Comment by fnord77
9 hours ago
Stagnation is environmentally sustainable. Constant creation-destruction cycles will ultimately deplete the environment
9 hours ago
Stagnation is environmentally sustainable. Constant creation-destruction cycles will ultimately deplete the environment
> Stagnation is environmentally sustainable
We know this to be false given the number of civilisations that depleted their soil due because they didn’t know (or care) about crop rotation. Stable-state economies which nevertheless collapsed because they missed a key technology.
Innovation is such that efficiency increase requires fewer resources and land. Population growth is stagnating and will peak in less than 100 years.
Neo-Malthusianism is as bunk as Malthusianism was
> Innovation is such that efficiency increase requires fewer resources and land.
...to produce the same output. Growth requires greater output though.
Just look at the timeline of energy consumption [0]. Either you're wrong and innovation requires more resources, or you're right and there's no direct relation between innovation and overall resource usage.
[0] https://ourworldindata.org/energy-production-consumption
The metric you’re looking for is energy intensity of GDP [1]. How much energy does each unit of GDP cost. It’s been going down, and it’s lower in rich countries than less developed ones. (Its material counterpart is material intensity of GDP.)
[1] https://yearbook.enerdata.net/total-energy/world-energy-inte...
2 replies →