Posted on 03/23/2008 9:52:54 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
Now and then across the centuries, powerful voices have warned that human activity would overwhelm the earth's resources. The Cassandras always proved wrong. Each time, there were new resources to discover, new technologies to propel growth.
Today the old fears are back.
Although a Malthusian catastrophe is not at hand, the resource constraints foreseen by the Club of Rome are more evident today than at any time since the 1972 publication of the think tank's famous book, "The Limits of Growth." Steady increases in the prices for oil, wheat, copper and other commodities -- some of which have set record highs this month -- are signs of a lasting shift in demand as yet unmatched by rising supply.
As the world grows more populous -- the United Nations projects eight billion people by 2025, up from 6.6 billion today -- it is growing more prosperous. The average person is consuming more food, water, metal and power. Growing numbers of China's 1.3 billion people and India's 1.1 billion are stepping up to the middle class, adopting the high-protein diets, gasoline-fueled transport and electric gadgets that developed nations enjoy.
The result is demand for resources has soared. If supplies don't keep pace, prices are to climb further, economic growth in rich and poor nations alike could suffer, and some fear violent conflicts could ensue.
The resources now in great demand have no substitutes. In the 18th century, England responded to dwindling timber supplies by shifting to abundant coal. But there can be no such replacement for arable land and fresh water.
The need to curb global warming limits the usefulness of some resources -- coal, for one, which emits greenhouse gases that most scientists say contribute to climate change. Soaring food consumption stresses the existing stock of arable land and fresh water.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Even the Wall Street Journal buys into this human-caused global warming BS! What’s the world coming to!?!?!?
"..Limits to Growth attracted controversy as soon as it was published. Yale economist Henry C. Wallich labeled the book "a piece of irresponsible nonsense".."
The crew that wrote this crap have built their careers on this speculation. This is like global warming, but with even less data or rigor.
We can’t control the birth-rate in China, so we should immediately impose a command economy in the United States.
Similarly, we can’t control the emission of greenhouse gases in China, so we should transfer our heavy industry to China and impose a command economy in the United States.
Actually, its Sunday, and tomorrow’s Monday, so we should impose a command economy in the United States. When you’re a socialist, any reason is a good reason to impose a command economy in the United States.
Malthus has been proven to be full of cr@p. Population growth is absolutely necessary for there to be progress. Population allows for a greater division of labor, opens up new markets, and provides the needed labor to exploit new territories and opportunities.
“There are no limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence”
—Ronald Reagan
The world population is set to stabilize relatively soon, and then begin DECREASING. Malthus turned on his head..
The US government doesn’t even know how many persons are living within this country.
Nonsense.
Think: desalination and aquaculture (fish farms, aquatic plant farming, etc.).
Poof. Problem solved. Just use non-greenhouse-gas emitting nuclear energy for desalination and you're home free.
Oh, please! You don’t have real shortages when have proven reserves you refuse to tap unless you’re talking about a shortage of common sense.
For those of you who find such hard to believe the total land area of Rhode Island is 1045 Square Miles (1,545 square miles including Water)
1045 Square miles converted to Square Feet is 29,132,928,000 Square Feet Divided by 10 Billion gives you 2.91 Square feet per person to stand on.
We are not anyway near close to Overpopulation.
What a load. Can’t believe the WSJ published this trash.
Thank you! A society that is not growing is dying. Europe, Japan and Russia are all facing precipitous declines in native populations. The US is barely growing, and that is only due to immigration and the higher birth rates of recent immigrants.
Guess which major religious group has the largest birth rate? (It ain’t Catholics or Mormons.) If the West continues down its current path of negative growth, the depletion of resources will be the least of our worries.
Those of us who remember all the hysterical tracts of the 70s railing against the “population bomb” and imminent exhaustion of oil supplies and economic collapse, etc. etc. are not easily impressed by such a weak article. If economic forces can be freed up from the depredations of state socialists then none of these challenges are remotely insurmountable.
True enough. However, population growth is good only if it is associated with liberty and the creativity it generates. The high populaton growth of the major religious group you have in mind is detrimental because it does not value liberty. Hence, even in a places like Saudi Arabia and Libya with their huge oil reserves, the per capita income in these two nations is actually declining. OTOH, the UAE is allowing a measure of liberty (at least for foreigners who live and invest there) and is really booming economically.
“The US is barely growing, and that is only due to immigration and the higher birth rates of recent immigrants.”
“barely growing” is not correct, at least by my standards.
The rest of your statement is correct.
1950 151,325,798
1970 203,211,926
1990 248,709,873
NOW 303,697,429
2050 438,000,000 Est.
Desalination, fertilizer, genetically modified crop strains.
Looks like people are all over the world eating and living better. Always a problem for lefties.
