On Malthus and Overpopulation ☀
Overpopulation: The Making of a Myth (via laliberty, statehate)
A rather simplistic treatment of overpopulation, and fraught with inaccuracies and blind faith in the inevitability of progress.
First, regarding Malthus, while his lamentations about the coming scourges due to overpopulation appear nonsensical to a post-industrial society, his model of pre-Industrial Revolution world economy was spot on.
For thousands of years, any small, incremental bout of technological advancement was quickly offset by population growth. If interested in the details, complete with caloric consumption and food production in pre-1800 ages, give A Farewell to Alms by Gregory Clark a read. Right about the time Malthus issued his proclamation, the course of world history would be altered in a way unimaginable to even the most learned.
Second, while I have not viewed the other videos in this “POP101” series, simply establishing that there is plentiful geographic bounds for all the people in the world does not address the math of all consuming resources at the same clip as an average individual residing in the first world. For instance, it’s estimated here, that if every human consumed resources like an American, we would need 5 planet earths to support us. Yes, I understand the argument that comparing future growth to a present day benchmark is as a dicey proposition as was at the time of Malthus, but still, it is prudent to note the limitations of current nonrenewable resource provisions.
Finally, by the same token, is it not just as foolish to assume an ever upwards arc of technological progress? That the last 200 years or so might be an aberration, and that prophesied laser track to the singularity is just mere science fantasy. Or worse, sudden accelerated depletion of a critical resource or even more tragic, devastation from global warfare or ravages of a health epidemic.
It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future. —Yogi Berra
(Source: youtube.com, via alexanderclarence-deactivated20)
