Yeah, but its got me wondering about Van's uncle from Earth. The guy grew up to be a terrible person and had zero pictures of his own parents (Van's Earth grandparents)? What in the world happened with that family?
Maybe he was a terrible person because his parents were abusive too and he cut off the relationship with them.
Didn’t we learn about them way back when the two bravers became Rod’s angels? Was mentioned that once Van died and they had full access to the inheritance money his parents left him they squandered it all. Then he ended up running his business into the ground. The aunt kept getting arrested and ending up in jail for petty shop lifting. The cousin ended up in the same live in job that Van was going to get, except the guy had no motivation or work ethic and basically just stayed there.
Thanks for the reminder! I was more talking about the uncle's relationship with his brother (Van's former dad) and his father. It just seems strange to not have any pictures of your family like that. I myself have a picture of my great great grandparents. Obviously I've never met them, but I still keep the picture. Maybe it's a cultural thing?
Where I come from is not strange either, although in my case there is none, and it is mainly because almost everyone is still alive (on my maternal side my great-grandmother and until recently my great-great-grandmother left, may she rest in peace) and those who no, they lived in times where in their areas you could not take photos
I don't have any pictures of my grandparents. First because taking pictures was expensive when my grandparents where alive. Second, maternal grandparents dead early. Even now I have little pictures of my self, because I don't like taking pictures. So, even now when pictures are cheap here are few pictures of my self. And my descendant may not have any pictures of me
I think your conclusion is a little off. The issue is almost never the population, that notion originally came from a theory developed on the premise that everyone would be subsistence farmers. It didn't take into account changes in technology or society. You touched on the real problem though. The real issue is personal investment. While we could apply a number of policies and technologies that would work and pursue research on making new technologies or making existing ones more effective these actions are usually halted by people who have a personal investment in current and less effective methods. The decision to use rapeseed and palm oil probably came from a mix of someone being lobbied or financially tied to agriculture and those who were the same for oil, thinking diluting would have less of an impact on their stock values than actually phasing it out. Anyway, there's always alternatives and always a way forward. Population has yet to ever be the actual issue but is instead the excuse used by people who don't want to tackle the issue.
He doesn't need all of that to engage in eco-terrorism. He just needs to get his hands on some explosives, (bought or homemade), or any weapon really, and then attack people he thinks aren't "earth friendly", like setting cars in a dealership on fire. That being said, the early chapters state he wasn't one only because he didn't have the opportunity. The moment he got to Lambda... As for Alda, it's not that he thinks allying with Rodcorte is a good idea. In fact, it's often emphasized that he knows it's a terrible idea, but he thinks he doesn't have any better (or valid) options to deal with the Valdalieu mess both of them are responsible for. Dumstercorte for blindly hurling him into Lambda in the first place, full of rages, curses, and the apathetic demand that he go kill himself on the vague promise to "erase all his suffering." Alda is directly responsible for completing Van's mind-break by giving his followers a thousands-years [Divine Message] to consider killing off vampires and dhampirs as a top priority on his genocide crusade, and turned a blind eye to the precense of Hihiryushukaka's little cult in the territory of Amid, where his faith is the strongest, since they kill off "lesser" vampires and dhampirs for sport, which inevitably resulted in the murder of Darcia for the "crime" of getting married and giving birth, thus destroying the one adult infant Van knew was good and kind to him, raising him as a loving mother. If Alda knew old Roddy was under his thumb, he'd very likely enact some horrific things, forcing Rod to do unspeakable stuff to the souls of the reincarnators who are still on Origin before they arrive on Lamda, since Alda is most paranoid about what kind of "foreign" tech they'd bring. Heck, Alda had a proper melt-down when he realized Van had managed to make gunpowder. Alda considered sending agents to kill off all the incoming reincarnators when they were infants, but realized even his most fanatic followers would balk at that, plus he fears that if he does manage the attempt and it fails, he could well be triggering the rise of newer and deadlier Vandalieus... Edit: After having read chapter 251, it's odd that Van's uncle didn't have any pictures of his father, Van's grandfather, around. This is Japan. Even in the present day, the locals pray to their ancestors for guidance, using a picture or paiting with black tassels like open curtains on them and light a stick of incense before it, at least once a month. This leads to the conclusion that Van's uncle is an exile and never considered himself a member of the family. He happily welcomed Van when Van's parents died because he'd get access to the inheritance, but he must have absolutely loathed the kid becauses the poor boy had parents he didn't like. It doesn't excuse what he did and didn't do in raising the child, but it sure as hell serves to explain it.
