MovieChat Forums > Earth 2100 (2009) Discussion > I guess this film is supposed to depress...

I guess this film is supposed to depress me...

posted 14 years ago by warlok1
3 replies | jump to latest

but at the end the narrator lady is 75 and earths population is 2.8 billion. She lives in a small community as the new 'dark age' comes and the human race has dwindled...

but know what? I look forward to that.

Look, overpopulation is the elephant in the room in the global warming/climate change 'debate' -- countries refusing to adress their own out of control growth as farmland is over cultivated into dead soil, water is used up, etc. So the world presented at the end is a handful of cities as enclaves of wealth while the worlds population declines to 'only' 2.8 Billion from disease, starvation etc. Mean while, folk figure out that places like New York City, Miami (New Orleans) just aren't sustainable because-- gasp -- coastlines change!

With less of a population, this means less people chasing after water and tearing down forests...even if you don't believe in global warming, the idea of less people fighting over water and food means the world should be back in an equilibrium.

And I love that one guy "It'll take earth 100000 years to recover from the damage we've done" -- no it won't, hell maybe not even 100 years and the earth will keep right on chugging along. Society might be altered, but that'll be up to future generations to worry about the face of society. One thing I can be sure of : no one will worry about 'carbon credits' or 'ecological footprints' when we are small communities surrounded by thick forests.

[–] mattshu-1 14 years ago

That does sound like a great future. We can't have 10+ billion people living in comfort no matter how great our technology becomes.

[–] flamingvw 14 years ago

Do your homework before you make assumptions about what "won't" happen to the earth. The plastics we have created, that no one seems to worry about are floating in the oceans of the world - the plastic dump in the pacific is now about the size of Africa, and plastics are showing little sign of bio-degrading because no organisms have adapted to consume them. What's the harm is plastic, you ask? All of the heavy chemicals we use in horticulture and manufacturing - the same chemicals that comprise things like Agent Orange and DDT - naturally gravitate toward plastic. Animals eat the worn down plastic thinking its food. That equals poisoned oceans. And the acidification of the ocean due to our carbon output is thinning the shells of the bread and butter life forms that hold the rest of the system up. That means we're killing the oceans on top of over fishing them. And don't let me get started on the toxicity of the soil. What is it that you think we will have to eat and drink? And how much work are you willing to put into getting it?
Less ocean life. Less suitable soil. Less potable water. And that's the short list of problems. Check out bark beetles. Check out droughts and vanishing aquifers. Check out population versus world food output. Check out that this is so far the hottest year on human record.
Fully back to normal - 100000 years is probably about right when you factor in everything our progress has accomplished, and that's if we start now. Scale it down to 1000 if you take out the heavy metals and give the ocean a chance to equalize and churn. 1000 years is a painful chunk of time in my book. It might as well be an ice age.
As far as future generations dealing with it? Even if it were future generations, how selfish are you to take what you want now so that everyone else's kids (or don't you have any of your own?) have to pay the price? But no, it's not generations away. Try twenty to thirty. You and I both will be here to deal with this.
Still sound like paradise?
If you don't believe me, look it up.

[–] zeta1983-1 14 years ago

If we wipe out most of our population the Earth won't necessarily reach equilibrium. The Earth can only take some much poisoning before it's beyond recovery. Plus if things get as bad as they did in this film it will likely result in nuclear war which is even worst than the pollution.