Originally Posted by carpediem
On the contrary, my friend, if the so called "car-centric world" falls down around our ears, we are all in a great deal of doodoo. Do you think that the population explosion is happening only in the most industrialized and "car-centric" countries? If the poop hit the fan tomorrow, the poor folks doing their best to scratch out a living in the soil (and benefitting from globalized transportation, technology, irrigation, farming techniques etc...) will suffer just as much, and probably more, than the rich folks living in industrialized urban centers. If for some reason society collapses and all of the food runs out are you telling me that the once industrialized groups aren't going to simply kill all the helpless third world buffalo farmers and steal their rutabagas? If we ran out of oil this afternoon, the guy with the biggest gun will shoot you, steal your bicycle, and eat all your food. That being said, the poor people with little or no self-produced technology being able to survive to reproduce on a scale never seen before, is a testament to the western world and their "car-centric" society.
I was more getting towards the fact that they are closer to the need to survive - they know it. We could go and try and plunder them, but if we were missing our infrastructure, we would not have the resources to go and steal their rutabagas. Would someone here put a gun in my face, steal the ramen from my cupboard and my bike? Most likely yes. Would two farmers living next to eachother in a third world country go after each other's land and crops - that I am less sure of. They have already been living side by side probably for generations, and would feel the impact of the crash less.
There is something to be said that food aid and medical aid would not be able to reach the more remote areas of the world. Their population has been growing through (largely, not completly) aid and technology from the developed world. I don't believe that birth rates are up any higher than the growth rate of the population. What has changed is the survival rate. Even a few hundred years ago here in the US, it wasn't uncommon for parents to lose half of their children. There's a reason women with 'child bearing' hips were the most desirable - because people died. Now that we have lowered the child mortality rate accross most of the planet, populations are moving beyond the level that their environment can sustain them. This has happened before, with several Native American populations, long before Europeans came in (mound builders in the midwest and the maya both come to mind)...
Wait a minute - I'm in the freakin single speed & fixed gear forum, not the politics forum....
CARBON FIBER STASH POCKET!!!!!