast sections of the Earth and let it heal; if we don't intentionally pull ourselves into cities (as is the *proper* form for a human culture, IMHO), and make those cities the 'sustainable' items (someplace we're happy to be, and someplace that doesn't pull from other systems overreachingly), it will never heal, and those parts will die off.
Buffalo are really only on nickels, sometimes. But they could return to being whole herds like they used to (and support the systems they used to) if we merely relocated the midwest. All the critters would come back. The Earth would cool off.
Of course, that would cut our food supply, but we apparently make too much of that anyway.
And if you want to live out there (outside of the cities), you *shouldn't* get city care.
You are trying to game both systems (natural, and unnatural). You should pick. Be a nature boy, or be a city kid. But don't leverage the city kid's resources to be a nature boy, since it does nature exactly *no* good at all.
If you don't want to die, there needs to be *substantially* fewer humans as a percentage of Earth's biomass.
It's that simple.
It should be treacherous to go out into nature.
It should *not* be possible to start infecting the boonies with humans en masse, but, if you think about it, that's *exactly* what this sustainable off-the-grid stuff offers.
That's our death knell, if you haven't heard it.
When you hear about the 'starving millions' somewhere, that's Mom Nature knocking.
The real question is whether it will be Armageddon (we die) or Ragnarock (everything dies).
If I had money to lay bets (and thought that there *could* be a return on that bet), I'd put everything on Mom to pull through. We might be her biggest 'problem child', but she's pretty creative. I can see perhaps insects that sense radiation as a natural evolutionary next-step (if we don't kill all the plants).
You see, once all the big critters are dead, the oxygen level starts rising from plants' respiration. When it gets to 30%, you can get back to insects that are six feet tall (they have a problem with their lungs that makes them shrink at 20%).
I'm actually thinking it's gonna be spiders next time, but that's likely a prejudice from my spirit guide.
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