The Collapse of Journalism/The Journalism of Collapse

I didn't read the whole thing, but I found a quote to comment on:

Here's the story: On March 17, 2051, the world will pump its last easily accessible barrel of usable oil. By that time, cancer directly attributable to human-created toxicity will kill 125 million people per year, while major disruptions in the hydrological cycle will so dramatically reduce the amount of fresh water that 18.9 percent of the human population will die each year as a direct result. On June 14, 2047, exactly half of the area of the world's oceans will be dead zones, incapable of supporting significant marine life. Three and a half years later, topsoil losses will have reached the point where even with petrochemical based fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, yields will drop by 50 percent on the most fertile soil and fall to zero on soil that has effectively gone sterile due to contamination and compaction. But there won't be any petrochemicals anyway, because there won't be any oil. And there won't be enough water. And so there won't be enough food. And getting reliable broadband internet service will be difficult.

The response I often get to this view is the assertion that we need not worry about the physical limits of the planet because human ingenuity will invent increasingly clever ways of exploiting those resources.

This response is called "technological fundamentalism" - the belief that the use of evermore sophisticated high-energy, advanced technology is always a good thing and that any problems caused by the unintended consequences of such technology eventually can be remedied by more technology - is more prevalent, and more dangerous, than religious fundamentalism.

"if the human community does not change that trajectory in substantial ways fairly soon, the future will be grim."

Noah - Religion and Capitalism are the two most embraced tenents of the modern world, and they both appear poised to wipe out life as we know it on planet earth.

Religion and Capitalism also have a following that is mostly "conservative", in that they will fight change. At this point in time change is essential to survival. Therefore, Religion and Capitalism are threats to our survival.