Slowing, slowly. It should have hit the natural peak a long time ago, but then we learned to increase food production (at the cost of the environment).
I’m not sure if this is what you were hinting at, but that is called The Malthusian Trap, and we keep finding ways to escape it. Climate was never part of it though, but I agree with you that climate balance is suffering as a result.
Not specifically, it was the Haber-Bosch process to mass produce ammonia, enabling large scale fertilizer production that vastly changed how much yield we could get from crops and land area. The problem is that it tied us to fossil fuels to keep us fed as the population exploded. So it could be filed under his prediction, with the whole idea being what is sustainable. The argument could be made that even civilization at its basics isn’t sustainable in the very long run, as it requires a hospitable environment like the Holocene, which was a rarity in all of Earth history.
This increase is probably a bad thing. Its good in terms of all the people who got to live and be fed to be sure. However now we are dependent on an unsustainable food generating system. Any hiccup in that system could spell disaster for millions. But, be it as it may, everyone should be thankful for the plentiful food we do have. I made a conscious decision with my partner to have less kids than our parents did. I hope others think or thought the same. Yeah this trend is definitely not sustainable.
It is slowing down. Whether we should be thankful or concerned depends basically on your views on climate change.
Slowing, slowly. It should have hit the natural peak a long time ago, but then we learned to increase food production (at the cost of the environment).
I’m not sure if this is what you were hinting at, but that is called The Malthusian Trap, and we keep finding ways to escape it. Climate was never part of it though, but I agree with you that climate balance is suffering as a result.
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-is-the-malthusian-trap.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malthusianism
Not specifically, it was the Haber-Bosch process to mass produce ammonia, enabling large scale fertilizer production that vastly changed how much yield we could get from crops and land area. The problem is that it tied us to fossil fuels to keep us fed as the population exploded. So it could be filed under his prediction, with the whole idea being what is sustainable. The argument could be made that even civilization at its basics isn’t sustainable in the very long run, as it requires a hospitable environment like the Holocene, which was a rarity in all of Earth history.
This increase is probably a bad thing. Its good in terms of all the people who got to live and be fed to be sure. However now we are dependent on an unsustainable food generating system. Any hiccup in that system could spell disaster for millions. But, be it as it may, everyone should be thankful for the plentiful food we do have. I made a conscious decision with my partner to have less kids than our parents did. I hope others think or thought the same. Yeah this trend is definitely not sustainable.
Unfortunately, curtailing unsustainable population growth, and the west being increasingly unaffordable for young families is inextricably linked
(lifting women out of poverty globally being the main factor, but still…)
My view on climate change is that Thomas Malthus would have made it the 5th entry had he known.