Saturday, May 8, 2021

"the whole biosphere is in trouble"

Are there too many people on Earth?  Probably!

Can we feed them all?  Yes, but with great damage to the planet itself:

"Even if another 4 billion people were added to the planet, as was being predicted at the time, Lam felt confident they could be fed. At last month’s webinar, he pointed out that population growth had slowed since 2011, with the addition of about 850 million people since then, while poverty had continued to decline and per capita food production had continued to increase. This was true even in sub-Saharan Africa, where food production lagged behind population growth until the last decade.

Becker, of Johns Hopkins University, objected both in 2011 and a decade on, not that it was impossible to feed 11 billion people, but that this prospect ignored the collateral damage to other species and to the planet for which humans would eventually pay. He pointed to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) statistics showing that nearly 70% of fisheries are already fully or over-exploited. Others mentioned the shrinking stock of fresh water and the erosion of biodiversity. 'The whole biosphere is in trouble,' Becker said."

Humans are very good at adapting, but not so good at recognizing larger, long-term threats.  There's plenty of room for more innovation, but innovation will always have limits. 

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