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Will Earth Expire By 2050?

Posted by timothy on from the check-the-due-date-on-the-card dept.

_josh writes: "Will overconsumption force humanity off this planet in less than 50 years? It may sound sci-fi, but according to the WWF in this story at the Observer, it's entirely possible. Maybe now I can convince my brother not to buy that SUV ..." Take with as large a grain of salt as you think appropriate.

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  1. Past predictions were all wrong, why believe this? by rbook · · Score: 5, Informative

    These are the same folks who predicted that the world would run out of food by 1980, then predicted we'd run out of oil by 1985.

    And of course Thomas Malthus predicted imminent mass starvation in the early 1800s.

    In the 1970s, they predicted:

    "The world as we know it will likely be ruined before the year 2000
    and the reason for this will be its inhabitants' failure to comprehend
    two facts. These facts are (1) World food production cannot keep pace
    with the galloping growth of population. (2) 'Family planning' cannot
    and will not, in the foreseeable future, check this runaway growth."

    "Agricultural experts state that a tripling of the food
    supply of the world will be necessary in the next 30
    years or so, if the 6 or 7 billion people who may be
    alive in the year 2000 are to be adequately fed.
    Theoretically such an increase might be possible, but it
    is becoming increasingly clear that it is totally
    impossible in practice."

    Except, here we are in 2002 and those 6 or 7 billion people are eating better than any of their ancestors in all of human history, even in the poorest countries.

    For more info, see The Ultimate Resource by Julian Simon, and The Skeptical Environmentalist by Bjorn Lomborg.