Comments for Hugh Thomas Art POPULATION EXPLOSION

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 13:13:31 +0100

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

Image 27
What was he thinking
In the ghetto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ox1Tore9nw&feat...

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Thu, 26 May 2011 15:38:56 +0100

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

Image 26
' The metabolism of our economy is now on a collision course with the metabolism of our planrt ' Tim Flannery ( Australian biologist)

Good read - 'Whole Earth Discipline' by Stewart Brand
He has a more positive view on population growth - but I have my doubts

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 15:46:36 +0000

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

Image 25
The Once Fields and not a blade of grass remained
Communists want Growth, Socialists want Growth, capitalists want Growth, Religions want Growth. Growth means consumption and consumerism. But Planet Earth is finite and cannot support what may be exponential population growth. Some may call this Doom-mongering but sometimes facing facts may not be an easy exercise; it is so much easier to ignore truth. Joys of Toys, the chefs preparing food for jaded appetites, covering domes with gold and all the arts of blind greed - and Rape of a Fair Planet.

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 12:59:27 +0000

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

Twitching in the mud
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/c...

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 12:42:38 +0000

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

A more optimistic view - but whether it turns out to be true fact, or whistle-in-the-dark fiction has yet to be seen. Environmental sciences are just not so very accurate and the data is now suspect as some scientists have fiddled/imaginatively developed the data. Enviromental science is now a business/industry with jobs, careers, grants etc at stake and only available to those who view things in the 'correct' way - so until environmental sciences return to being disciplines rather than vested view-points; ask questions, the probing questions about the original data. Of course there is more but the reader should do some home-work and have an open mind without bias. Gods come and go, and The Green God is just another one that will probably hit the dust. Mostly the environmental issues are caused by the billions of human population.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthcomment/g...

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 15:18:00 +0000

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

24)
2010 Deforestation
Causes and Effects. Glib solutions such as 'Going Green'; whilst very sweet will not give solutions - frankly, the true answer lies in addressing the numbers of human population - and that means better education, responsible politics, and tackling irresponsible aspects of religions, particularly matters of birth-control etc Some sort of easy social science debate will not hack it.
And now there is a new sensible? Government in the UK - so get the quality of Science back on the agenda!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 20:19:39 +0100

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

IMAGE 23
Unchecked refs.- but probably fairly indicative
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation
http://www.ace.mmu.ac.uk/eae/global_warming/Old...
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/causes-and-effec...
Some may point to the advantages of vegetarian diet – well maybe, but the fundamental problem keeps coming back to number, the over population of Planet Earth by people – and this leads to solutions that demand a lot more thought encompassing politics, religious bigotry, addressing poor education etc Simple vegetarianism and ‘going green’ just will not hack it – sorry.

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 16:27:13 +0100

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthcomment/g...

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 16:06:27 +0100

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

Image 22
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_crisis
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1267131...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asi...

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 13:40:11 +0100

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

IMAGE 20
‘... the Renaissance created such a boom in the market for art and architecture, because Italian bankers like the Medici made fortunes by applying Oriental mathematics to money. The Dutch Republic prevailed over the Hapsburg Empire because having the world’s first modern stock market was financially preferable to having the world’s biggest silver mine. The problems of the French monarchy could not be resolved without a revolution because a convicted Scots murderer had wrecked the French financial system by unleashing the first stock market bubble and bust. It was Nathan Rothschild as much as the Duke of Wellington who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. It was financial folly, a self destructive cycle of defaults and devaluations, that turned Argentina from the world’s sixth richest country in the1880s into the inflation-ridden basket case of the 1980s . . . Planet Finance is beginning to dwarf Planet Earth ...’.
from the book ‘The Ascent of Money’ by Niall Ferguson.
For the record I am pro-capitalist and anti-socialist, and do not subscribe to bank-bashing; but with billions more mouths to feed by 2050 the considerations of consumerism and consumption become problems not of luxury, but survival.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/6220...

