Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

homestead - Re: [Homestead] The latest meat eaters' dilemma

homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Homestead mailing list

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Don Bowen <don.bowen AT earthlink.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] The latest meat eaters' dilemma
  • Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2007 06:53:58 -0800

At 2/22/2007, you wrote:
Paul Ehrlich started talking and writing about human overpopulation
and predicting subsequent famine and other disasters in the mid-
sixties. He persists today. His predictions proved overly dire. Which
is to say, he predicted massive starvation in the seventies and
eighties which of course did not occur.

Thomas Malthus predicted the same thing only 175 years earlier. He was one of the first to predict that world population would outrun world food supply by the mid 1800s. He was one of the first to recognize that population increases are geometric while food increases at an arithmetic rate. His predictions were off for several reasons, mostly because of his use of then poorly understood statistics. Another major reason was that the prediction was made just at the beginning of a rapid rise of knowledge that significantly increased the food supply while at the same time significantly reduced the labor requirements in food production.



Don Bowen Awl Knotted Up KI6DIU
http://www.braingarage.com
My travel journal
http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html

I am omnivagant.
From genegerue AT ruralize.com Thu Feb 22 10:28:52 2007
Return-Path: <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
X-Original-To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
Delivered-To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
Received: from fed1rmmtao104.cox.net (fed1rmmtao104.cox.net [68.230.241.42])
by lists.ibiblio.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5B7524C010
for <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>; Thu, 22 Feb 2007 10:28:52 -0500
(EST)
Received: from fed1rmimpo02.cox.net ([70.169.32.72]) by fed1rmmtao104.cox.net
(InterMail vM.7.05.02.00 201-2174-114-20060621) with ESMTP id
<20070222152851.CFAK19643.fed1rmmtao104.cox.net AT fed1rmimpo02.cox.net>
for <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>; Thu, 22 Feb 2007 10:28:51 -0500
Received: from [192.168.1.101] ([68.230.61.152])
by fed1rmimpo02.cox.net with bizsmtp
id SfUr1W00z3H4yBG0000000; Thu, 22 Feb 2007 10:28:51 -0500
Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v752.3)
In-Reply-To: <6.1.2.0.2.20070222064621.01d27208 AT earthlink.net>
References: <45DBF9B0.3010000 AT harborside.com>
<DDB8DE04-EB29-4E3E-A661-81817396063F AT ruralize.com>
<45DCB75F.5050508 AT bellsouth.net>
<20070222030850.8982D4C010 AT lists.ibiblio.org>
<442E73EF-4E3C-4D2A-8806-C2B025AE11B1 AT ruralize.com>
<6.1.2.0.2.20070222064621.01d27208 AT earthlink.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed
Message-Id: <3CA73C7D-36C6-4C7A-A469-D7CDC490BE31 AT ruralize.com>
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2007 08:28:51 -0700
To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.752.3)
Subject: Re: [Homestead] The latest meat eaters' dilemma
X-BeenThere: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.9
Precedence: list
Reply-To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
List-Id: <homestead.lists.ibiblio.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead>,
<mailto:homestead-request AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/homestead>
List-Post: <mailto:homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
List-Help: <mailto:sympa AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=HELP>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead>,
<mailto:homestead-request AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2007 15:28:52 -0000


Paul Ehrlich started talking and writing about human overpopulation
and predicting subsequent famine and other disasters in the mid-
sixties.

Thomas Malthus predicted the same thing only 175 years earlier.

Dennis Meadows (The Limits To Growth, 1972; Beyond The Limits, 1992; LTG: The 30-Year Update, 2004) gave a presentation last summer at our tiny community center in Brixey, MO. (We call it The Church of Pete, as it was a church before being purchased by Peter Callaway for community use.) Among fellow academic notables and friends whose names he dropped was Ehrlich. He spoke of Ehrlich's predictions. I murmured from the second row that Ehrlich had been wrong. Meadows heard me, paused, then chose to forge ahead. I again dozed off, Chris jabbed me, I awoke, this went on until he was through droning. He has given his presentation so many times around the world that he has lost all speaking excitement. Very smart guy but he seems to be a one- pony show.

Meadows was there because he had just bought the old Eisenmann place one ridge north of Heartwood. I take that as an indication that he is covering his bet and figures our area is a good place to ride out a crash.





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page