It is interesting that Tim Flannery imagines this scenario when imagining a future "Earth Commission for Thermostatic Control."

"Inevitably, one day some commissioner will suggest that their work would be more effectively done were they to concentrate on the root cause of the issue -- the total number of people on the planet....."

This issue is the one that would, in Flannery's scenario,transform the commission into a global totalitarian government.

My guess is that we are already nearer to this than most people are aware. The policy of allowing maximum die-off from catatrophes is a start at reducing population. The policy of concentrating wealth and power into the hands of ever fewer people is also an attempt to squeeze out the "useless eaters" than drain resources. Finally, the policy of endless Resource War (however disguised) is the current form of the policy of "Kill Off" or genocide.

Remember the Indian Wars? The Europeans found over 12 million Native Americans here and eventually herded the remaining couple of hundred thousand onto reservations to wither away there.

Now the "Indian Wars" have gone global. Soldiers often refer to Iraq as "Injun Country." Over one million Iraqis have died as a result of the Invasion/Occupation, and millions more have fled to overburden neighboring countries with refugees. Recent Indian Wars have been carried on in Central and South America more covertly -- for the most part. Now the battle is being taken more overttly to the continent of Africa as well. This involves a process of destroying infrastructure in such a way as to thin population quickly as well as to sieze resources.

We continue the work of "Manifest Destiny" and continue to interpret "The White Man's Burden" in a violent way. We have to destroy the planet in order to save it.

Maybe we need a new name for global warfare: GIW, or "Global Indian War."