Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumCrosspost from Good Reads: "Why we will finish eating the planet"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101656296wtmusic
(39,166 posts)Why do you think everything's going to be tied up in such a neat little knot?
Who gets the last bite?
GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)Probably a bacterium of some sort, billions of years from now.
I don't make any predictions about what's going to happen. It's just that this framework explains everything that has happened or is happening with a parsimony, coherence and elegance I've never seen before. Occam makes a pretty good razor.
kristopher
(29,798 posts)A Brief History of Birth Control
Prior to any developed methods of birth control, women had to rely on male withdrawal, and on crude infanticide and abortion for backup.
3000 B.C. Condoms made from such materials as fish bladders, linen sheaths, and animal intestines.
1500 First spermicides introduced which used condoms made from linen cloth sheaths and soaked in a chemical solution and dried before using.
1838 Condoms and diaphragms made from vulcanized rubber.
1873 The Comstock Act passed in the United States prohibiting advertisements, information, and distribution of birth control and allowing the postal service to confiscate birth control sold through the mail.
1916Margaret Sanger opens first birth control clinic in the United States. The next year she was deemed guilty of maintaining a public nuisance and sentenced to jail for 30 days. Once released, she re-opened her clinic and continued to persevere through more arrests and prosecutions.
1938In a case involving Margaret Sanger, a judge lifted the federal ban on birth control, ending the Comstock era. Diaphragms became a popular method of birth control.
1950While in her 80s, Sanger underwrote the research necessary to create the first human birth control pill. She raised $150,000 for the project, and in 1960 the first oral contraceptive, Enovid, was marketed in the United States as invented by Frank Colton.
1965The Supreme Court (in Griswold v. Connecticut) established the right of married couples to use birth control as protected in the Constitution as a right to privacy. However, millions of unmarried women in 26 states were still denied birth control.
1960sIntrauterine devices (IUDs) first manufactured and marketed in the United States.
Late 1960sFeminists challenged the safety of oral contraceptives (the Pill) as a result of confirmed serious health risks associated with it. Successful efforts led by feminist groups and consumer activists, along with well-publicized congressional hearings, led to modifications of the Pill.
1972 The Supreme Court (in Baird v. Eisenstadt) legalized birth control for all citizens of this country, irrespective of marital status.
1975The Dalkon Shield, a popular IUD, recalled under charges that it had caused infertility in thousands of users. Although other IUD designs were not implicated, all IUDs were taken off the market under fear of litigation.
1980s and 1990sHormonal birth control methods expanded to include implants and injectables. Low-dose pills were introduced.
1992Emergency contraception became more widely available as a result of public awareness campaign.
1990sRapid expansion in method availability and improvements in safety and effectiveness, including introduction of the hormonal patch, vaginal ring, new injectables, single rod implants, and transcervical female sterilization.
2000sFemale condoms are introduced.
TodayMore research is needed in woman-controlled methods that protect against STIs.
TodayBarriers to access to reliable contraception remain for women world-wide.
ETA link http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book/companion.asp?id=18&compID=53
GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)Do you think birth control is going to reverse population growth any time soon?
The implication of infrastructural determinism is that contraception will only become widely accepted when a culture doesn't want/need more people as much. That's precisely what rising levels of technology accomplish. Just as higher levels of technology created the infrastructural prerequisites for women's suffrage and the abolition of slavery, they have created it for contraception as well. I'm pretty sure now that the MPP is the motive force underlying infrastructural determinism, and as a result "powers" the entire cultural engine.
Here's an interesting graph that plots technology level against birth rate:
A nice power law trend - higher tech gives lower birth rates. The MPP and infrastructural determinism at work.
And thanks so much for introducing me to Harris. He and Odum have completely changed my outlook on the world.
Iterate
(3,020 posts)I did get a chuckle out of that, but maybe it's just me.
If you want more fun, just lie in wait for the assertion that Mao caused China's population stabilization with his family policy. That one's easy. The same results have universally occurred in cultures far removed. So much for top-down policy.*
*That's not an excuse for lack of leadership. Leadership is in a different category altogether.
hunter
(38,313 posts)I said it would be like a meth addict winning the lottery and nothing good will come of it.
If we can't control our fossil fuel use we'll simply use cheap fusion energy to turn things like tar sands or coal into cheap gasoline and disposable plastic crap, and turn rain forests into paper, furniture, disposable diapers and wood decking.
It's not hard to imagine a world where the outside air is hot and unfit to breathe, but the fusion powered air conditioners of the upper classes clean it up and cool it down, and the water is unfit to drink, but the fusion powered water purifiers of the upper classes purify it, and the food of the upper classes is grown under lights in the antarctic winters or the long sun of the antarctic summer...
... while the rest of us live short brutal lives in an earthly hell.
Yep, I can't wait. The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades.
GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)Meditation ... And Xanax ... Um, two - there are just two ways to deal with this feeling. Meditation and Xanax ... And bourbon ... Uh, three - there are just three ways to deal with this feeling. Meditation, Xanax and bourbon ... And morphine...