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pshrynk · 12-02-2009, 01:46 PM

Just on a side note, and along with RSE's analysis: In the 70's there was a genuine fear that we were running out of food. That there was no way to produce more and that the environment was so destroyed that we would soon reach the limit of the Earth to sustain the growth that was then seen as immutable and expanding in rate, rather than retracting. Then, came the 80's and 90's and the revelation that, indeed, there was not an upper limit on production and the economics of scarcity were flawed (Not completely wrong, as the internet and housing bubbles showed). And the growth rate increase of the population growth actually reversed and there is expectation that at some point, the rate of expansion of population may, in fact, start going down.

All this to say that we must not make radical decisions based on current tech capabilities. Not when we've seen the exponential rate of tech advancement.

That said, I'm on the side of the tree huggers, because I don't want to see the polar bear become extinct in the wild. I feel that biodiversity is an essential part of our own personal ecologies that we do not fully understand at this point. Keeping a speicies around just for the sake of keeping it around is a good thing that we will ultimately be glad of.

12-02-2009, 01:46 PM	#192
pshrynk Beepbeep n beebeep, yeah! Posts: 11,726 Karma: 8255450 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: La Crosse, Wisconsin, aka America's IceBox Device: iThingie, KmkII, I miss Zelda!	Just on a side note, and along with RSE's analysis: In the 70's there was a genuine fear that we were running out of food. That there was no way to produce more and that the environment was so destroyed that we would soon reach the limit of the Earth to sustain the growth that was then seen as immutable and expanding in rate, rather than retracting. Then, came the 80's and 90's and the revelation that, indeed, there was not an upper limit on production and the economics of scarcity were flawed (Not completely wrong, as the internet and housing bubbles showed). And the growth rate increase of the population growth actually reversed and there is expectation that at some point, the rate of expansion of population may, in fact, start going down. All this to say that we must not make radical decisions based on current tech capabilities. Not when we've seen the exponential rate of tech advancement. That said, I'm on the side of the tree huggers, because I don't want to see the polar bear become extinct in the wild. I feel that biodiversity is an essential part of our own personal ecologies that we do not fully understand at this point. Keeping a speicies around just for the sake of keeping it around is a good thing that we will ultimately be glad of.