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![]() "Dylan Smith" wrote in message ... In article pDV8c.98339$Cb.1264816@attbi_s51, Jay Honeck wrote: I doubt things have improved much -- although, if your reproduction rates keep dropping, your welfare states will soon evaporate. There are *far* too many people on this planet - a drop in reproduction rates is a *good* thing. The oil isn't going to last forever, Throughout history, such shortages were always a factor in humanit's existance. Going al the way back to the ancient empires, copper, wood, coal, whale oil, etc. always had a crisis. (Economics is the study creating plenty out of scarcity). and our highly productive intensive agricultural systems Highly _what_ intensive? are absolutely dependent on oil. A hundred years ago it was manual labor intensive, using animal power. Industry was coal fired/steam powered. Who'd thunk just a few generations later... Humans need to downsize, or the Earth will downsize us. Thomas Malthus said that over 200 years ago (IOW: I'm okay, you're okay, everyone else is excess) when the earth population was, what, a fifth what it is today? At the time, maybe 5% of people lived beyond a subsistence existence. Well, fast forward 200 years and TADA!! more people, more prosperity, higher living standards, longer life expectancy... Paul Erlich has been a media darling for over twenty-five years making predictions that not only didn't come true, but were 180 degrees wrong. Maybe what we're running out of is creative genius...that wonderfully human characteristic. Tom -- "The road to hell is paved with good intentions". |
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