4 ms·
How is this a useful comparison? It's 10kcals of ingested food per 1kcal of energy the hunter expends (not including e.g. the energy of the game). By that measu
by wohlergehen 9y ago
How is this a useful comparison?
It's 10kcals of ingested food per 1kcal of energy the hunter expends (not including e.g. the energy of the game).
By that measure, I'm super efficient cause I buy food at the supermarket, and don't really expend any energy for it.
That number has nothing to do with the second 1kcal/10kcal modern figure.
- dualogy 9y agoYou're not wrong, it "doesn't really matter" as long as our fuels do keep up with our species' (consumption, production & reproduction) growth.
- wohlergehen 9y agoExactly. Going back to hunter-gatherer and living off the land like that is hardly sustainable with the current population: Earth has 5.7e7 sq mi surface, but 7e9 people, i.e. 8.1e-3 sq mi/person. Hunter/gathers seem to need (after a short google session) need around 1e-2 (Tropical) to 1e2 sq mi (Savannah) per person.
- RugnirViking 9y agoThis might be more accessible if you weren't using scientific notation. They aren't exactly astronomical numbers