Global Sustainability

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That is the inherent assumption to what I was saying (I thought that that was clear), so I agree. Although I do think that in the meantime solar does have the potential to offset some of our grid usage. Rooftop solar panels are a very large capital investment, but some back of the envelope calculations I did suggest that they can pay for themselves over the course of their lifetime (assuming it costs $30 000 to buy and install enough solar panels to meet your house's needs; that electricity costs the same as it currently does in my province at time of writing [which is pretty low, and we're due for some rate hikes over the next few years]; that the solar panels last for 25 years [what the warranties typically cover]; and that your power company has some sort of smart-metering scheme where any excess power you produce deducts money from your bill). We'd still need nuclear for industry and as a backup, but there is some real potential in roof-top solar. It can't meet all of our energy needs, but it sure can help. Banks should start coming up with some financing scheme for the panels (if the manufacturers don't already have them, that is).

Hi,
This is something I have been keeping an eye on for some years now. I am glad you are all talking about this.
There are a few things I think are worth shareing.

Too many Humans on this planet at once is almost certainly the cause of most of the problems the species faces now.
There are also some really good things that come out of having a large population. Cities are about 15% more efficient for every measurable thing than dispersed populations, bad things as well as good things. Most of the world population lives in cities.
As populations become more affluent and better educated family size naturally becomes smaller.

The Nitrogen cycle system is more of a problem than C02.

Fresh water and particularly agricultural use of water are also major concerns.

Energy is only rare for inefficient systems. Necessity is making people find more energy efficient ways to do things and to realise that they can do without things. (How many showers do you really need in a week?)

Despite all of the big world sized difficulties the Species faces I still have strong belief in the capacity of Humans to learn and adapt. There will be hard times ahead, perhaps like going the species going through puberty in order to become more grown up and realistic.
The change in how People see themselves and how they can work collectively now that they are more connected than ever may help to make the cultural changes in attitude less painful.

As it gets more serious people will try harder. When I was a kid no one talked about this stuff. Now everyone does, even if they don't agree with each other yet, so I think it will probably all be ok in the end.

Maybe People just need to get together and decide what we as a species really want the world to be like?