Death by hockey sticks
dothemath.ucsd.edu
Death by hockey sticks
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Re: Death by hockey sticks
#2"So far, we're not doing any better than the cyanobacteria" - Ray Pierrehumbert
Re: Death by hockey sticks
#3> Here’s a proposed rubric for deciding what things in life are “good” and what things are “bad.” If its plotted curve is a hockey stick pointing up in the present system, it’s probably a bad thing.
I would guess that the number of professors is also going up like a hockey stick and I am sure the amount of documents published on the Internet is going up like a hockey stick.
According to the author’s rubric, the world would be a better place if the author resigned and quit publishing.
After reading this facile analysis, I encourage the author to make the world a better place in this manner.
Re: Death by hockey sticks
#4Another way to look at it is that it's life by hockey sticks. Literally. We have 8 billion people alive today. Which is about 7.5 billion more than before the population hockey stick was a thing.
Not only life, but the good life. 90% of people today live a much better life than lords and kings lived 500 years ago.
Re: Death by hockey sticks
#5Another way to look at it is that it's life by hockey sticks. Literally. We have 8 billion people alive today. Which is about 7.5 billion more than before the population hockey stick was a thing. Not only life, but the good life. 90% of people today live a much better life than lords and kings lived 500 years ago.
> Not only life, but the good life. 90% of people today live a much better life than lords and kings lived 500 years ago.
Indeed, but lets not forget that this luxury lifestyle is possible only by exploiting non-renewable resources, i.e. by stealing from future generations. I doubt history (if there will be one) will look kindly on us.
Re: Death by hockey sticks
#6[deleted]
Re: Death by hockey sticks
#7Another way to look at it is that it's life by hockey sticks. Literally. We have 8 billion people alive today. Which is about 7.5 billion more than before the population hockey stick was a thing. Not only life, but the good life. 90% of people today live a much better life than lords and kings lived 500 years ago.
I dunno about that, man, you could get a lot of food and shelter as a lord or king 500 years ago.
I guess lords and kings didn't have anything as entertaining as a $30 smartphone from Wal-Mart though. Lords could get killed by any of a variety of Malaria-like diseases back in the day, too, so maybe they weren't that much better off than a sub-Saharan African today..
Re: Death by hockey sticks
#8"So far, we're not doing any better than the cyanobacteria" - Ray Pierrehumbert
[deleted]
Re: Death by hockey sticks
#9I hope this is overly pessimistic and under-analyzed. For example, the human population hockey stick graph doesn't show the dramatic drop in birth rates experienced by developed countries. We are on track to reach a global population maximum. And is the author too zealous in drawing hockey stick curves over any 2 or 3 data points? Is deforestation still accelerating? Any chance extinctions will decelerate?
Re: Death by hockey sticks
#10Another way to look at it is that it's life by hockey sticks. Literally. We have 8 billion people alive today. Which is about 7.5 billion more than before the population hockey stick was a thing. Not only life, but the good life. 90% of people today live a much better life than lords and kings lived 500 years ago.
> Not only life, but the good life. 90% of people today live a much better life than lords and kings lived 500 years ago. Indeed, but lets not forget that this luxury lifestyle is possible only by exploiting non-renewable resources, i.e. by stealing from future generations. I doubt history (if there will be one) will look kindly on us.
Considering how cheap fossil fuels are it's a miracle that 37% of electricity generated globally is done so without using fossil fuels and there is nothing but progress on this front.