Hence the rise of right-wing parties in both countries.

And if sustainability is any compass, our move towards a pos-fossil fuel era will bring us back to the rationale of the land-carrying capacity of the bio-economy. Back to more or less pre-1870 population levels. For the Netherlands, where I'm from that means back to 4-5mln instead of the 20mln. we are heading to in 2070.

The gap, a factor of 4 to 5, is huge...the only real question is how we are going to bridge it: nice or nasty?

I have a lot of respect for how the Chinees did it: the one-child policy. Share the burden equally. In Europe, it's the only way that we can avoid Lebanese-style bloodshed along ethnic divisions. The longer we wait the bigger this problem becomes.

People are tribal primates first, humanity comes in only second. It's a very uncomfortable truth, but it's better to be honest and preemptively try to avoid it. Rather than in typical EU ostrich-style in denial bury our heads in the sand and hope it blows over. It won't. The indifferent and amoral thermodynamic rationale simply dictates it can't.