Re:The world is awful. The world is much better. The world c...
by williamcotton on Tuesday February 06, 2024 @08:44PM
(#39283461)
Malthus had plenty of scientific evidence as well! What he didn’t have was fertilizer and tractors.
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Re:The world is awful. The world is much better. The world c...
by dbspin on Wednesday February 07, 2024 @04:37AM
(#39286455)
Fertilizer and tractors both contributed enormously to devastaing the biodiversity of the planet. The question is not whether we can sustain a larger population, but whether we can sustain a population as large as currently exists - while maintaining any semblance of a natural world. Over a long enough time line both questions almost certainly do in fact merge. But it's equally possible to conceive of a medium term future with nature utterly devastated and humanity clinging on in increasingly baroque ways to a dying rock.