On Thu, 13 Nov 2008 07:01:59 -0500 Randy Kramer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I don't keep up with current events all the time, which prompts this > wondering--did Malthuse just get forgotten, or was there a conscious > effort to ignore or suppress his thoughts, or what? Although overall I think there was deliberate ignoring of Malthus's message by head in the sand denialists, his message also probably lost a lot of momentum because of the so called Green Revolution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Revolution This changed nothing about Malthus's predictions except the date, unfortunately when you attach specific dates to things people discount the underlying point if the date's off. The denialists will say there will be an endless series of events like the Green Revolution, always saving us from the mathematical conclusions of Malthus and others with similar warnings. To me this seems to be like playing Russian Roulette and saying it clicked four times, I bet it will keep clicking for ever. Part of the problem is the assumption that invention is triggered by need, rather than occurring at random intervals when the right person just happens to have the right thought / observation. Was the world desperate for a tool like the laser when it was invented? No. Chances are, just before we run out of oil, clean water, and food, we'll have finally discovered how to project holograms into empty air, or something else with all sorts of applications, but no relevance to the problem at hand. Not that I'm suggesting we need to discover anything to deal with peak oil / global warming etc. etc. - just that the denialists say don't worry, magic will happen. Cheers -Terry --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "leo-editor" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/leo-editor?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
