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Malthus redux, and still blind in the same eye

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 June 2016

Don Ross
Don Ross*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Waikato Management School, University of Waikato, Private bag 3105, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand. [email protected] School of Economics, University of Cape Town, Private bag, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa. http://uct.academia.edu/DonRoss Center for Economic Analysis of Risk, J. Mack Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University, Atlanta GA 30303.
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Abstract

Gowdy & Krall (G&K) essentially recapitulate Malthus's classic argument for ecological pessimism in modern biological dress. Their reasoning also reproduces Malthus's blindness to the implications of technological innovation. Agriculture might have suppressed human individualism as G&K insist, but technology has tended to foster it. This complicates human ecological prospects in a non-Malthusian way, and it might additionally provide the resources for deliverance from disaster.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 39 , 2016 , e111
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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