patrick.net

This is persistently insipid, yet another goldbug missive.

We've yet to scratch the surface of this planet.

"Solar panels covering the desert floor interfere with normal wildlife"

So what. 10x10 km of PV panels would produce 25 GW or thereabouts, nearly all of our peak demand in CA.

While we've certainly "strip-mined" macro life from the ocean via over-fishing, the oceanic seabeds hold vast untapped wealth still.

Most every constraint (e.g. clean water) is an energy problem in the end, and I think our energy economy will be a lot better in 50 years.

Plus like everyone, the author doesn't understand how much of our present "consumption" is merely bidding up land use rights.

Land is only "consumed" when nonrenewable resources are extracted. Not much of our present economy involves that, the great bulk of our land costs are mere space rents, how much it costs to legally exclude everyone else from our space.

Should energy in fact triple in cost from here, space rents can and (I hope!) will fall in response.

Of course, since we've borrowed trillions of dollars to buy real estate, falling valuations will again kill our economy. But that is another problem altogether.

He has a point, that he frames around how finite the world is relative to many things including population and capital which grow at an exponential rate.

It's true that we are on the cusp of what will have to be a lot of important change or else possibly a game changing traumatic event ( I hope not).

We have to learn to consume in a more environmentally aware way and I do think that the near future holds a lot of change in what peoples priorities are and many of our systems will be changing in big ways in the next few generations.

For example world population growth is certain to stop soon, which will change the way that people think about economics, and it may even have a profound impact on "rents." (or at least their growth rate)

Markets are always forward looking. It's interesting that rents are going to get to be too high to be sustainable or workable for young workers coming in to the economy, just decades before the population levels off, which will necessitate a different kind of economic system anyway.

This is occurring right at almost the same time that we're close to doing irreversible catastrophic damage to our atmosphere and our oceans.

Capitalism and our economic system as we know it, basically is breaking down or will be, a little later than what would have been ideal. But that's no big surprise, given human nature.