Re: OT ; Re: The joy of FORTRAN

On 04/10/2024 17:40, Scott Lurndal wrote:

Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:

On Thu, 03 Oct 2024 23:55:51 GMT, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
>

Thomas Malthus figured this out over 200 years ago.

>
He was wrong, though. Human ingenuity (i.e. science and technology) kept
things going long after he thought they would fall apart.

 For a short time, in the context of human history.   Without
the agricultural use of fossil fuels (fertilizer, mechanization),
Malthus and Ehrlich estimates would have been quite realistic.
 The EROEI for oil is has already dropped by a factor of
10 (even more for the oil sands/tar sands/fracking plays, some
of which aren't far from unity).
 Hoping that some new paradigm comes along that allows global
energy growth to continue to grow by 2.3% p.a. is wishful
thinking, not good planning.  Regardless, there is a hard-limit
on that growth as well (due simply to waste heat from energy
production and use).
 

Completely true.
quadrupling human population would impact the environment far far more than a few tenths of a percent of CO2 in the air
--
Climate is what you expect but weather is what you get.
Mark Twain