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Re: Ecological Economics and Entropy
Jay Hanson <jhanson@ilhawaii.net> wrote:
>In other words, if humans are greedy, stupid and violent
>now, then science must assume that they will remain so.
And if, stupid and violent though we be, more of us live better every
year, and our reserves of resources continually increase, then things
look pretty good for the future, don't they.
>Conversely, if humans actually DO manage to somehow
>change their behavior for the better, then carrying
>capacity goes up. For example, Earth might be able
>to support 6 billion Amish.
Your problem with the Amish is that they don't watch television, and
keep themselves is seventeenth century ignorance of technology. If
you had six billion Amish right now, you'd have 18 billion Amish to
feed in twenty years. The economic, technical and social breakdown
would really be Armageddon of some sort.
Indeed Amish society is hitting major crisis right now, with appalling
levels of violent and financial crime, disaffection, and family
breakdown among the young.
-dlj.
-dlj.
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