> Is this a clever side-step to mask a ecological catastrophe with market economics (e.g. the environment didn't collapse, the market just solved a resource all

> Is this a clever side-step to mask a ecological catastrophe with market economics (e.g. the environment didn't collapse, the market just solved a resource allocation problem by making food unaffordable to ?illions, nothing to see here). Dr. Zubrin's main point is: look at history. So let's look at history. Does a growing population increase hunger or decrease it? Throughout all of history increasing population is correlated with decreasing hunger. If a "scientist" can not even look at the existing data to see that EVERY SINGLE TIME it contradicts their hypothesis, then that is not a scientist. See "Merchants of Despair" for a more eloquent explanation than I could ever give. > No matter what your population density, your society will not be able to build a perpetual motion machine. I don't see the relevance. > They're also not making more arable land (vertical farms are not a substitute), which is ultimately what those dense cities are dependent on. The goal is not to maximize arable land. The goal is to feed everyone. Our modern crops can produce much more on the land we have than humans could ever produce before. > As they say: past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Just because in the past one s substitute could be found for an exhausted resource, that doesn't mean a substitute can be found for every needed dwindling resource in the future. As I said, If a "scientist" can not even look at the existing data to see that EVERY SINGLE TIME it contradicts their hypothesis, then that is not a scientist. > Sure, but how many? If it's 500 million, what about the 7.5 billion that didn't make it? You might be experiencing a hallucination. I believe there are currently close to 8 billion people on this planet. Please tell me how many people you think are on this planet. If you think there used to be 8 billion people on this planet, and that 7.5 billion of them died, please tell me when that happened and what year you think it is right now.