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I find it weird we worry about a “Malthusian” catastrophe still. The theory being proposed in 1798. What is the Information Age version? That deals with, “when
by patagonia 7y ago
I find it weird we worry about a “Malthusian” catastrophe still. The theory being proposed in 1798. What is the Information Age version? That deals with, “when do we kill the earth by our attempts to get everyone a cellphone?”
- shakyshakyshaky 7y agothe issue isn't even getting everyone a cellphone, it's getting a lot of people a new, almost identical cell phone every year.
- manicdee 7y agoWe avoided that early catastrophe by using fertilisers sourced from mined phosphates. We have about 300 years reserves at current consumption rates. If we double our consumption, we halve the reserve longevity. No amount of genetic engineering cleverness is going to address the need for onoohsates. Just because we avoided the early catastrophe doesn’t mean Malthus was wrong. At some point in the future we need to focus on farming ocean plants that recover the minerals we have been leaching into the oceans for the last few hundred years. Once we can close the loop on phosphates we can start talking about post-industrial-revolution population levels being sustainable.