4 ms·

8 billion people is just fine. The problem is that wealthier nation just consume more and waste more. We literally feed perfectly good farmlands to cows, for ex

by kiba 4y ago

8 billion people is just fine. The problem is that wealthier nation just consume more and waste more. We literally feed perfectly good farmlands to cows, for example.

jackmott42 4y ago
What does just fine mean? Certainly if we all ate prescribed vegetarian diets and lived like quakers we could sustain 8 billion people for a long time. But that isn't fine for me, nor is it fine for me that we obliterate almost all natural wildlife and wild areas to feed and house ourselves and power our grid. Its already not fine from many of our perspectives.
Chris2048 4y ago
Unless you do a full analysis, there's no use doing a partial one. Much of tech design and manufacture happens in "wealthier nation" for example, that in turn is distributed worldwide e.g. even poor countries possess mobile phones, and electronics in general. Trading crops for western currency is a generally neutral exchange, but at least it gives you access to things you cannot otherwise produce - and technology generally can break the zero-sum/geo-arbitrage of trade. > We literally feed perfectly good farmlands to cows Where does the wasted energy go?
epolanski 4y ago
It's not wealthier nations, everyone is consuming more. The farmlands is a perfect example you make because everyone eats more meat. Meat consumption per capita in Europe increased an average 10% just in the last 7 years. But Turkey, Vietnam, pretty much the entire middle east and Africa increased per capita consumption by more than 60% in less than two decades. And on top of that it's even more environmentally toxic as beef keeps taking more and more of the share of the meat consumption. And it doesn't stop at meat, India didn't even figure in top 10 car sales globally just 10 years ago, now it's the third market in the world after China and US and sells around the same cars as Germany and UK (which are all in the top 8 world markets) combined.

by kiba 4y ago

8 billion people is just fine. The problem is that wealthier nation just consume more and waste more. We literally feed perfectly good farmlands to cows, for example.

jackmott42 4y ago

What does just fine mean? Certainly if we all ate prescribed vegetarian diets and lived like quakers we could sustain 8 billion people for a long time. But that isn't fine for me, nor is it fine for me that we obliterate almost all natural wildlife and wild areas to feed and house ourselves and power our grid. Its already not fine from many of our perspectives.

Chris2048 4y ago

Unless you do a full analysis, there's no use doing a partial one. Much of tech design and manufacture happens in "wealthier nation" for example, that in turn is distributed worldwide e.g. even poor countries possess mobile phones, and electronics in general. Trading crops for western currency is a generally neutral exchange, but at least it gives you access to things you cannot otherwise produce - and technology generally can break the zero-sum/geo-arbitrage of trade. > We literally feed perfectly good farmlands to cows Where does the wasted energy go?

epolanski 4y ago

It's not wealthier nations, everyone is consuming more. The farmlands is a perfect example you make because everyone eats more meat. Meat consumption per capita in Europe increased an average 10% just in the last 7 years. But Turkey, Vietnam, pretty much the entire middle east and Africa increased per capita consumption by more than 60% in less than two decades. And on top of that it's even more environmentally toxic as beef keeps taking more and more of the share of the meat consumption. And it doesn't stop at meat, India didn't even figure in top 10 car sales globally just 10 years ago, now it's the third market in the world after China and US and sells around the same cars as Germany and UK (which are all in the top 8 world markets) combined.