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The Man Who Defused the ‘Population Bomb’

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Re: The Man Who Defused the ‘Population Bomb’

#3
post #2

He didn't defuse it, he just added a few more feet to the fuse. As long as Earth's population grows exponentially (or even linearly), we'll hit a wall sooner or later. Malthus is still right: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malthusian_catastrophe

Earth's population isn't growing exponentially or even linearly, though.

Re: The Man Who Defused the ‘Population Bomb’

#4
post #3
post #2

He didn't defuse it, he just added a few more feet to the fuse. As long as Earth's population grows exponentially (or even linearly), we'll hit a wall sooner or later. Malthus is still right: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malthusian_catastrophe

Earth's population isn't growing exponentially or even linearly, though.

Source? Numbers? I know that a few first-world countries like Japan have negative population growth, but is that the case everywhere? Are the countries that having negative population growth enough to offset those with positive?

Re: The Man Who Defused the ‘Population Bomb’

#5
He also is, sort of directly, responsible for the patenting of plant genomes, input-intensive farming that leads to soil depletion and algae bloom, dangerous crop monocultures, and so on and so forth.

On the flip side, he directly helped countries like ethiopia implement modern farming techniques that increased crop yields magnificently.

Re: The Man Who Defused the ‘Population Bomb’

#6
post #4
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Earth's population isn't growing exponentially or even linearly, though.

Source? Numbers? I know that a few first-world countries like Japan have negative population growth, but is that the case everywhere? Are the countries that having negative population growth enough to offset those with positive?

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=world+population

Population growth world-wide is 1.14% per year.

Re: The Man Who Defused the ‘Population Bomb’

#8
post #4
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Earth's population isn't growing exponentially or even linearly, though.

Source? Numbers? I know that a few first-world countries like Japan have negative population growth, but is that the case everywhere? Are the countries that having negative population growth enough to offset those with positive?

http://esa.un.org/unpp/

Re: The Man Who Defused the ‘Population Bomb’

#10
post #3
post #2

He didn't defuse it, he just added a few more feet to the fuse. As long as Earth's population grows exponentially (or even linearly), we'll hit a wall sooner or later. Malthus is still right: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malthusian_catastrophe

Earth's population isn't growing exponentially or even linearly, though.

And shrinking in richer economies. You can't extrapolate out decades with those kinds of trends. Lots of developing economies will be as rich as the west is today before then.
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