

Can a collapse of global civilization be avoided? - amerika
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/280/1754/20122845.full

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tokenadult
Yes it can be avoided. The predicted collapse has been avoided during the
forty years that Ehrlich has been making predictions like this. (I'm old
enough to remember his early career, and how different the predicted future
years of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s looked from what he predicted in my
youth.)

<http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/apocalypse-not.aspx>

[http://www.masterresource.org/2010/03/howlin-wolf-paul-
ehrli...](http://www.masterresource.org/2010/03/howlin-wolf-paul-ehrlich-on-
energy-part-ii-failed-predictions/)

Ehrlich counts on people not remembering anything that happened before they
were in high school, and being young enough not to remember what he has said
time and time again, and been wrong about every time.

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Tichy
Haven't read the article, just wanted to point out that 40 years is nothing.
In Jared Diamond's Collapse he tells about civilizations that collapsed after
4000 years.

I don't think we can assume that our current society exists in an equilibrium.
We launched into the industrial age like a cannonball and we don't know yet
where we will land.

Didn't some agricultural revolution in the last century safe our ass for the
time being (I'm too lazy to google, basically one guy saved billions of
lives). I don't know if that kind of agriculture is sustainable, though.
Perhaps it requires a lot of energy, or it destroy the soil in the long run.
(Maybe not - I don't know, just saying).

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jk4930
This guy is Norman Borlaug. Yes, the Green Revolution showed some negative
side-effects (like all innovations).

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jakeonthemove
Food is so important, yet so cheap that farmers can not sustain themselves.
When people really start starving, food costs will rise and farmers will be
the new rich.

There is no overpopulation. Overpopulation of urban centers, yes,
overpopulation of useable land - no.

We'll have trouble sustaining the current growth, and the way money are spent
on useless and short term stuff is alarming, but that will most likely lead to
another recession instead of collapse.

That's my opinion on just these matters - the article is a great piece of
information that needs to be read by everyone.

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euroclydon
Of all U.S. government policies that stand little chance of being reversed,
the cheap food policy stand tall. As Bob Marley said, "A hungry mob is an
angry mob." Nothing threatens the status quo more than the unavailability of
food. Plus, individual farmers have little power. They have always relied on
government to prevent them from being completely impoverished by the
distributors, or in more modern times, by the seed technology companies.

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jinushaun
Let's not all forgot the international food related riots a few years back.

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whattttttttt
First quote was from Prince Charles. Stopped reading right there.

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dr_doom
I wish a global collapse would happen, I think it could do humanity some good
in the long run.

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prawks
I won't go as far to say a collapse would be good, but I think being mindful
of our rate of expansion would be nice. There are limits to everything, why do
we need to push all of them including the population limit?

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protomyth
Economically successful countries have lower birth rates. Want to decrease
birth rates? Help the 3rd World become economically successful.

