that demands self-denial and scarcity, suck.
Like to do you seriously not believe in technological solutions to resource problems?
Are you a fucking primmie?
i believe that a significant amount of productive capacity will, over the next few centuries, have to be dedicated on effectively repaying the massive overdraft we’ve aleady drawn on the natural resources of the earth. this means letting arable land lie fallow, drastically easing off on rare earth processing (and therefore computer production), along with petrochemical extraction and all forms of heavy industry. i literally wouldn’t be surprised if we see a re-intensification of agriculture in teerms of human labour, given that supplies of inputs like fertilizer and gasoline will probably decrease.
obviously, if we take a flying leap into replicators and chemical computers and ftl and fusion and space elevators then shit becomes a lot easier, but i’m not willing to place my faith in what could just end up being a pipe dream.
Fertilizer is literally endlessly renewable
https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4166 and we’ve got a lot of possibilities in terms of new power sources so… no, and like we can recycle the metals from extant computers so naaahhhhh
look, all resources are enddlesslly renewable given enough time. it’s the tempo and energy required for that renewal that determine efficiency, and modern methods of productiong fertilizer are inefficient and depend on massive fossil fuel inputs, and the end products also cause significant envrionmental damage. now it just so happens that shit is an excellent fertilizer, but re-estabilishing a shit-slinging industry (complete with distribution mechanisms) doesn’t exactly strike me as very FALC.
linking me that skeptoid piece was honestly a little insulting. why on earth would i be advoating some kind of nonsensical idealist ~organic~ bullshit? read robert biel’s the political eceonomy of food (which i would be happy to summarize) then get back to me.
re new power sources, unless someone’s figured out how to make orbiting mirros cheap and junkproof or made some huge advance in fusion, i’m just not seeing it tbh. miracles can occur, but i’m still not gonna assume they will.
Did you read the article?
I didn’t think you were advocating organic agriculture but they have a very good examination of the process of producing fertilizer
yeah, i did read the article, and because it sucked it neglected to mention that the nitrogen has to be paired with ammonia, which is extracted from natural gas.
Yeaah we’re getting good results working ways around that now http://biomassmagazine.com/articles/3503/renewable-nitrogen-fertilizer-production
Thoughts From The Peacock Angel 