3 ms·

> We need to either slow down on the exponent - not just population We did this. Population growth is slowing rapidly.

• TeMPOraL 6y ago
  Sure. But you even quoted me saying not just population, which is the key point. Stabilizing population doesn't buy us much if the market - and thus resource exploitation - is still growing exponentially.
  • astrange 6y ago
    Economic growth doesn’t imply increased resource use. Actually it’s more likely to be the opposite - growth is more likely to be in services and moving to electricity, which is renewable. Our use of many nonrenewable resources has peaked and gone down as population has gone up.
    • TeMPOraL 6y ago
      > Our use of many nonrenewable resources has peaked and gone down as population has gone up. Our use, or the growth rate of use? It's good when the latter goes down, but we're not out of the woods as long as it stays > 1. > Actually it’s more likely to be the opposite - growth is more likely to be in services and moving to electricity, which is renewable. Most services have consumables, and electrification of everything is very production-intensive. And while digital services may be growing faster than manufacturing these days, manufacturing is still growing. Yes, in theory, we can have economic growth without commensurate manufacturing growth, but I think we're still couple abstraction layers short in our economy before we could think about running it completely on imaginary things.