Re:Antarctic CO2 Hit 400 PPM for First Time in 4M Years
by bprieto on Friday June 17, 2016 @08:41AM
(#11922259)
Yes, sustainability is possible. No, we are not living beyond the capacity of the earth. Yes, it's possible to sustain this many people, and some billions more.
Because the very concept of "resources" is not fixed. In the Paleolythic, all of Eurasia and Africa only had resources to sustain a few hundred of thousands of humans. Petrol wasn't a resource, coal wasn't a resource, even land wasn't a resource.
When we learnt to grow crops and tame animals the resources grew to let the same land sustain some millions of people.
And in the past 50 years, Borlaug's Green Revolution [1] turned all of 70's predictions of doom like The Population Bomb false. We have now more food than ever, and more resources than ever. And that's if we call "resources" just the things that we can use now.
In 50 years, people will be worrying about running out of X, where X will be a thing that we now don't think about as a resource.
Because the very concept of "resources" is not fixed. In the Paleolythic, all of Eurasia and Africa only had resources to sustain a few hundred of thousands of humans. Petrol wasn't a resource, coal wasn't a resource, even land wasn't a resource.
When we learnt to grow crops and tame animals the resources grew to let the same land sustain some millions of people.
And in the past 50 years, Borlaug's Green Revolution [1] turned all of 70's predictions of doom like The Population Bomb false. We have now more food than ever, and more resources than ever. And that's if we call "resources" just the things that we can use now.
In 50 years, people will be worrying about running out of X, where X will be a thing that we now don't think about as a resource.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug