In the late 18th century, Thomas Malthus published An Essay on the Principles of Population, warning that if the number of people in the world grows unchecked, the world's resources wouldn't be able to provide enough food for its people. As a result, there would be famine, hunger, riots and skirmishes over food and resources that would continue until the level of population becomes proportional to the amount of food available.

Recently, Newsweek reported on Jared Diamond's newly published book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, which argued "how some complex, successful societies have courted ecological suicide by abusing their natural resources." It presented as an example Easter Island, where the inhabitants starved and died after its chiefs cut all its trees in order to erect the giant stone statues the island is now known for.


Famine, hunger, etc. are sure signs of the times! And since the global population continue to rise at a wildly alarming pace, while the earth's resources are depleting at a much faster, directly opposite pace, then we can assume that the world as we know it is going to the pits! Perhaps sonner than we think!!:eek:

Didn't Malthus predict that these catastrophes would occur like within his own lifetime? Guess he was off the mark a bit :D ...

If you asked a free market-worshipping economist they'd tell you that the free market encourages competition which produces the innovations that we need to combat resource depletion. So say, just when oil runs out, some guy will invent a new source of power because he has the incentive to (i.e. bags of money), and everything will be fine. When people talk about colonizing space they are usually thinking in free market terms.

Unfortunately a global economy without the proper checks and balances has created bloated multinationals that are better off maintaining the status quo than they would be if they tried to develop innovations. The CEO of an oil company, for example, is better off sucking the planet dry and polluting the air than he is investing tons of money into research that might pay off well after he's retired. Shareholders think this way, too. It's "what can you do for me now?", not "what are your long-term plans?".

Didn't Malthus predict that these catastrophes would occur like within his own lifetime? Guess he was off the mark a bit :D ...

If you asked a free market-worshipping economist they'd tell you that the free market encourages competition which produces the innovations that we need to combat resource depletion. So say, just when oil runs out, some guy will invent a new source of power because he has the incentive to (i.e. bags of money), and everything will be fine. When people talk about colonizing space they are usually thinking in free market terms.


This theory is too logical and credible to be ignored. It may not happen tomorrow or next year, maybe not in a decade's time, not even in a century, who knows? But I say one thing is certain: IT WILL HAPPEN! :(

People will say why give a **** when it won't happen in our lifetime? That's being unfair to the future generations: to our children and our children's children, and so on.

So I just hope that the humans of today will hurry with those new "innovations" that you said to combat depletion! Not only for this present generation's self-preservation, but also of the next!

This theory is too logical and credible to be ignored. It may not happen tomorrow or next year, maybe not in a decade's time, not even in a century, who knows? But I say one thing is certain: IT WILL HAPPEN! :(

People will say why give a **** when it won't happen in our lifetime? That's being unfair to the future generations: to our children and our children's children, and so on.

So I just hope that the humans of today will hurry with those new "innovations" that you said to combat depletion! Not only for this present generation's self-preservation, but also of the next!


of course it will happen, human nature is self destructive, especially now that wee live in world of immediate gratification, nobody thinks or cares about the future, they just want what they want RIGHT NOW