Originally Posted by cooker
Some degree of industrialization is sustainable. there's no reason we can't have bicycles in the future.
There are a few main things which are not sustainable....feeding 6 billion people using massive petrochemical input, polluting the planet with persisting toxins, paving over farmland and depleting topsoil, and maintaining our level of energy expenditure.
What would be sustainable?
"Organic" agriculture and a mostly vegetarian diet. I don't know how many people the earth can sustainably feed, but it's a lot. Unfortunately, it's probably also a lot less than 6 billion.
Reliance on sustainable energy, using far less energy than we do today. Since we squander huge amounts of energy on trivial activities we can do that. Especially with a smaller population.
Elimination of persisting toxins dioxin, PCBs, etc.
Population reduction through various means...voluntary, incentives, war, disease, famine. Partly we'll choose the methods, and partly they will be visited upon us.
Good post Cooker,
I can't help but think that although the coming generations are not likely to be oil free for some time (if ever), it seems completely ludicrous to me that a large percentage of our remaining oil is essentially BURNED in order to power all manner of vehicles. Finding alternatives to combustion engines should not only reduce a significant amount of pollution, but should also allow us to use what oil we have for better purposes than powering 3000 pound automobiles. It MAY also buy us more time to develop sustainable energy sources and architecture, but I wholeheartedly agree with you that current energy use and a population of 6 billion is unsustainable.