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Re: Ecological Economics and Entropy



"D. Braun" <dbraun@u.washington.edu> wrote for all to see:

>On 15 Nov 1996, Mike Asher wrote:
>
>> Yuri Kuchinsky <bg364@torfree.net> wrote:
>> > 
>> > : It would also be my guess that at the turn of the century there were
>> > : 800 million hungry out of a population of a billion.
>> > 
>> > How do you know this? The number of hungry people on the planet is now 
>> > greater than ever!

>> The FAO figures you quote indicate "malnourished" people.  FAO classifies
>> people with sufficient caloric intake, but with a diet 'insufficiently
>> varied' as malnourished as well.   Still a problem, of course, but please
>> define it properly.
>> 
>> In Medieval times, 90+% of the population was chronically malnourished.  A
>> man was deemed well off if he ate meat once a week.  Most children suffered
>> from rickets and other defiency conditions.  Many castles and manor homes
>> tossed trenchers (crusts of bread) and other dinner-table scraps to hungry
>> people who clustered outside, who fought bitterly for line rights.  Often,
>> a government official would, upon their yearly visit to a village, find
>> that starvation and disease had wiped out the entire populace sometime in
>> the past year, with none the wiser.
>> 
>> Beer was widely consumed, by children and adults, as water was too
>> dangerous to drink.  When you did drink river water, you were taught to
>> "strain" it between your teeth to remove the larger creatures found
>> naturally in it.
>> 
>> Even the wealthy had their problems.  Food poisoning was endemic, fruits
>> and vegetables were unknown out of season, seafood was impossible unless
>> you lived near the coast, and at thirty-five, you needed soft food as your
>> teeth had all rotted out...unless an abcessed tooth killed you, as was
>> quite common.
>> 
>> This is the true world of 'organic' farming, biomass power, and
>> deindustrialization many environmentalists would have us return to.  I'd
>> prefer to work out our problems and stay here.
>
>Mike, your description of medieval times was interesting, but does nothing
>to buttress your last paragraph. It is complete fabrication.

What was a complete fabrication?  His description of medieval life?
You are incorrect Mr. Braun.  I will give you some sources, that,
since you are posting from a major university, you will be able to
obtain at no great effort:

1. H.O. Lancaster, "Expectations of Life: A Study of the Demography,
Statistics, and History of World Mortality", New York: SPringer-Verlag
(1990).

2. R. Scholfield, D. Reher, and A. Bideau, "The Decline of Mortality
in Europe", Oxford, UK: The Clarendon Press (1991).

[edited]

Regards, Harold
----------
"Those disputing, contradicting, and confuting people are 
generally unfortunate in their affairs.  They get victory,
sometimes, but they never get good will, which would be of 
more use to them."
	---Benjamin Franklin, in autobiography, 1771-90.


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