4 ms·
I find the idea that unless our civilisation changes its priorities from "unbounded growth" to "homeostasis" then we necessarily will suffer the "asymptotic bur
by Roark66 4y ago
I find the idea that unless our civilisation changes its priorities from "unbounded growth" to "homeostasis" then we necessarily will suffer the "asymptotic burnout" comparable to papers written in 19th century predicting New York will drown in horse manure in next 75 years unless the growth is artificially stunted. Although the authors mention the role of periodic innovation as a factor that resets the curve of the resource consumption they dismiss it by stating the frequency of said innovation has to increase with increased energy usage and interconnectedness resulting in a certainty at some point innovation will not be fast enough to delay running out of resources. For this argument to work we have to accept unquestionably that "unbounded growth" has to continue until either a civilisation runs out of resources and regressed or achieves "enlightenment" and shifts its priorities towards homeostasis. To this I say why are they so sure, that as through growth of economic activity we raise our collective standard of living people don't start valuing their happiness over economic output? In fact observations of highly developed societies seem to support that. In addition the birth rate of people declines in modern societies often below replacement numbers so that "unbounded growth" looks really unlikely.
- matthewdgreen 4y agoWe replaced horse manure as a waste product with greenhouse gases, which produced a local improvement but will very likely put large portions of New York City under water in this century. So based on the evidence accumulated so far, we haven’t demonstrated that we can find our way out of the resource/pollution dilemma. Maybe we will in the future!
- parkingrift 4y agoWe already know how to find our way out. Stratospheric aerosol injection. We don’t need to invent anything new or spend significant sums of money. We will do it eventually, but only after green democrats finish their “perfect is the enemy of good” lifetime crusade.
- AlexandrB 4y ago"Know" is doing a lot of work here. > Almost all work to date on stratospheric sulfate injection has been limited to modeling and laboratory work.[1] At best it seems like a good potential solution that need a lot more study. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratospheric_aerosol_injection https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratospheric_aerosol_inject...
- comprambler 4y agoIn chatting with someone in the oil industry, he said humanity was undergoing its largest accidental geo-engineering exercise via sulphur containing heavy oil being burnt on ships. Somewhat recently high sulphur content was banned from heavy oil and we stopped that experiment. https://clearseas.org/en/blog/marine-fuels-what-is-heavy-fuel-oil/ https://clearseas.org/en/blog/marine-fuels-what-is-heavy-fue...
- klyrs 4y agoFor some reason, people really seem to hate it when the rain is sulphuric acid. Also, plants. The experiment ended because of the harms it caused.
- parkingrift 4y agoWe need not wonder. Nature has already given us a trial run. All this brouhaha over unintended consequences are going to ultimately be secondary to the known and catastrophic consequences of runaway global warming.