nothing wrong with a bit of pollyannaism, looks like writing a self-help book on how to embrace it has been profitable for them.

I don't think it's a good idea to always be downplaying or pushing aside awkward facts.

Looking around Google I can't find the graph that I was looking for but found plenty of stuff saying the same - world forest after Ice Age 6 billion hectares, goes down to 4 billion hectares at the turn of the century which doesn't seem so bad except that half of the lost 2 billion just happened in the previous 100 years.

pollyanna that away if you like but I'm not going to.  and I sure as hell can't pollyanna away that Chinese Miracle of a spring roll that gave me anaphylaxis. 

It's a long time now that I have thought we are the lucky generation born into a time of relative peace and plenty and I just hope it stays in reasonable shape for the term of my natural life.  

Then 13 pointed out that it wouldn't take much to turn things around, actually still possible to aim for a healthy world.  

But then came the ban the plastic shopping bag campaign.  Do you think this will stop the plastics factory from making one less bag?  For some reason this didn't stick in people's minds but the next week after the bags were banned we got a give away of little coloured plastic toys and of course we get to buy those very nice insulated plastic carry bags with the straps that give way too quickly. 

I do not necessarily vote Green.  Sorry, I just think it will spawn a feeding frenzy and I shudder at the thought of a wave of little hitlers enforcing the new rules.

In other words I agree with my teenage self - might as well enjoy what we have now and not expect it to last.

I am not hung up on the super wealthy, how we got to the Chinese Miracle seems a bit after the fact to me but here we are and my after the fact musings have had me wondering whether we could have prospered as a whole without them.  ie hungry we are going to be, greedy we can handle but super greedy was too much?