The Great Debate

Question 1

What is Techno-Pessimism Robert Malthus, Paul Ehrlich and Meadows et al.?

Answer 1

Robert Malthus on his essay on the principle of population, he said that as population is growing the food sources is growing linearly as new areas are being cultivated; population growth will outpace the pace of the food supply. This would lead to a Malthusian Catastrophe such as starvation, disease and war.

Paul Ehrlic wrote the book The Population Bomb where he says that as population is growing the carrying capacity which is the maximum population size that the env can sustain, will decrease and when these two crosses each other it causes an overshoot because then theres more people than the world can sustain. He proposes tax penalties for having children, incentives for voluntary sterilization, and others.

Meadows et al. simulated a model called World 3 which is a system dynamic model for computer simulation for population, industrial growth, food production, resource and pollution.

Limits to growth - on our way to irreparable environ damage and population collapse - take every chance to avoid disaster

Question 2

What is Techno-Optimism Julian Simon, Simon Kuznets?

Answer 2

Julian Simon posted The Ultimate Resource, Resources becomes more scarce, price of resource increase, incentive to ration, recycle, discover new and develop substitute, Ultimate Resource capacity of humans to invent and adapt.

Environmental Kuznets Curve: Relationship between development and pollution.

population growth is the ultimate resource (ingenuity) market forces and technological advances find solutions physical resources are finite, but economic growth and
resources are unlimited

Question 3

Who is Herman Daly?

Answer 3

• American Economist
• One of the founders of the field of ecological economics
• Opposes the mantra of unlimited economic growth 1) economy is embedded in an ecosystem that is finite 2) there a physical limits to efficiency
  Continuous economic growth at the global scale is therefore not possible.
  Changes economic policies to reach a steady stage such as birth rate= death rate and natural resources.
  Permanent growth ecolog. impossible zero growth econ