Club of Lefty Crud

[Abegweit]

This week is the fortieth anniversary of the Club of Rome's garbage tract entitled "The Limits to Growth". They said that world would be enveloped in a downward spiral which would result in mass hunger and mass death. They said it would happen somewhere in the late 1970s.

On the contrary, a smaller percentage of people live in fear of hunger than at any time in the history of the our race. More than that, the number of people who live in fear and hunger declines every year, even as the numbers of us continue to increase.

So tell me, why were the fear-mongers so incredibly wrong? More people has not lead to hunger and death. Quite the opposite; it has led to riches and vibrant diverse life.

 

[bhsup]

Well they were probably counting on that 70s imminent ice age to cover most of the earth, preventing food harvesting.

 

[JollyRoger]

I know one person starving for attention.

 

[Abegweit]

I know one person starving for attention.

Yeah. Right there in your mirror.

 

[JollyRoger]

Yeah. Right there in your mirror.

On the ceiling. If I give you cab fare will you leave already?

 

[Old Hippy]

i belive that since the 1970's the world has been in a downward spiral of starvation and mass death... the only choice seems to be to watch the reunion special on TV or watch this years special about starvation in 2012


Link to video.

or the newer one... which strangely is for farmers....


Link to video.

 

[Abegweit]

Oh Gawd. That second one is truly awful. He can't sing, can't play and, for his sake, I truly hope he didn't compose that piece of crap coming out of his guitar.

On top of all that, he really is an ugly useless loser. Why did you inflict this on us anyway?

 

[Abegweit]

On the ceiling. If I give you cab fare will you leave already?

You don't need to give me car fare. I am long since out of your door.

 

[Old Hippy]

On top of all that, he really is an ugly useless loser. Why did you inflict this on us anyway?

it actually took me quite a while to find something in keeping with this threads theme...

it did not warrant the good stuff...

 

[JollyRoger]

You don't need to give me car fare. I am long since out of your door.

Why'd you steal my mirror?

 

[Borachio]

Welcome back Abegweit. I, for one, am glad to see you.

Provocative postings unafraid to be unpopular can be interesting, educational and entertaining - up to a point.

I shall have to read up on the Club of Rome.

 

[Old Hippy]

I shall have to read up on the Club of Rome.

if you do any indepth searches that involve their critics... don't forget to wear a tin foil hat for your own protection..

 

[amadeus]

Malthusians gonna Malthus.

 

[Old Hippy]

Malthusians gonna Malthus.

not really... just warning of the tin foil territory a google search takes one too...

Investigations by EIR have uncovered a planning apparatus operating outside the control of the White House whose sole purpose is to reduce the world's population by 2 billion people through war, famine, disease and any other means necessary. This apparatus, which includes various levels of the government is determining U.S. foreign policy. In every political hotspot -- El Salvador, the so-called arc of crisis in the Persian Gulf, Latin America, Southeast Asia and in Africa- the goal of U.S. foreign policy is population reduction. The targeting agency for the operation is the National Security Council's Ad Hoc Group on Population Policy. Its policy-planning group is in the U.S.State Department's Office of Population Affairs, established in 1975 by Henry Kissinger. This group drafted the Carter administration's Global 2000 document, which calls for global population reduction, and the same apparatus is conducting the civil war in El Salvador as a conscious depopulation project.

The Club of Rome is a conspiratorial umbrella organization, a marriage between Anglo-American financiers and the old Black Nobility families of Europe, particularly the so-called "nobility" of London, Venice and Genoa. The key to the successful control of the world is their ability to create and manage savage economic recessions and eventual depressions. The Committee of 300 looks to social convulsions on a global scale, followed by depressions, as a softening-up technique for bigger things to come, as its principal method of creating masses of people all over the world who will become its "welfare" recipients of the future.

unless of course ,I'm an "opperative" hiding the truth in plain view....

 

[Borachio]

He can't sing, can't play

Link to video.
I beg to differ. (And, irrelevantly, he's Canadian.)

 

[Bootstoots]

This week is the fortieth anniversary of the Club of Rome's garbage tract entitled "The Limits to Growth". They said that world would be enveloped in a downward spiral which would result in mass hunger and mass death. They said it would happen somewhere in the late 1970s.

On the contrary, a smaller percentage of people live in fear of hunger than at any time in the history of the our race. More than that, the number of people who live in fear and hunger declines every year, even as the numbers of us continue to increase.

So tell me, why were the fear-mongers so incredibly wrong? More people has not lead to hunger and death. Quite the opposite; it has led to riches and vibrant diverse life.

I think you're confusing the Club of Rome findings with the excessively alarmist books that came out by Paul Ehrlich and the like. The model used in The Limits to Growth actually predicted that industrial output, population, food production, and several other things would peak at various times in the early to mid 21st century (generally about 2020-2050) and then decline.

Their predictions have actually been borne out pretty well thus far. Here is a paper comparing the model's results to reality. In the figures, the green line is the standard assumptions of the model; the other two are alternate scenarios.

Overall, it's pretty obvious that growth based on extracting resources from the Earth at present rates isn't sustainable in the long run. Regardless of how correct this model turns out to be, we are running into resource constraints and environmental externalities that will get worse over time. You don't have to be an environmentalist to see that.

 

[Borachio]

Then,:

in the final analysis, there's this

and especially this:


But infinite sustainable growth is impossible. Do-the-maths goes on to take all the energy from the sun, from the galaxy and finally the universe. We run out surprisingly soon, at current growth rates.

 

[Abegweit]

Welcome back Abegweit. I, for one, am glad to see you.

Provocative postings unafraid to be unpopular can be interesting, educational and entertaining.

Well, thank you. I try to be annoying to conventional thinkers.

But infinite sustainable growth is impossible.

Oh course it is. And one day the sun will burn out. What exactly is the point you are trying to make?

I want to thank you for the graph. It demonstrates the simple fact that the vast majority of people have absolutely no clue about the astonishing nature of the world we live in. There will not be a collapse. Quite the opposite. We are living in the most amazing incredible time in the history of the earth with the possible exception of the moment when the first molecule discovered how to reproduce itself. And no one even notices what is happening.

Within the last hundred thousand years we developed intelligence, cultural evolution and technology. Within the last ten thousand years we invented agriculture and cities. Within the last thousand years we invented the scientific method, capitalism and industrialism. Each one of these inventions is every bit as revolutionary as the invention of the eukaryotic cell or the colonization of land. They all happened in the blink of a eye, on a geological scale. And no one even notices what is happening.

In the last hundred years, even more revolutionary changes have take place. Automobiles. Airplanes. Nuclear power. Electricity for all. Through, the magical power of capitalism, we have come close to banishing poverty.

Coming closer to home, we have computers and the nascient technologies of genetic engineering and nanotech. We are on the cusp of a new age. And no one even notices what is happening.

Despite all the efforts of the statists to destroy the future, it will happen. We already use millions (billions? trillions? How exactly do you measure it?) more power than our ancestors did a mere ten thousand years ago. And we will find more and more means to enrich ourselves still further.

This is a truly glorious moment in the history of our planet and perhaps even in the history of the entire universe. And no one even notices what is happening.

 

[JollyRoger]

And no one even notices what is happening.

Well yeah, some people are harping about something written 40 years ago.

 

[Abegweit]

Well yeah, some people are harping about something written 40 years ago.

"Harping" is a strange choice of words.

Hint: I would not be talking about 40-year old ******s if there weren't tons of modern ******s who lap up the same nonsense.