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Mon, 24 May 2010 13:21:19 +0100

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

IMAGE 19
The way home led across black-earth fields that had just been ploughed up. I ascended the dusty path. The ploughed field belonged to a landed proprietor and was so large that on both sides and before me to the top of the hill nothing was visible but evenly furrowed and moist earth. The land was well tilled and nowhere was there a blade of grass or any kind of plant to be seen, it was all black. “Ah, what a destructive creature is man….How many different plant-lives he destroys to support his own existence!” thought I, involuntarily looking around for some living thing in this lifeless black field.
Leo Tolstoy, Hadji Murad
trans. Louise and Aylmer Maude (original published in 1904)

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 19:44:11 +0100

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

IMAGE 18
Waste
Wasted wars, wasted people, wasted efforts, wasted peace...
‘…At the Nuremberg tribunal in 1946 a German prisoner of war testified that the besieging army punctiliously shelled Leningrad in the morning from 8.00 to 9.00, then from 11.00 to 12.00, in the afternoon from 5.00 to 6.00, and in the evening from 8.00 to 10.00. ‘This way’, he said ‘ the shelling would kill as many people as possible, destroy factories and vital buildings, and most importantly, attempt to destroy the morale of the Leningraders.’ Alongside this onslaught, famine was a weapon of conscious choice..’’
Quoted from the book “Leningrad State of Seige” by Michael Jones.
... and as resources of Earth dwindle then all will become Leningraders.
Elena Martilla
http://www.spbumag.nw.ru/2009/08/7.shtml

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 22:41:12 +0100

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

Gin and cider artist night
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N_rNz2oAGA&feat...

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 17:14:29 +0100

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

IMAGE 17
UNCHECKED (but probably indicative) refs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_(chemistry)

http://www.informaction.org/cgi-bin/gPage.pl?me...
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/bookdescriptio...
http://www.ukmarinesac.org.uk/activities/recrea...

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 13:27:38 +0100

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

IMAGE 15
So many humans, so much population, produced so some much effluent, the waters and lands became poisoned, and the most advanced primate became extinct due to its own troughs of greed and avarice which turned to poison. All the books, records, and sounds of the Primate-isms now slowly being devoured by low forms of life. Perhaps all that remains of that life form now, is some broadcast fragment speeding around the Universe perhaps to be received by a more cognitive and tolerant form of life, and they slowly shake their greater cognitions having seen other extinctions before the demise of Homo sapiens.

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 14:40:45 +0100

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

IMAGE 14
UNCHECKED (but probably indicative) refs:
http://www.energybulletin.net/node/48611
http://www.ypte.org.uk/environmental/endangered...
http://fwie.fw.vt.edu/afghanistan/WarandWildlif...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asi...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitat_destruction

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 12:56:12 +0100

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

IMAGE 13
Art composition by Hugh Thomas. March 10.
http://www.artmajeur.com/?go=artworks/display_mini_gallery&image_id=4641019&login=hughthomas
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/7397...
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn4797-eart...
http://www.actionbioscience.org/newfrontiers/el...

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 12:55:12 +0100

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

IMAGE 13
Art composition by Hugh Thomas. March 10.
http://www.artmajeur.com/?go=artworks/display_mini_gallery&image_id=4641019&login=hughthomas
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/7397...
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn4797-eart...
http://www.actionbioscience.org/newfrontiers/el...

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:29:00 +0100

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

IMAGE 12
From 90+ elements (or sub-atomic particles, ‘energy?’ and reality [which itself may be unreal]) came molecules that grouped into life units, and some these developed awareness, self-awareness, reason and intelligence – most developed in the human being. Human beings became so biologically successful that all other life was suppressed to the crucial point that the planet could no longer support the increasing billons of people. Over population by people will have to addressed if there is to be a longer term continuation of the human species. Addressing the narrow politically correct matter of nice easy ‘green’ issues will not be enough, as there are serious and complicated ecological issues caused by too many people – and it is not just about gasses. How many sardines can be put into a can before it gets very messy – how many people can really live on Earth.
In 1900 the Earth's population was about 1.5 billion; 1950 about 2.5 billion; 2009 about 6 billion, and projected 9 billion by the year 2040.
Protecting the human –sounds nice, but the hard bit is to protect the planet from the human, so as to protect the human – nice slogans will not do this.

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:23:36 +0100

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

IMAGE 10
Other artwork on www.artmajeur.com/hughthomas/ or Google ‘hugh thomas art’
Biodiversity on the Planet Earth is an indicator of the health and survival prospects of the human race. The human population structure will lag behind the biodiversity indicators. Since these indicators at present seem to suggest some sort of biological and environmental collapse is occurring, it is only a matter of time before this collapse affects the human race. The human is affecting the biodiversity and at some point a feedback will be, that the loss of diversity and health of the planet will also cause a collapse of human viability. The accelerating growth of the human population effects a reduction of biological and other resources maybe to the point that not only is there no effective habitat for biodiversity but also in the same process there is no effective habitat remaining for the human – it’s been poisoned , wasted, starved etc. The crux of the matter is the human POPULATION EXPLOSION – and until this is addressed in a meaningful and responsible manner, the ecological processes will continue to spiral into a decline with less and less variation of life occurring and the eventual extinction of the human being. Sure there will be many fine arguments to refute this, but they will be but cries in a wilderness. Art, and its children of Reason and Science, may have been born in a cave, and may yet die imprisoned in the mind of the human cave.
Some refs:
http://www.well.com/~davidu/extinction.html
http://www.earthportals.com/extinct.html
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0702-iucn.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 20:34:53 +0100

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

IMAGE 9
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/le...

