On Wed, 19 Jul 2000, CYMM wrote:
> CYMM SAYS: I really wish I had such faith... I'm not even sure that our
> cirrent civilization is robust enough to withstand the slings & arrows of
> the 21st Century. There is far too much interdependence and
> overpopulation...
I won't comment on the interdependence, since that is a matter
of specialization and I'm almost positive that Robin would
argue strongly that that makes us all richer. We would probably
be able to support a much smaller population without such
interdependence because we would all have to be relatively
inefficient generalists.
With regard to "overpopulation", this is a *MYTH*, a *LIE*,
an *INCORRECT MEME*, and anything else of the same ilk that
you would care to call it.
Unlike many people on the list and throughout the world, I've
traveled it extensively. For *most* of the of the world --
the United States, Canada, Russia, India and Australia to name
a few there is *no* overpopulation problem. Yes, there are
places where there are high population densities (Tokyo,
Mexico City, Cairo) where that population density is severely
stressing the local environment and infrastructure, primarily
in 3rd world countries. However, those are economic, technology
and infrastructure problems, NOT OVERPOPULATION. Overpopulation
is something you have been sold by the greens and you should look
at it very very closely. Go back and look at how often the Club
of Rome has been wrong in their predictions.
A larger population allows a greater fraction of "fundamental"
R&D individuals to be supported which in turn increases the
knowledge base to allow us to become more productive.
> a descent to a "lower" level of civilization would provoke
> mass death & and huge loss of technological knowledge.
It would be very hard to lose large masses of technological
knowledge (given the number of places in which it is stored)
and serious studies of even global thermonuclar war show that
it is are very survivable (Sagan stretched things a fair amount
to make his arguments, perhaps justifiably so.)
If you like, I can go dig out the references. On this list
you need to be prepared to back up your "statements of fact"
or disclaim them with "in my opinions"...
Robert
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