Yeah that and there's a huge football game in town. Tonight.

Charles,

Our population has grown so large that only with industrial-scale agriculture and some form of economic system that lets people afford to live somewhere and eat can we survive. Maybe when the population of the U.S. was measurable in the tens of millions, small-scale agrarian life was tenable, but even then people died periodically of starvation when the crops failed.

According to something I read ages ago, the smallest parcel a small family could "go back to the land" on, and semi-independently live an acceptable life, is 5 acres, provided the land is of a decent quality suitable for farming.

A quick check of some key numbers shows there are about 400 million arable acres in this country. (That's all the land minimally suitable for regular farming.) With the population currently around 320 million, it's virtually impossible for all of us to bag this capitalism thing and go back to the land, even if we could equitably distribute the stuff.

Classic Mudede!

I need to read Germinal again.

@2

You're posing an "if". IF people wanted to go back to that lifestyle it would be impossible to support our population. True.

However, it's more of a "when" and "how". If we choose to move toward that lifestyle intentionally it could be done a lot more smoothly than an eventual catastrophy.

One thing you can say about trends is that the ones that cannot be sustained will not be sustained.

I'd be fine with the human race going extinct.

Humans have accomplished a few interesting things but far more often have shown themselves to be horrid creatures. The rest of the universe probably doesn't need that.

@7 I'm in agreement there. Homosapiens have outgrown their use, to quote David Bowie. It's time for us to chuck off of this mortal coil and leave it to the rest of the animals to take over. They won't miss us one bit.

@7, I've given up on the lot of you! Enjoy the Dalek invasion. I'm gonna make some popcorn and watch!

@7, @8: Exhibit A: Why liberals are generally unhappy creatures.

@10 says the guy who attacks homosexuals because he's in complete denial about his own sexuality.

@7 and @8, strange that you would wish death for all humanity, despite the fact that every generation is less violent, less bigoted, less poor, less hungry, and generally less miserable than the previous.

It's really the same attitude one sees in religious fundamentalists, less interested in objective reality than their own miserable and ridiculous theology.

@11: Stupid comment, nothing was said about homosexuals, and Urgutha is straight and I don't know MindyMoo's orientation but I'm not arrogant as you are to assume that all Sloggers are gay. You need therapy to address your own insecurities.

The right has the convenience and luxury of just not caring because the facts don't affect them. For them, science is a sham, unless they need medical care, air flight, bridge use, building construction, computers or crime solving, etc. Even DNA is the proof of evolution they think they can ignore because it contradicts their bizarre view of the universe. Why would they believe we are a flawed species with flawed concepts. They see themselves as perfect!

While @7 and @8 admit resignation, @10 springs into action to save the world by trotting out moth eaten cliches about liberals.

I'm actually pretty happy most of the time.

And I'd rather be alive than not.

Still, that doesn't mean I think the human race is worth saving.

@12,
I don't exactly wish death for everyone living (even though everyone's going to eventually die anyway), I'm simply unopposed to the human race ceasing to reproduce and just fading out naturally.

In the meantime though, I would want everyone to be happy and have as much fun as possible.

You're absolutely correct that each generation improves upon the last--no argument there--still don't think humanity is all that much evolved from apes.

Its not like anybody thinks there would never be another extinction event if it weren't for humans. And sure we can lament the loss of all these frogs and so forth but its not like Life on Earth as such is in any danger.

These issues are more about how pleasant or miserable will it be to be a human on Earth in the future.

@18: and what other myriad species humans will take down with us when we go. There's that, too.