Not sure what my being from Texas or Alaska has to do with anything... It's a widely known estimate that Alaska alone has more oil in it than most of the Middle East, yet the environmentalist nazis are constantly lobbying to make sure we can't drill there because, god forbid, laying a pipe in the ground might kill a few fish. Ohio would only be another example of the same stupidity.

While I agree that HFCS is useless and unhealthy, I fail to see how that might help a global shortage of food. It'd be better to stop procuring corn for ethanol.

Short of massacreing millions of people, there really isn't a way to eliminate over-population. Although, if there is indeed a major food shortage world wide, then that means that nature is about to balance itself. With less food, population growth would stem and the global census for the rest of history would read 6.2 billion or whatever.

Of course, since population growth in some areas is STILL exponentiating, one has to wonder if claims of a 'global' food shortage are really true.

The problem with your second suggestion is that most of this rich oil land in Texas is being used to build houses stores and malls so there is just no more space. And recycling has always been suggested. People just don't listen. *shrugs*

Hm... There's still the horizontal pipe stuff that they keep suggesting for use in Alaska. That could go under houses, easy, no?

Mer, I dunno that much about how it works, I just know that it's there and a lot of people want to drill it while a lot of louder people want to keep it illegal to drill.

The real problem here is not the food crisis but rather the weather crisis. It is irregular weather patterns that are impacting harvests. Moreover it is only getting worse. If global warming continues unchecked the rise of temperature in the world's oceans will cause an enormous drop off in precipitation cycles. This means less rain, worldwide desertification and less farmable land.

It also does not help that man is cutting down vegetation at an alarming pace. The Amazon rainforest ecosystem will collapse in 20 years. That also effects weather patterns and atmospheric CO2 levels. And that is but one example.

I fear humans are setting themselves up for a sudden downfall. Im not saying it would be the end of humanity, but rather an end to the comfortable and wasteful lifestyles we have come to know. There is no way we can continue on doing what we are doing to nature. Everything has a limit.

Incidentally, particularly here in America, such an idea is despised and tossed aside because we the "greatest, most free" country in the world thinks that would lead to communism, and we wouldn't want anything related to that because the few of us who actually have a say (the rich, if you can't figure it out) would have to give up their luxurious lifestyles, wouldn't they?

Maybe I'm just incredibly cold, but I see plenty of people in the world that we could EASILY "trim" out of the circuit, so to speak... Major criminals being in the high slots on my list.

As you can probably tell, I support Kira's ideals. Not the execution, just the ideals.

Of course, there's always the potential of a "false accusation." However, when there's over-whelming evidence against the perp, and ESPECIALLY if he's a repeat offender, I don't see the point in sending him to jail and using the tax payers money to give him three square meals and a roof over his head, just HOPING that he won't get out of jail and commit the same crime again, this time with more "street cred."

But, that's just my oppinion on how to lower the population. Not to mention, it would lead to a much safer and inevitably happier world. Sure, it might only be safe because of fear, but looking through the past it seems that the ONLY way to maintain peace amongst human being is to put the fear in them.

After all, the Cold War never fully exploded, because both sides were afraid of the nukes, am I not right? (Note the word "fully," as in all out between the US and Russia)

After reading this, I've been thinking...

What if there USED to be life on Mars, but they did the same thing to their planet that we're doing now? Maybe that's why it's more-or-less just a huge desert...

There is no more usable farmland in the US. Every inch is being used. That's why lots of farmers are going to Brazil to buy cheap land and grow now very profittable crops like sugar cane for bio-fuel.

Hmmm, yes and no. Utilization of current farmland is near 100%, however there are large tracks of former farmland, that have gone feral under government wildlife conservation programs. The farmers are paid $50 per acre not to plant, and allow the land to return to it's natural wild state. However with newer high food prices many farmers are wanting to pull out of these programs. At the current food prices, they can earn over $150 per acre planting wheat or other staple crops.

The main driving force for the land grab in Brazil and Argentinia is economics. Farmers who wish to expand production into previously underutiliesed land, find it much much cheaper to produce in there. Land and labor cost are lower by a factor of 10 or more in those areas.

There is also the problem of farmland conversion in land near metropolitain areas. Even with higher food prices, it is often the case that the land is worth more to urban developers, than it would ever be worth as farmland. So many farmers sell out, and buy land in South America.

Also it has socially become compleatly unexceptable in North America to expand into land that is still in a natural state.

But they can have a second child if their first child is a girl. However, many of them cannot afford a second child and no one wants girls, so they send them off to orphanages. With a population as large as China's, you can probably imagine how many babies need to be adopted. Some relatives of mine adopted 2 girls from China.

Because if you lived on the land you are suggesting be drilled you might be more informed about both sides fo the issue. Drilling sites do far more damage than killing a few fish while they are being constructed, even when they don't have accidents. As for running pipelines under people houses, you obviously are not thinking beyond your own needs.

Do you want a pipeline under you that prevents you from digging on your own land? Whether its for a fence post or a water well, you cannot dig.
Do you want a pipeline under you that may rupture because of either land shifts, improper installation or defective manufacturing? If there is not an explosion that destroys everything you own and kills your family, you could still have a seepage that kills all vegetation, contaminates your ground water and requires a major construction & excavation team tearing up your land (and maybe even your house) to repair it. Talk to the people in the Dallas suburb last week who watch their neighbor's house blow and put three people in the hospital with critical burns.

More drilling sites are not the answer. We need less consumption.

Thank you for a voice of reason, SatoriOne.