Tackling Global Problems at their Common Roots

The Politics of Population Management
No politician, no industrialist is farsighted enough to risk breaking this holy cow of a taboo. If results cannot be expected while he/she is still in office, no bureaucrat is wise enough to even expose it. Certainly not while our democratic systems require them to do what voters/shareholders want. All their strategic thinking is short-term. As long as the holy grail of human endeavour remains growth at any cost, they will continue to accelerate the decline of our environment. Ironically, jobs in ecologically destructive professions are more important than what happens to the planet in a few decades.
Not since a crisis like the second world war and the emergence of a personality like Winston Churchill stating “I have nothing to offer you, but blood, sweat and tears”, has any leader had the guts to ask his people for a major sacrifice.
Can you imagine a president of the most energy-waisting country in the world, the United States, asking his voters for even as little as “Please shut down your car's engine and your computer's monitor when you don't use them”. No way, even though it would save their economy billions of dollars each year. We are up against another great taboo: The American Way of Life!
Acting now would be the most economical way to solve our problems, even though many of us may not live to see the final outcome.