>”...if you grouped TEN billion people together...they would ALL fit in the state of Rhode Island...”<
Very clever. But in Rhode Island is there enough clean drinking water and sewage treatment infrastructure to handle that large number of people? The problem isn’t just about where they will stand, but the quality of life those people would have.
... and if Anthropogenic Global Warming ™ is a failed premise, what then?
Yeh, but it sure has made it hard to find good hunting and camping locations, not to mention driving up the cost of land.
THE problem is unlimited growth of populations in violent, savage and uncivilized areas. Those people breed like bacteria and invade civilized countries.
Europe and the USA are not reproducing fast enough to replace the population. This provides an opportunity for the invaders to come in and take over.
Oh Yes, how stupid of me, OK then we will put them all in Texas, no in fact I will be generous and we will put them all within the borders of the USA. Or do you feel that wouldn't be enough land and water to support them?
I am sorry I did not take you through the nearly impossible to miss implications. If you would put them All in the USA there would be 2827 people per square mile. To put that into perspective New York city totals 327 Square Miles with a population of 8,008,278(2000 census) that is over 24,490 people per square mile.
And before you miss the implications of the above. That gives you Canada and South America plus the entire rest of the world to grow food in, or obtain drinking water etc. As anyone can plainly see the Earth is huge and we as a species don't even make a dent in overwhelming the land mass or overburdening the water supply.
However we do have yahoos in charge who would like you to think such. What in truth is really happening is that we allow junk-science and downright lies to dictate policy which gives idjits like Al Gore the power to lead us all by the nose holding hostage our wallets and our liberty all in the name of keeping him in power.
Do yourself a favor and educate those around you how far wrong these suck-monkeys are before they drain us all of our freedoms.
"New technology could help ease the resource crunch. Advances in agriculture, desalination and the clean production of electricity, among other things, would help.
Master of the obvious?
Geesh, we have technologies today that can literally take crop growth indoors and take away much of the enviroment's damage on food production (Heavy rains, wind, hail, freezing, etc.)
Not to mention advances in fertilzation and preservation. Yet these people act like there maybe no "New Tech" on the way that will up the result of food production.
We have not even scrathed the surface of genetic manipulation yet.
But hey, "doom and gloom" sells news media, the problem is most people fall for the hype.
A number I periodically recalculate:
Dividing the land area of the planet by current population, we get a fair share of 5.6 acres per person ... 2.6 acres if considering that half the land is rank wilderness (effectively inhospitable). For contrast, consider that Monaco has 95 people per acre.
Between efficient housing and efficient farming, we’ve got a long way to go. Population dynamics tend to be self-correcting in the face of resource limitation and other issues; consider that Europe is currently facing a population _implosion_.
The majority of humans live in high-density environments, and don’t seem to have a problem with the quality of life there. Infrastructure can be, and is, dealt with.
There are already places in the U.S. that have restricted new construction because of the limited availability of water, as in southern Colorado, parts of Arizona, and in California. Oregon and Washington are looking at similiar challenges because agriculture and fisheries need water. This has nothing to do with available land but the amount of rainfall. In our southwest, many aquifers are dangerously low due to drawdown in excess of the ability of rainfall and ground seepage to replenish the aquifer. This is not junk science; it is real and happening now.
Desalination? Sure. But the first thing that will disappear in overcrowding are our freedoms. It is already happening in our cities, the most densly populated areas.
The Club of Rome is a front for the eugenicists.
You want to live in an overcrowded city, go for it. I live in southwest Washington State in a forest. This state has a population of less than 6 million people, last I looked into it. The nearest city to me with more than 100,000 people is Portland, Oregon (we refer to it as The People’s Republic of Portland), a very left-wing place I never visit. It is fifty miles away but it might as well be on the back side of the Moon, for all I care about big cities.
Because of increasing population that city has enacted stringent land-use laws. Typical! People are losing their rights and freedoms BECAUSE of population density.
Really where does this water go, To mars?
Weather Patterns change but water does not leave the planet, it just moves. However there are those in power that will "tell" you that we are running out of drinkable water. What they mean is "give us more money (taxes) and we will "fix" this problem.
BTW did you know water is recyclable? Amazing isn't it.
No doubt, but being that we could pluck the entire population of the Earth down in Rhode Island and have space leftover makes it impossible to make an argument about overcrowding.
Unless of course you wish to deny reality.
Its those -50 degree F winters that keeps me from moving there. That and I understand that the major employer there is the government. Being a middle age white guy, I have a better chance of hitting the lottery than getting a job with the government.
The weather along the south and southwestern coasts is actually warmer than the midwest in winter. There is a lot of seasonal employment in the fishing and seafood processing industries. I think I saw from your profile that you have a pilot’s liscense. Small aircraft are the taxis and buses up there. You could make a good living hauling passengers and freight. However, the flying conditions are not exactly the best.
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