Population are issue, it always was issue and always will be issue. Technology don't appear from air. You need to invent new technology. And no mater what technology you will use it all will have negative influence on environment. Only amount will be different. If you have 100 diesel cars, they will produce one amount of pollution, but if you have 100 billion cars, they could pollute air in Earth in few years that you will not be able to go out to outdoors without gas mask. Even if you change all cars on Earth to hydrogen cars, to make 100 billions cars will pollute Earth greatly. And you will need a lot of farmland to feed all humans. One drop of water is nothing. If it drops on your head you may not even now about it. But if 100 billions drops of water fall on your head at once your bones will be broken and you may drown. But with time technology progresses and new more efficient and environmentally friendly technology are invented. But it needs time and money.
We have the food right now, to feed more than twice as many people, but stuff like the Ever Given in Suez Canal situation shows that we have trouble getting it everywhere.
Yeah, that's kinda the point. Any technology that we know right now would have some negative but there are some that have less of a negative and that negative can be further reduced with development. The thing is that we have not reached the point where the population is the problem. If there was a real interest in stopping the use of oil, you would put restrictions on the kinds of new cars built in order to phase out gas using cars and install both renewables and small scale SMR or Breeder type nuclear reactors (that help to deal with the problem of their waste and difficulty in installing or dismantling later) in order to stabilize the electrical grid and meet the increasing demand. The tech already exists, there isn't a willingness to put in the time and money. That's the real problem, we didn't get to the point that we can't manage with our population, we just don't want to invest the time for further research and the money for implementing the better solutions we have now.
I just want to be sure that these are just his thoughts and does not necessarily reflect the story accurately. Nor is it based on untranslated chapters. Is that correct?
Yes. Everything in the bullets are eddy andres' thoughts. I just summarized them since the original post was long and eddy andres isn't a native English speaker. The (my words:…) part and everything outside of the bullets is just my two bits. While I believe eddy andres reads ahead, they're pretty good at adding spoiler tags. I, myself, do not read ahead or read spoilers, so anything I say is pure speculation.
How you determine if population is problem or not a problem? If population are not a problem it means we don't have any problem right now. Because, even if cars right now would be powered with coal, here should be no problems. Because technology too are not a problem. So, if population are not a problem and technology are not a problem (because we always use best technology possible right now) it means we never had any problems with environment pollution. Who should install both renewables and small scale SMR or Breeder type nuclear reactors? Businessman? State? Citizens? Who should use they money to create things who may not pay off for decades? Businessman are not hero, businessman are not angel. Businessman is person who risk his money to make more money. He will not invest his money in new technology if his previous investment did not pay off and did not made enough profit. Because not all investments make profits. Some investments goes bankrupt before pay off. So they need to get they money from investments who are successful. And they will only invest in new business if they knew it will be profitable or at last guess it could be profitable. States are always in red, they always are short on money and need to borrow money. So, can state invest more money in new technology? Should it borrow money to invest in new technology? Should it cut money from education, treatment and pension budget to invest more money in new technology? Or should state increase taxes to invest more money in new technology? For citizens to invest in new technology is completely impossible. Either they need to become businessman or pay more taxes to do it. But not many will want it. And most citizens will not have willingness to put in the time and money. We just don't want to invest the time for further research and the money for implementing the better solutions we have now. Really? Are you sure? You know, this is exact thinking of Bellwood. Just very idealistic and completely impossible to implement thinking. You completely disregard economic factors and put everything on willingness. To have technology is not enough to make it. Everything is much more complicated and require not just money and willingness to do it. Lets say your pay per year are 50k $, you brought new diesel car for 40k $, next year someone started to sell electrical cars for 50k $, will you be willing to send your 1 year old car to recycling and buy new electric car? I don't think so.You will not be willing to live on bread and water for 2 years just to be environmentally friendly. And here are many people who don't even get 50k $ pay. This is why I think technology is not a problem. Even if we use coal driven cars. It is population which is problem.
Oh, I was just about to turn in for the morning. So much for that idea. Thanks for the heads-up! Edit: Totally worth it. Van's subjects continue to be disobedient and disagreeable... building a huge statue of him, despite his embarrassment. Man, this nation is doomed with all the conflict! Looking forward to seeing some more interactions with the grandparents, their shaken SAN when introduced to the 'siblings' was funny, going to get even better as they're introduced to the slew of fiancees. Also think there's going to be another S-rank added to their ranks at some point in the not-so-distant future. Randy's interested in them, and he doesn't seem like he's completely unwilling to accept some odd fellows just because Aldip says they're bad.