Malthus had laughably simple mathematical models (strict geometric growth, strict additive food growth IIRC) but the fact that we are staring a worldwide climat

Malthus had laughably simple mathematical models (strict geometric growth, strict additive food growth IIRC) but the fact that we are staring a worldwide climate crisis and species extinction problem as we race towards 8 billion people and a very uncertain future seems to validate Malthus more than anything. The 20th century was a century of abundant utilization of resources. Unless space mining takes off, I don't think people in the know consider the 21st century in a similar light. The exploitation curves of oil fields are basically similar to many other things: mines, agriculture, etc. We have resources that are easy to get to and use, and others that are progressively less economical/productive. In oil, we're entering the age of tar sands and fracking to keep things afloat until the switchover to EVs happens. EROEI on those things is far worse than the early 1900s where you could stick a pipe into a ground, dig ten feet down and light sweet crude oil would explode out. Technology keeps bailing us out, but one could view technology the same way: a great deal of simple technology has been pruned from the tech tree. Now we're on 3nm semiconductors, nanostructures, microbiology. Which are all amazing, but those are of increasing complication and increasing cost to bring to market. So almost all resources are "developed" from more difficult to exploit sources now. I think his point is that we have unchecked growth and just one planet currently.