Posts by Ben.Shirmer
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Malthusianism: getting it wrong for 200 years and counting.
Though there are no hints on finding a different model to discuss population growth, I could just put out a graph on the development of the world population and look at the similarity to an exponential function.
I am surely aware of the fact that in western countries population reproduction would be an issue without immigration. Though the population growth in other parts of the world is strong enough to balance that deficit.
A linear growth in food production is a quiete optimistic assumption, even if we still have the possibility to achieve additional growth on charge of future generations. Just to name loss of soil and genetically engineered plants able to crossbreed with natural populations.
I also think that the Green obsession with zero-growth economics is a tad embarrassing.
I don't see zero-growth as a dogma, but there is still much potential for redirecting capital inside the economy. And as we have seen in the recession not long ago, some of the economic growth, which appears inside statistics, just exists on the papers.
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I just wish that the Greens would overcome their ingrained Luddism and appreciate advanced science and technology as being necessary to support a population of billions because a population few thousand Ents ain't gonna happen, 'cos nice doesn't equal real.
As proven by calculations, which Jared Diamond refers to in his book 'Collapse' the earth can sustain an efficient community of a couple of billions (should be at least a billion more than nowadays).
The problem that we are actually facing today is a exponential growth of the population compared to a linear growth of food production, with a big part of the population starving in our present situation.
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As far as I can see, he was just questioning the contradiction you were creating in this posting, where you deny any knowledge about animal awareness of mortality at the first point and state it as a fact later on in the same sentence.
I have no idea whether other species are aware of their incipient mortality - though many many species are aware of death/proximity of death
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I have no doubt that technology will deliver some surprises, but that is assuming that we can continue technological development... and that is dependent on economic circumstances
Kracklite, you are right describing economy as part of the ecosystem. That is a thought, which could lead us to an application of ecosystem principles, like cycling loops and overall system performance, in our economic system.
This would be a big step forward, though we have to give up our dreams of uninterrupted economic growth and refer to the idea of a stable economic balance with a better distribution of resources.
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When lil p gets going, everything in the neighbourhood seems to get contaminated for me.
It is quite amusing how a single individual can distract you so much from the discussion and create such a hostility against every stranger arriving.
I wouldn't talk about him as a parasite because the exclusion of an unwanted opinion is always a loss to the debating community.
There actually are emerging some interesting questions out of his comments that haven't be discussed sufficiently in the recent scientific debate.
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Now you cant blame developing nations for modelling their behaviour on us and suddenly hold them to a different set of standards.
That's what our politicians try to do nowadays. I wouldn't blame them. But if you see that point you should be aware of the possibilities it offers to improve the situation.
I just have more faith that the solution lies with a technological genius for our time coming along than the ability for governments to police big business.
I had a couple of discussions about this topic with engineers concerned with issues of energy distribution and I share their opinion that the biggest potential for progress in energy management lies in the refinement of existing technology.
Regarding the potential of regenerative energy, Germany, for example, has a theoretical potential to produce about third of its energy consumed by regenerative techniques.
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i share your opinion that we went down the road to far. i just see the problem in a much wider context. if people would start rethinking there own life they would probably even start thinking about the bigger picture.
if you are confident with how it goes, that's alright. every one of us can make the decision he wants to.
for me it is also a problem of scale. you can argue on every level about what is going on. i don't see the benefit in polluting the space we inhabit, so that we will get sick.
the earth itself has a great capacity to recover, but not humanity. the question is not really if the planet or nature survives, but if mankind is willing to survive.
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Given the disparity between relative health spends between Germany and NZ (NZ spends 50% more per head than Germany), can someone explain to me why health care in NZ isn't significantly better?
I am not really sure, but one explanation could be that the bigger population makes it easier to establish specialised services, which are quiete expensive, in sufficient number, just due to the fact that the budget overall is a lot bigger.
For these services there is a need for sufficient customers, so that they can work efficiently, which are a lot easier to attract, when they are located at a place where the transit between countries allows for additional customers.
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I've always felt pretty safe being driven by someone who has only imbibed THC than those either sleep deprived or drunk.
I really share this opinion.
The problem with THC is that it is hard to tell which dose actually makes it insecure to drive. So I think it is just safer to keep stoners out of the traffic. Their reaction time is simply slowed down, which makes it dangerous to drive under those circumstances.
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Hi Ben: rereading your original post, I'm sorry you got caught up in the mess above. Please do stick around.
Thanks Sam, at least sombody in this forum that can see how it is.
I am looking forward to a nice discussion with you and anybody rlse who wants to talk and discuss with me.The post above was written before I read your posting.