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The Human Ecology of Overshoot: Why a Major Population Correction Is Inevitable
- myshpa 3y agoHuman beings have been naturally programmed for exponential growth, resource consumption, and territorial expansion. While nature historically provided negative feedback to limit this, advancements like the scientific revolution and fossil fuel usage have diminished these restraints, amplifying our growth. Modern neoliberal economics further promotes this growth. However, our unchecked growth means we are depleting and contaminating the very resources upon which we depend. Though climate change is a prominent sign of this unsustainable growth, current mainstream solutions might exacerbate the issue. Given our current trajectory, society is heading towards a major economic contraction and significant population reduction within this century. “Without a biosphere in a good shape, there is no life on the planet. It’s very simple. That’s all you need to know. The economists will tell you we can decouple growth from material consumption, but that is total nonsense… If you don’t manage decline, then you succumb to it and you are gone” (Vaclav Smil).
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- RetroTechie 3y agoOne would expect humans (or humanity as a whole) to be smarter than bacteria filling up a petri dish. NOPE! How disappointing.
- Bostonian 3y agoIt is a bigger problem that fertility rates are well below replacement level in most of the developed world.
- faeriechangling 3y agoIs it really though? It straight up might be a positive for a survival and well being or the species, temporal grinding poverty aside. From what we observe on island ecosystems, species reducing their own populations voluntarily in response to environmental stress is a feature not a flaw.
- myshpa 3y agoSimply ... no. > Humanity is in overshoot — global heating, plunging biodiversity, soil/land degradation, tropical deforestation, ocean acidi-fication, fossil fuel and mineral depletion, the pollution of everything, etc., are indicative of the increasing disordering of the biosphere/ecosphere. We are at risk of a chaotic break-down of essential life-support functions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1vX03h7w9c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1vX03h7w9c
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Bostonian 3y agoCommodity prices are at about their 25-year mean according to https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/crb https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/crb , which suggest we are not running out of things. The climate is warming, but it is a gradual process that humans will adapt to. In much of the world air pollution has been decreasing -- for U.S. data see https://gispub.epa.gov/air/trendsreport/2022/#introduction https://gispub.epa.gov/air/trendsreport/2022/#introduction.
- faeriechangling 3y agoThe word “adapt” is doing heavy lifting.
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- myshpa 3y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_boundaries#Nine_boundaries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_boundaries#Nine_boun...
- toomuchtodo 3y agoThis puts into words a concept I have tried to explain to others sub-optimally. Thank you for sharing this link.
- marssaxman 3y agoThat is not a problem; that is part of the solution.