I find it amusing that everyone here in this thread but me is doing nothing productive, and instead complaining about me and how I'm not doing anything useful, and yet I'm the only one creating productive information within this thread.

Don't you see? The solution is awareness via education. The solution is to end ignorance about the problems. Whether it's explaining to libertarians, or politicians, or reforming education in school, the solution is to educate. Schools are probably spending too much time educating the students on recycling, conserving energy, and so on, and not enough time explaining ecosystem services, conservation, trophic cascades, edge effects, ice albedo feedback loops, island biogeography, wildlife corridor projects, the benefits of dam removal, urban planning, habitat loss, biodiversity, examples of how material science, medicine, computer science and engineering benefit from biodiversity, etc.

Yes, perhaps it is true that I have not been proposing solutions. Instead, I have simply been enacting the solution in my own small way - by creating awareness.

Poor attitude for someone being taught new things.

You do understand the law of diminishing returns with regard to resource extraction? As you add numbers to the population, each succeeding block of millions must utilize ever diminishing methods. The best crop land has already been developed. The easiest accessible oil already drilled, and so on. Couple that with an increasingly rapid decrease in resources which undergo a non-reversible transformation upon use, and things aren't so rosy. To compound matters, new technology actually makes things worse by continually making it appear that we aren't picking ever higher fruit, which gives one the false sense that the resources will continue. Not a good thing.

The world today has much less to offer than it did 200 years ago. The potential knowledge that lay hidden within all the world's forest then is simply not available today, nor will an equivalent amount be available for a long time.

Ever wonder why Africa is the only continent with a lot of megafauna? Follow along here for a moment. Recall from other threads that megafauna co-evolves within an ecosystem and is integral to its functioning at full capacity to provide ecosystem services, via processes such as trophic cascades. Now, think about this: Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa, into Europe and Asia, across into North America and down to South America, and from Asia, down to Australia and out into the Pacific. The entry times onto the new continents occurred just before megafauna disappeared from each of those continents. Consider now, how less rich the world is today.

Oh, and about Africa. Why did the megafauna not die out there, considering homo sapiens originated from there? Because the megafauna co-evolved with homo sapiens and adapted to survive along side humans. Not so for the megafauna on other continents upon homo sapien's arrival. The time spans were too short for the megafauna to evolve a fear of the human hunter.

Regarding dam removal:

Trailer of Damnation: http://video.patagonia.com/video/DamNation-Trailer

Essay: http://www.patagonia.com/us/patagonia.go?assetid=75082

The buying of large contiguous tracts for conservation is happening. In general, it happens by the cooperation of NGOs and governments. And philanthropists do this as well. Perhaps the two most famous are Yvon Chouinard, famous climber and mountaineer, and founder of Patagonia and Black Diamond, and Doug Thompkins, founder of The North Face. Yet still, these efforts are not enough, given the current rates of deforestation, which, I will admit, is partly the fault of various governments, influenced by various factors, including poverty, lobbying, and greed.

I wish you'd spend an hour listening to this guy, even if you disagree, because there's a lot to be learned from what he's saying: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEnOcJpVA88

Myrkul, of course there are others who care. A large fraction, even. But we need an even more unified approach, so the bad apples don't fuck it up for everyone else. Do you recall the concept of Edge Effects?

You have not addressed my questions.

1. Where did the source material for that project come from?
2. Do you understand the dynamics of a greenhouse vs. say the Biosphere project?
3. What is the internal volume of that project and the quantity of ecosystem services it provides?
4. Explain how it provides ecosystem services to humanity.
5. Explain how it is different from a rainforest ecosystem, assuming you are able.

Stop pontificating about stuff you don't know anything about.

Have you read thoroughly through my post? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=97243.msg1073879#msg1073879

We already know what you want. As I said earlier, that's like an infant who is screaming for a toy. We need to put those wants into a context which factors in what we know about the mechanisms of the world.

So we're going to talk about ecosystems then? There is Tim Johnson before he understands what ecosystems are, and in the future, there might be Tim Johnson who understands more about ecosystems. I believe you're still the "Before" version of Tim Johnson.

Did you thoroughly read this post? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=97243.msg1073879#msg1073879

Imagine that some of those things that are being done that some people don't like are inexorably killing us all.

It's worse than that though. We can't get back rainforests (or old growth forests) and its biodiversity in any timescale relevant to the current plight of humanity. Deforestation is occurring and has been occurring at a horrific rate.

The problems are unawareness, ignorance, and greed. Some benefit near term and don't care. I've tried to explain what biodiversity is all about. But most people don't get it. To summarize:

1. Biodiversity is our primary repository of undiscovered knowledge for the sciences, whether medicine, material science, engineering or computer science. Examples are molecular compounds, the microscopic structure of shells, internal biological methods and processes, products of animals such as spider silk, social dynamics, such as in bees and ants, etc.

2. Biodiversity co-evolved, and works in synergy to provide ecosystem services, which in turn regulate the environment. Removing components is often like removing organs from a human body. 
 

I'm sorry, but I was hoping for some intellectual discussion here. Try again.

You know what you want. And I know what you want. But being able to define what you want is not being able to justify what you want. You're like an infant who has learned how to scream for a toy. But you definitely don't appear to be like someone who knows what he wants and knows what humanity depends upon ultimately derives from.

You can't make an effective point from the pulpit of ignorance. When you're ready to truly understand what you're discussing, I'll stop laughing at your remarks and consider them.

Tim, gain some respect. Here's how:

1. Understand what an ecosystem service is.
2. Understand the purpose of an umbrella species.
3. Understand what edge effects are.
4. Understand the causes of edge effects.
5. Understand how climate change will disrupt precipitation patterns and disrupt agriculture.
6. Understand how biodiversity is essentially one of the most important knowledge sources for medicine, material science, computer science and engineering.
7. Understand how the elimination of biodiversity essentially removes our technological potential.
8. Understand how trophic cascades affect you.
9. Understand how the rainforests are the repository of most of the world's biodiversity.
10. Get a clue.

Based upon the timing of your posts, I doubt you have read the post in question. You are an example of willful ignorance.

Address this post: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=97243.msg1073879#msg1073879