As far as the bible saying be fruitful and multiply ; That message was meant for the Israelites thousands of years ago, not for the world today. If you believe that should apply to today then;
Stoning should be the punishment for adultery ( Leviticus 20:10)
All gay people should be killed because they are an abomination (Leviticus 20:13)
Any one who uses blaspheme should be executed on the spot (Leviticus 24:1)
Laws and rules are written to guide and control a society that exist in a place and time.
Using those laws and rules to guide a society over two thousand years later, makes about as much
sense as Mosses coming down a mountain with Driving is a privilege not a right written on a stone.

The reason is similar to the peak oil case – not that we will run out of food, or space to live, but that at current population growth, compounded by the need to find an alternative form of energy, we will hit a population peak pretty soon at current growth levels. This is not nutcase stuff, standard population charts do show a leveling off this century, since the first order differential of growth has been declining since the 60s.

I would suggest the neo-Malthusian argument is not that the population will be wiped drastically, but that there is a problem with growth based economics, when it stops growing.

If I understand it correctly, where we are now is that the rate of population growth is declining globally, and the standard prediction are that the absolute growth rate will trend gradually to zero. If it picks up again the population will grow way beyond ten times the level it was when Malthus was alive in a time scale that is a problem (10B vs 1B), if it doesn’t then we will hit peak population.

A downward trend in growth is an anathema to capitalism. As someone who believes that capitalism is the most efficient means for distributing wealth (albeit a lesser amongst evils) the only example of expansion of average wealth through negative population growth is the mid 15th century which resulted in a highly unfair society i.e. people who inherited money did ok and while the average wealth may have been improving the median was wildly off.

What happens when we reach peak population?

@Admin and Marty: You have hit upon the economic problem of mankind – the condition of scarcity, or as Marty described it, ultimately finite resources. Technological innovations can utilize resources more efficiently and they do, as history has proven time and time again and continues to be proven right now with the innovations in the food and automobile industries. Nevertheless there is indeed a finite limit on resources but where that limit exist in the future no one can say. So what will happen? Will there be food shortages? Maybe. If there are they would likely be caused my natural disasters, human mismanagement, or war related causes. Absent these things as more people are born during a period of fixed food supply the price of food will gradually increase making it increasingly expensive over time to have a family. Enough so to discourage people from reproducing. Think more like present day China and less like Mad Max.

Or maybe star travel will become a feasible reality and the future will look more like a sci-fi movie with companies and governments mining asteroids and other planets and the like. At this point its impossible to tell. For that reason I don’t worry about it. Human beings can not understand growth because crystal balls do not exist.

What disturbs me is the alarmism. Its a waste of time and a mental poison to boot. One day the sun will run out of nuclear fuel and as a result this planet will either freeze or be incinerated regardless of scarce resources, Jesus Christ, The Trilateral Commission, global warming, or Al Qaeda. The planet will not exist forever. That is a fact. Get over it.

This reminds me of church doctrine, as in “…the silly thing people say when they don’t understand the trinity.”

I am so looking forward to the day when capitalism is exposed as the religion that is is.

But the flaw of economists is much simpler, but probably more fatal. They just don’t know the definition of the word finite.

We’re in a closed system here, folks. It’s won’t/can’t get any bigger. This is a limit to growth.

Even if every resource is used as efficiently as possible, the depletion of those resources becomes a problem under conditions of continued growth. If the population on a given landbase gets too large, that population doesn’t haev enough supplies. No matter how efficient the technology gets, you can’t get more of a resource by using it. Even if the economy does its job and innovates to the very limit, it won’t create more land or more natural resources. This is the problem.

Finite systems have limits. Period. Things can’t keep growing once they meet the edge. I think you know this. It won’t happen tomorrow, and it probably won’t happen next week, next month, or next year. But if we continue as-is, it will happen. Now watch the whole video. If you still don’t get it, watch it again.

And now for my problem with the Malthusian dismissal:

Because we live on a finite sized planet (and possibly also because we have been exploiting finite energy resources), this cannot continue forever.

The solution as you say, involves a massive leap – like the human race expanding beyond earth, or else dying out like the vast majority of other species. I’m not holding my breath here, and would argue that at this point its the Malthusian naysayers that start to look fanciful.

As for you admin, it is my own opinion that economic growth will cease when humanity has a costless total command of the physical unverise, which I define as including all technologies capable of development now and in the future. The environmental concern is a worthwhile point of discussion and success in solving any problem is never 100% guaranteed. Even now however, we are seeing technological innovations that repair, conserve, or prevent further damage to the environment. Provided that free markets are encouraged rather than legislatively banned from participating in the process there is a great deal of evidence to suggest the outcome will be positive. The process will take time.