From October 2011 Ehrlich accepts his prediction of widespread famine in the 1970s underestimated the green revolution which industrialised farming. But he still dismisses hope that technology will allow mankind to stretch resources ever further. Can we solve this technologically? Theoretically, since we cant know anything for certain, so we could come up with a magic way of producing food and that could save us. But my answer, always, to that is: we have all sorts of people in despair today. Dont tell me how easy its going to be to feed nine billion people; lets feed seven billion first, then Ill be willing to talk to you about whether technology will take care of all those people. We could support a lot more people on the planet if humans were willing to share equally, but they dont: we want to design a world where everybody can lead a decent life without everybody being fair. Ehrlich – who originally wanted his book called Population, Resources and Environment – also agrees most population reductions are linked to rising affluence, and so consumption, which causes its own pressure on resources. But he denies those worried by these problems should therefore focus only on reducing the impact of consumption, likening the problem to the way two sides of a rectangle are multiplied to calculate the area inside. If you halved the amount of consumption and allowed population to grow so the other side doubled you have got the same area...........................................
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 18:35:25 +0000
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