RE: Patterns of Society. How Permaculture can prevent overpopulation of the planet.
I do not think there would be an "equilibrium population" point in time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_growth
Yes, the growth rate is slowing, but the total population won't stop growing by itself.
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/346/6206/234
We humans are just like any other animal, we'll exploit a stock of energy until it's depleted and the move over in search of other stocks, managing with the level of current flow of energy.
So what I expect is some sort of cataclysmic event. Too many people too close leads to war, epidemics, zombies :) all sorts of problems.
It might be a slow transition, like some disease that cripples reproduction, or a fast crash, like a 3rd WW. But it must happen, else all our grand-grandchildren are doomed to live on an exhausted, overpopulated planet. That's not a live worth living.
Holy shmunck @bobydimitrov! What dark visions you have!
I must say that I was there as well, but Permaculture tought me so many good lessons that I look very optimistic into the future. And especially into the future of my children and hypothetical grandchildren.. I do believe that we have all the tools at hand and that a global grass root movement is turning things around. You and me and all of us together we fulfill a great change. And we do it very slowly but therefore also very persistent and lasting.
Why would that be a dark vision? It's the same process in nature! Figs have bumper year in the tropics, the fruit bats population increases. The monkeys living in urban setting in India give birth to twins twice as often - ample food source!
I think I commented on another post of yours with the Holmgren's 4 scenarios and a lengthy interview with him? I wouldn't want to repeat what's already been beautifully explained.
Two troubling facts. Permaculture is so niche right now, it's not even on the radar. Even globally massive changes, like the multi-billion investments in renewable energies are just a tiny drop in a huge barrel of oil.
Check that report out: https://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/key-world-energy-statistics.html and also the study in my previous post.
How would you like to have 20 families living full time in shacks on your beautiful property? We're talking 10 billion in our lifetime. City centers swallowing up small towns and villages. Currently, there's no plausible incentive whatsoever to go back to the land, for most people. I deal with this daily - one of the things I spend time on is to inspire locals to move out of the big cities and go neo-rural or neo-agrarian or whatever the latest trend word is.
Here's another read for you:
https://books.google.bg/books?id=3SghZt0SgAgC&pg=PA150#v=onepage&q&f=false
Don't get me wrong, I want nothing more than a slow, peaceful transition to a regenerative lifestyle. But if you've studied history (and I did for 12 years), you'd know that's not how overstretched civilizations end - like in a retirement home... It's always like a punk festivale, lots of chaos and tons of damage and nobody remembers nothing on the next day!
Dear @bobydimitrov I will have to go back and check on the Holmgren vieo you sent me. I did not watch it yet.
I was commenting on the war, epidemics, zombies...
Of course we have great tasks to tackle, yet I am still extremely optimistic and I even think it will be a piece of cake. Like the solutions will come to us, we will not even have to look for them. Well, the solutions are here already, but we will adabt them into our life so quickly and easily, you will see.
And 10billion will be fine on the planet. No problem there. And it also does not mean, that 20 families have to live in sheds on our properties, and if that is what is nacessary, by all means :) We will all live an abundance and beautiful cob houses :D
People who are happy in the cities should be happy there. No need to go neo-rural or neo-agrarian if you can go neo-urban-hipster-farming ;) No idea how you would call that. We will have to produce much more food much closer to the dense city centers anyhow.
Thank you for your input man and these lines are worth gold:
Much appreciated!
Moritz