[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
Re: The Limits To Growth
-
Subject: Re: The Limits To Growth
-
From: Alastair McKinstry <alastair@kbhr.ilo.dec.com>
-
Date: 15 Nov 1996 12:09:24 +0100
-
Article: 15944 of alt.sustainable.agriculture
-
Newsgroups: alt.agriculture.misc, alt.org.earth-first, alt.politics.economics, alt.politics.greens, alt.save.the.earth, alt.sustainable.agriculture, sci.agriculture, sci.econ, sci.energy, sci.environment, talk.environment
-
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation, Palo Alto, CA, USA
-
References: <542t7d$iep@rainbow.rmii.com> <32665F05.112@ilhawaii.net> <JMC.96Nov10090026@Steam.stanford.edu> <565ehv$qm9@agate.berkeley.edu> <01bbcf5b$bd8e1700$89d0d6cc@masher> <567f46$2prt@sat.ipp-garching.mpg.de> <56d2l3$k1q@agate.berkeley.edu> <56dm1s$cv@netnews.ntu.edu.tw> <JMC.96Nov13210117@Steam.stanford.edu> <jcbud0r6tq.fsf@kbhr.ilo.dec.com> <JMC.96Nov14091510@Steam.stanford.edu>
-
Xref: newz.oit.unc.edu alt.agriculture.misc:6387 alt.org.earth-first:6602 alt.politics.economics:92471 alt.politics.greens:23488 alt.save.the.earth:25616 alt.sustainable.agriculture:15944 sci.agriculture:15860 sci.econ:60217 sci.energy:58014 sci.environment:111588 talk.environment:76978
jmc@Steam.stanford.edu (John McCarthy) writes:
> In article <jcbud0r6tq.fsf@kbhr.ilo.dec.com> Alastair McKinstry
<alastair@kbhr.ilo.dec.com> writes:
> > jmc@Steam.stanford.edu (John McCarthy) writes:
> > >
> > > Making energy efficiency a general goal is foolish. What counts is
> > > the labor efficiency that permits two percent of the American
> > > population to grow food for all of us and then some for export.
> > Does this labor efficiency include those working in energy creation
> > (oil extraction, fertilizer manufacture) or just those directly
> > involved in agriculture ?
> It includes only the people working in agriculture. Americans spend
> (if I recall correctly) 16 percent of our income on food, but this
> includes restaurant meals. In general, we spend much more on making
> our eating convenient and pleasant than on the food itself.
True, but missing my point. My point is we should measure efficiency of a
process in terms of energy usage, this being a fixed size resource that
we cannot avoid using. Measuring in terms of labor efficiency (which can be
varied depending on the technology used) or money hides the true costs of
the food production.
> John McCarthy, Computer Science Department, Stanford, CA 94305
--
Alastair McKinstry <alastair@ilo.dec.com>
Technical Computing Group, Digital Software, Ballybrit, Galway, Ireland
Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world
is either a madman or an economist - Kenneth Boulding, economist.
Follow-Ups:
References: