* Quemaqua rummages around for his "The End is Near!" sign.
Personally, when people talk about global warming, carbon footprints, world hunger, or any other somewhat depressing topic, I like to yell outragously true things like; "IT'S NOT A CARBON PROBLEM! IT'S A POPULATION PROBLEM! US OR THEM MAN, US OR THEM!" And then when the hippies mull over that point out that by 2050 we're looking at around 9 billion people (using current geometric growth rates for estimates I believe). This will make their ears perk up and make them want to start trying to have a serious conversation. And that's when you hit them with which countries you think we should bomb the fuck out of for no other reason but to curb their population. Remember if they don't make Nikes or can't afford them, they're probably a good choice for culling. Try to throw in cool catch phrases like "Trim the fat" as well.
On the positive side, world stocks bounced back a bit, and apparently the end of little recession thing is near.
I hope your new president manages to invest resources in alternative fuel.
People don't really know these things, it's all a ploy. Everyone is in the dark and economics is a social science for a reason: the leading minds don't know how to make predictions. Economists are great at analyzing the past and trying to learn from it, but that's all it really is at this point. Especially when market systems and world financial conditions change so rapidly.
vegetarianism and farms go perfectly well together.
It's pretty much a myth that we don't have enough space to grow food. World hunger is a distribution problem, not a supply problem. Agricultural pricing models are also pretty complicated in that growing more crops and less meat doesn't necessarily mean that there'd be any reduction in food prices. What very well could have an effect, however, would be growing crops for fuel. There are estimates that widespread practice could make regional food prices skyrocket.