‘There are other reasons for food shortages: the diversion to biofuels because of the depletion of oil reserves, the increasing population, changing eating habits in south-east Asia - all these are putting long-term pressure on agricultural resources...’ Iain Macwhirter

http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/2008/...
http://www.artmajeur.com/?go=seeℑ_id=3026577

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 14:40:43 +0100

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

Image 8
http://www.artmajeur.com/?go=artworks/display_mini_gallery&login=hughthomas&mini_gallery_id=1172165&artist_id=51921&image_id=2885513&disp_m=normal&serie=7

Simple Refs:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/06/08/...
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/international/2009/06/07/damon.indo.food.security.cnn?iref=videosearch

But put simply the Planet is just over populated with human beings - a difficult truth to address.

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:23:11 +0100

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

IMAGE 7
http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/waterpol...
But remember we all need the food from these farms – so to reduce the pollution in a sustainable manner there is a need to reduce human population.

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:03:45 +0100

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

IMAGE 6
The people committed ecological suicide
We ALL excrete, be it faeces, urine, stuff from factories, farms etc and mostly this ends up in some sort of water. The world is already over-populated and at some point the biological processes that clean up the excretion will fail, leading to a suppression of life back to simple cell organisms and there will be no human beings – for they will have been killed by various things like poison, starvation, disease etc. The basic problem is World Population dynamics causing an ecological collapse that will not sustain intelligence.
There are many refs:
http://www.panda.org/about_our_earth/blue_plane...
http://www.infoforhealth.org/pr/m14edsum.shtml
http://www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/ffarms.asp

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 10:57:35 +0100

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

IMAGE 4
This image is perhaps a comedy as there is the expectation that something should look pastoral and at peace (and a cow should look like a cow), but there is the disharmony of things are not really what they are, for the pastoral gives way to the abattoir – there is the nature of what it is and what is actually occurring in reality.
All people want good animal welfare and kindness – but there isn’t enough space for such ethical husbandry and wildlife/biodiversity. Simply there are too many people on the planet for available resources be it food, water etc. Solution – reduce the number of people. Simple solution, but difficult in practise because of birth-rates being skewed by ignorance and ‘Beliefs’. At least ignorance can be addressed by education. But the argument of Reason and Belief, seems to be more difficult. But such a banter and comedy of debate is more merciful than the tragic apocalypse of intolerant ecological collapse.

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:10:27 +0100

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

Planet Earth To-day. There isn’t enough for everyone and there is an expectation for everyone. Resources are finite and the cupboards go bare. Reason and responsibility is then shackled and strangled by ‘Belief.’ Religious opposition to birth control, and ignorance are important factors contributing to overpopulation and the enviromental/biodiversity changes. Also there are examples of a lack of politcal leadership amounting to irresponsibilty in addressing over-population eg Alan Johnson, the Labour MP saying 'I don't lose sleep over prospect of 70m population [in the UK]'
On Inconsistency in the Use of Reason, the Chartist, Zephaniah Williams wrote: "Those who distrust reason in matters of faith deem its free and unshackled exercise, not withstanding all their concessions in their pious moods as of essential importance in worldly matters, in which they forget not to use the wisdom of serpents, however wanting in the innocence of doves."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-brita...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/poli...
http://www.catholic.org/international/internati...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-12105...

Comment by Hugh Thomas (Cardiff)

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:48:45 +0100

Hugh Thomas (Cardiff) said:

The word ‘Green’ may give a warm glow, but most measures are just well intentioned sticking plasters, be they wind-generators, recycling etc Some are lunatic fringe science-see article on Science Daily. The crux of the problem is there are already too many people on the Planet Earth!!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-12105...
http://www.optimumpopulation.org/index.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/09...
Other artwork on www.artmajeur.com/hughthomas/ or Google ‘hugh thomas art’