This is just a human population XKCD heatmap with a handful of exceptions.
Ecological Wealth of Nations
91–100 of 133 posts
Re: Ecological Wealth of Nations
#92So what are the real options of survival? a) accelerate migration to Mars b) population control? Anything else we can do to prevent "fucked"?
Raise standards of living through the existing GDP growth regime, then wait for population to control itself. Trying to force it through controls will most likely backfire.
Re: Ecological Wealth of Nations
#93The fundamental problem with Malthusianism is that it is static thinking. It projects on the basis of no change in technology, as if the present moment continues eternally. This is why all statements to date on running out of X or Y at time T in the future have proven false. What actually happens is that people look ahead, forecast increased prices for X, and then the more adventurous go and build a better way of get…
The problem with your argument is that it assumes technical progress continuing eternally. For instance Malthus himself was mostly preoccupied with the idea, that the population might increase faster than the agricultural output. Through the use of chemical fertilizers there has been a breakthrough in how much food we can produce, so the malthusan catastrophe was averted. Agricultural output is still growing, but the…
At least in the US, the proportion of land needed to produce food is steadily declining.
For lack of a better metaphor, we have a race between galloping food supply and the propagation of the idea that smaller family sizes are a good thing. Given what I know now, I'd bet on human reproduction declining before food does.
The big monkey wrench is political instability. We have much less of an understanding of it than perhaps we should have.
Re: Ecological Wealth of Nations
#94There is a high negative correlation between ecological and monetary wealth. Time to choose.
btw southern hemisphere looks good on this measure. As a bonus, zero nukes, and low likelihood of being an attractive target.
Re: Ecological Wealth of Nations
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's my take away too. I won't name names but there are a lot of "ecologically wealthy" countries that nobody in the right mind wants to live. People should aim for maximum human flourishing, not minimising human impact on the planet.
A better way to read this map: countries in the deep red are places where people have tamed this inhuman, unforgiving Earth, and people can lead happy and self-defined lives. Countries in the deep green are where people are at the mercy of nature and die of 20th century causes. People in the former complain that it is too "antiseptic" or "artificial", occasionally gawk at the latter and chastise everyone for not livi…
> People in the former complain that it is too "antiseptic" or "artificial", occasionally gawk at the latter and chastise everyone for not living in misery, always from the comfort of a city where the vast infrastructure that supports their lives is perfectly out of sight and out of mind.
You do realize that there is a sliding scale here, right?
Re: Ecological Wealth of Nations
#96Just wondering, how can a small country like for example the Netherlands, with no vast tree wildlife for example, get to a neutral or even positive foot print? A trading nation by roots, is it even possible to get to 0 deficit?
well their means to score countries is contrived enough to be "we knew the results before we knew the facts". As in any strong economy is bad
More like a strong economy == lots of energy use, and lots of energy use == lots of pollution, because the world uses lots of dirty energy.
The fact that one can guess some results ahead of time doesn't cast doubt on the results, any more than, after coughing blood and 40 years of smoking, a positive cancer diagnosis is suspect.
I rate this rhetorical tactic a 3: poor composition, not enough work either developing the implication of skullduggery or making it more subtle, missed opportunities for additional attacks on reporters' credibility.
Re: Ecological Wealth of Nations
#97Very nicely made tool, unfortunately they forgot that red/green colorblindness is very common, so I can't really see anything in their graphs.
Shouldn't be hard to add a little menu that allows you to choose the color themes, so color blind people can select one where they actually see a difference between the regions.
Re: Ecological Wealth of Nations
#98We need to live in harmony with Nature. This kind of awareness (hard metrics) has to be fed back into our decision making to do it. I believe we can support current population density with ecological enrichment through "applied ecology", e.g. Permaculture, etc. but only if we are aware of the need and priority. --- For example see David Blume's concept for small-scale organic alcohol fuel production integrated with P…
I have read a few studies on alcohol fuel production, and none of the facilities studied have been a net-producer of energy. While the idea is an intriguing one, energy production is difficult. Has Blume actually shown an ability to produce fuel? Note: I've always been a fan of using seaside solar-powered electrolysis to produce hydrogen fuel, though hydrogen storage has its own issues.
Yes, Blume has produced fuel. If I recall correctly at one point he had a number of people with fuel conversions on their vehicles who were buying his gas through a kind of CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture) business. He's very practically oriented.
Part of what shifts the economics here is that the leftover byproducts of both fermentation and distillation are returned as inputs to the farm.
I also have to mention, at one point Blume had a contract with a donut bakery to collect and make fuel from all their old scrap dough. Sugar and carbs...
Re: Ecological Wealth of Nations
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
A better way to read this map: countries in the deep red are places where people have tamed this inhuman, unforgiving Earth, and people can lead happy and self-defined lives. Countries in the deep green are where people are at the mercy of nature and die of 20th century causes. People in the former complain that it is too "antiseptic" or "artificial", occasionally gawk at the latter and chastise everyone for not livi…
> People in the former complain that it is too "antiseptic" or "artificial", occasionally gawk at the latter and chastise everyone for not living in misery, always from the comfort of a city where the vast infrastructure that supports their lives is perfectly out of sight and out of mind. You do realize that there is a sliding scale here, right?
Probably not.
Re: Ecological Wealth of Nations
#100So what are the real options of survival? a) accelerate migration to Mars b) population control? Anything else we can do to prevent "fucked"?
c) ignoring bullshit infographics.