Swedish scientist advocates eating humans to combat climate change
Swedish scientist advocates eating humans to combat climate change
Oh wait this is for real. It seemed like a joke when I first read it.
3 Comments
Holy crap there is a pro cannibal scientist??? i want off this planet holy mother of Gods.
he even says to consider eating our pets aka best friends for food instead of (you know) stop reproducing using some special anti fertility serum in the water.
if population = running outta room i can see using anti fertility things instead of killing our friends and eating human meat.
i would rather starve then to become less then human.
Ideally I'd like to agree with Corrector1 on this issue; ceasing procreation would definitely solve the overpopulation problem. But there are a few problems with that. Firstly is the matter of certainty. Even the best anti-fertility drugs don't work 100% of the time. We would first have to create a medication that does, and absolutes are a difficult thing in medicine. Operations would work (e.g. vasectomies), but can you imagine the uproar that would result if people were forced by the government to sterilize themselves?
That brings us to the second issue: control. How exactly are these anti-fertility methods going to be enforced? Even assuming the best case scenario where operations aren't necessary, you would basically need a totalitarian regime with absolute authority and control over the population to ensure that everyone is partaking in these methods, and that on its own is extremely unlikely. If even one couple finds a way to cheat the system, the entire thing will fall apart and we'll be back to square one. And I'm not even going to consider the possibility of people sterilizing themselves for the greater good of humanity, because it's so laughably impossible it doesn't matter.
So that leaves us with the issue at hand: post-mortum cannibalism. And let's get our facts right here, we ARE talking about post-mortum cannibalism, i.e. after the person has died. The article in question makes it clear that the scientist isn't proposing we go around slaughtering living people for their meat, so disregard the plausibility of that idea. In actual fact, cannibalism is quite legal already. Many US states don't have laws forbidding the practice, most likely because they assumed that they weren't needed due to both the taboo of cannibalism, and the action required to obtain a deceased human for consumption, murder, already being illegal.
So that leaves two main problems with the idea:
- The ethical implications of consuming human meat and the taboo surrounding it.
- The logistical issues of how such a thing would become mainstream.
Obviously the vast majority of people balk at the idea of cannibalism, no matter how nicely you dress it up. Breaking through that stigma will be a long and arduous process, more likely to succeed if children are introduced to it at a young age. Older generations will likely never accept it, but unfortunately the future Earth doesn't belong to them. Pro-cannibalism political propaganda, peer-reviewed studies on the long-term effects of cannibalism, and a certain degree of psychological flexibility on the part of the consumer would be the best way I think.
As for the logistical issues, the biggest problem would be how to deal with the inevitable black market that will crop up once humans become a food source. I don't really have a good answer for this tbh. Regarding government-sponsored cannibalism there are a few restrictions that might make people more open to the idea.
- Only consume people who have died from natural causes or accidents.
- Only consume people who were healthy and disease-free in life (meaning no drug addicts or smokers).
- Human meat consumption is limited to grown adults who volunteer in good conscience to be cannibalized after death (so no taking advantage of the mentally ill or disabled).
- Sale of body parts for cannibalism remains illegal. That way people desperate for money can't be taken advantage of through the sale of their limbs and organs.
- The sale of human meat for cannibalism cannot become a private industry. This ensures that corrupt corporations cannot monopolize the industry and create a downward spiral of morality.
Everything else would basically be the same as the current meat industry, with the exception that "farming" humans for their meat would be illegal (disregarding the black market, which, again, I'm not sure how to combat). The idea itself isn't a bad one theoretically, but it's unlikely to come to pass given the immense number of obstacles that would need to be overcome.
Anyone ever watch Soylent green or play Xenogears?