Want to know some things that YOU can do, as a consumer, to help out? Granted it is just a bit, but everything can help.

(1) Grow Your Own Food
(2) Buy Local Produce
(3) Eat Less Meat
(4) Go Organic
(5) Go for Sustainable Seafood
(6) Eat More Fair Trade foods
(7) Love your Legumes
(8) Break Away from Monoculture
(9) Reacquaint Yourself with Honey
(10) Plant Edible Perennials

The Benefits:
Growing your own food gives you great control over your diet – you can farm organically, plant perennials that will return year after year, and learn what grows best in your region.

By shopping locally, you get exceptional taste and freshness, preserve the environment by preventing shipping of outside produce, strengthen your local economy, and support endangered family farms. Local honey may even help you to develop antibodies for local allergies.

Diversify your diet with exotic fruits, vegetables, and grains – more than 5,000 different species of plants have been used as food by humans, but the majority of the world's population is now fed by less than 20 plant species, driving many plants to extinction.

Eating less meat preserves resources. It takes 2500 gallons of water to produce a pound of meat, but only 25 gallons to produce a pound of wheat.


The world’s population is expected to grow to 9.2 billion by 2025! With so many mouths to feed, it is imperative to eat and grow sustainable foods. And did you know that there are now more prisoners in the US than full-time farmers. Even if you live in an apartment, or not a very good gardener, you can grow things for your kitchen. How about a herb garden in pots on a windowsill? Or tomatoes and peppers?
I totally suck at growing things, but even I can grow a tomato plant in a pot. I also grow things like rosemary, thyme, onions, etc. Those aren't hard.

Yes, the earth WILL change. It is how we will survive those changes now that is up to us.

the smokers? *searches notes* yes they give out alot of gasses which could contribute to global warming, but if you look around the smokers you will find colonies of creatures which do chemo-synthesis (photosynthsis without light) and bacteria which change the chemicals into something better for the planet. They are also found ataround >2000m below sea level so the water has a *?@! load of time to absorb stuff into it.. hell the smokers emit super-heated brine which is seawater.

CO2 + 4H2S + O2 <==> CH2O + 4S + 3H2O

see that, it uses CO2 to make other chemicals, that is chemo-synthesis

Good points, really. But I said what can 6.5 billion people do, not me, and how do you get those 6.5 billion people to do it?? Your suggestions for me alone won't stand because

A. I'm lazy
B. I've gone months before eating crap I don't like and guess what, global warming is not enough to make me do it again, thank you.
C. If the world population is going to increase to 9.2 billion by 2025 and that's a problem, why not stop THAT in the first place?

To Gala: Good info on chemo-synthesis, and the amount of toxins contibuted by smokers is so minimal I think (can't remember) that they don't even throw that one up in the statistics for causes of pollution.

im guessing rift volcanisum would do more *pokes the paper on her desk about it* but we havent done anything about that *yet* im just starting to read this for an essay i haveta do for 2 weeks time..

Thats the one, and they happen on the plate tectonic lines, HOW are we going to stop the plates from moving? I'm no genius but this looks like a problem even duct tape can't take on.

nice sarcasm. are we having a serious debate or are u just trying to be a jerk?

but to answer your question, the governments of the world could become a lot more proactive in their resolve to stop using fossil fuels. to begin, they could start instituting solar grids across the many different countries, cities, and building in the world. we could start harnessing tidal forces for and wind for other energy reserves. governments could start instituting more programs to research alternative forms of energy, biodiesel, etc.

the governments could start instituting programs that reward sustainable living, while instituting penalties for excessive waste and pollution. modern building practices could be completely reinvented to eliminate the amount of waste produced. laws could be enacted to protect rain forests.

you see, 6.5 billion people are too busy worrying about their kids, their jobs, their supper, their after work, in general their lives to stop and really consider what is going on in the world. they don't see it as a priority because there is so much going on in there lives. however, if the governments for these 6.5 billion people started making it a priority people would do it. some would complain, some wouldn't understand why, others would claim that the governments are infringing on our civil rights.. but the majority of the 6.5 billion people would just do it. because it wouldn't be that drastic of a change if it had the full funding and support of the governments.

and as for your next question, I have no idea how to get the governments of the world to work together on this. because the almighty buck is still king. so as long as major oil companies are funding political candidates and big industry still holds all the cash, things probably won't change all that drastically.

oh, and going back to the middle ages isn't quite necessary, just pre-industrial revolution would be absolutely fine by me.

I do want to make one thing very clear too, I don't believe this is the end of the world, and more than likely it would not be the end of humanity... but I would much rather see us try to prepare for it now and maybe avert another multi-century stint in the dark ages, because of the massive changes that over take us while we are too busy with our heads up our collective asses. The planet will live on, even if we wipe ourselves out, but why would we want to let it come to that, if we have a choice now?

If there was an official announcement.
If it said the world (earth)would end in December 2007 and there was nothing anyone could do about it... there simply was no hope...
Would you continue doing all the stuff you do on Monday and every other day? WOuld you go to work? Get upset over your kids F in geometry or mad at your husband for missing the laundry basket?
Would you still log on here and chat? Would this even be up and running? What if the people in charge of keeping the WWW awake chose to not bother going to work...
Would there be anything on TV? A few stark journalists vowing to go to the end?

So would you want the announcement to be made? Do you want to know? Remeber if you get to know so does everyone else.

Well I locked the thread, it was more of an FYI than anything, but I could see it going way off track real fast.