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Book review: 'The Long Emergency' : Comments
By Peter McMahon, published 11/4/2006James Howard Kunstler, in his book 'The long Emergency', argues humanity needs to respond to declining oil stores - soon.
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While Malthus may be criticised for the innacuracies and the under-lying ideology of his predictions, we need to recognise that populations expand exponentially while food production can only ever expand arithmetically.
Therein lies the problem; technology has helped us to produce more food, but even with the best technology there is no getting away from the fact that there are more mouths to feed every day. Second, despite the best of intentions, technology is never without unintended consequences. On balance, while research and technology can do wonderful things in increasing food production, there are more consequences, both realised and unintended, related to issues such as dependence on oil and oil derivatives, energy expenditure, and the misuse of scarce water resources, as examples.
Still, even if we all disappear as a species, the really successful species will continue to thrive and not notice our passing - the insects (especially cockroaches and little black ants). Probably all that will be left to show our passing will be unmatching lids and bases of Tupperware containers.