HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

jbond23

5 karma · joined April 26, 2018

submissionscomments
jbond23··on 'We're doomed': Mayer Hillman on the climate reality no one else dare mention
http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/bangladesh-pop...

It looks like at least part of Bangla Desh's small reduction in absolute growth in population in recent years is due to emigration. Numbers leaving are about 1/3 the size of the total growth. So actual growth has been consistently over +2m/yr since 1975. Like a lot of other places round the world that looks like 4 to 5 decades of linear growth.

jbond23··on 'We're doomed': Mayer Hillman on the climate reality no one else dare mention
For the last 5 decades or so we've been stuck on linear growth. ~ +80m/yr, 12-14 years per +1b. That looks like it might be the middle straight line part of a sigmoid curve that started exponential and transitioned to linear.

There's no real evidence yet in the stats for the next transition to a drop in the absolute growth numbers per year.

jbond23··on 'We're doomed': Mayer Hillman on the climate reality no one else dare mention
The future doesn't stop at 2100. There are people being born now who will see it. We are starting to badly need some narratives for the 22nd Century and beyond.

As for Pinker; the techno-optimists don't seem to get that the Limits to Growth forecasts predicted substantial exponential growth. The huge success and progress we've seen and celebrated by them doesn't invalidate LtoG. The lesson is not that they didn't or can't happen. It's that they can't continue for ever and will inevitably result in over-reach, peak and crash. And that's the part that Pinker et al won't accept. They're attempting to portray and an unlimited rosy future without really looking at all the implications.