Are extremes of global population still possible?
As the world population hits 8 billion and amid official predictions that it will probably peak later this century, I still fear that extreme alternative scenarios could come to pass. Small annual percentage changes in population can multiply over the years, causing large changes. As a result of this compounding effect, it is possible that global population will become either much smaller or much bigger than it is today(12 November, p 14).
I don’t think the head count will stay around the 8 to 10 billion level. At some point in time, it is possible, due to the compounding effect, for the population to be either under 1 billion or over 100 billion.
Solarpunk would be a good vision for the future
Annalee Newitz addresses what flavour of futurology we should subscribe to now that cyberpunk visions seem out of line(12 November, p 26).
The cyberpunk vision was of a dystopian slant. Since I feel our world has enough dystopia, can I propose we adopt solarpunk as our next futurism of choice? It is a more utopian vision of a world in harmony with both nature and each other. It is a place of cities and forest meshed together. Let us dream of a brighter world that we can be proud of having shaped.
With enough people writing it, painting it and making it, maybe we can start moving towards it.
On the question of when adulthood really begins (1)
In my many decades, I have never met anyone under 25 who would qualify as an “adult” (including the younger me). The brain just isn’t done (12 November, p 40).
I think adulthood is a matter of attaining several traits: being less selfish to people around you (though this often atrophies later), good risk evaluation skills and abandoning childhood fancies.
Adulthood isn’t a panacea – young people like Greta Thunberg can often achieve things an adult couldn’t because they don’t have the last two of those traits.
Finally, a lot of people never grow up. For example, antivaxxers never manage the first two traits. In the worst-case scenario, you can end up with a selfish, petulant, perpetual toddler.
On the question of when adulthood really begins (2)
Adulthood is easily and unambiguously defined: when you find yourself owning your first lawnmower, your youth is a thing of the past.
On the question of when adulthood really begins (3)
The four criteria required to meet adulthood for an animal are listed as: “staying safe, navigating social hierarchies, sexual communication and leaving the nest to care for itself”. I would suggest that engineers (I am one) often fail that definition on at least two of those criteria!
With green hydrogen, we don't need nuclear
You state that “for years it has been energy orthodoxy to argue that nuclear will be an essential component of the UK’s energy mix to meet its net-zero goal”. I would say that this doesn’t make the argument any more valid (12 November, p 9).
To avoid the need for such power plants, we need storage options for excess renewable power, but there was no mention of green hydrogen on this front. It is attractive in many ways: it is universal, scalable and capable of seasonal storage. It is also a flexible source of energy for fuel cells for power generation, land, sea and air transport and essential energy-intensive industrial and chemical processes.
Lessons in adaptation to floods, Vietnamese-style
I have been in Hue, Vietnam, twice when the Huong (Perfume) river flooded. Citizens expect flooding when rains begin in November or typhoons are predicted. Hue’s robust concrete buildings are designed to accommodate high floods. Families and businesses move everything upstairs, store food and wait out the flood, then clean up, move downstairs – job done. Many families have a boat also (29 October, p 7).
Maybe much can be learned in countries such as Australia from this pragmatic approach to more frequent floods.
The plastics that defy my home composting (1)
I recently moved two garden compost heaps and removed compostable plastic packaging that hadn’t composted, as per your report on these materials. The villains of the piece included wraps for 快猫短视频 magazine. Hopefully, we can all learn from this (12 November, p 16).
The plastics that defy my home composting (2)
We don’t have to worry about “scraps of residual plastic” entering the food chain – “compostable” bags or wrappers are often made from starch. Of course, composting returns carbon to the atmosphere without getting any energy benefit, as would be obtained if the material were incinerated.
In the multiverse, do black holes get out of hand?
I would like to add to Laura Mersini-Houghton’s discussion on the multiverse based on my rather simplistic view that space is infinite and is populated by an infinite number of universes, all in various states of growth and decay (5 November, p 43).
In such a situation, might black holes continue to grow and even to meld with the planets and black holes of neighbouring universes? If so, given (effectively infinite) time, individual black holes may grow to such a size as to become unstable and create a new universe via a “big bang”.
I'm a witness to knee ligament's power to heal
That bad anterior cruciate ligament injuries can self-heal is no surprise to me. Mine occurred in a motorcycle accident decades ago. In my case, doctors simply washed out bone fragments from my knee, saying surgery was only for top-class football players (19 November, p 19).
I had some physiotherapy and was taught exercises to do thrice daily. It took a year for my anterior cruciate ligament to heal completely, but I can still stand on one leg and pull my heel to my bum (either leg, as it goes).