Doug, what new energy source have we discovered? Most are like ethanol, using
more energy to produce than they create. Nukes included.
Maybe solar or wind will come to the rescue, but the required scale is enormous.
As for the soil, it is much diminished. Yields here in the US are actually
relatively low by world standards. Although I admit that urbanization and sprawl
is destroying ag lands (temporarily) faster than erosion and salinization.
Doug Henwood wrote:
> I think there's lots of oil left; the tighter constraint is that
> burning all we have may well choke us. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think
> the odds suck in betting against human ingenuity, even under
> capitalism, at devising new energy sources. I think profit
> imperatives have severely slowed research into them. But they'll
> probably arrive.
>
> Citing Marx on a soil crisis 150 years ago doesn't do much to promote
> the catastrophist vision; the soil hasn't only survived, it's a lot
> more productive than it was then.
>
> Doug
--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Chico, CA 95929
530-898-5321
fax 530-898-5901
