Neo-Malthusian prophets of doom
The discourse of imminent ecological disasters is leading us down the path of real economic disasters
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“Everyone agrees that the climate is changing, but there are violently diverging opinions about the causes of change, about the consequences of change, and about possible remedies.”
― Freeman Dyson, Global Warming Hysteria
In light of COP28, the world has its attention on climate change and by extension on its proponents. Sure, the climate is changing and we ought to transition to cleaner energy sources. We ought to minimize the negative human impact on nature and we ought to raise awareness, indeed. But at what point does raising awareness by predicting the imminent doom become counterproductive?
The present advocates of climate change are no different from prophets of doom of previous generations. The concern on the Earth’s finite resources originates in Robert Malthus’ writings who in his 1798 work An Essay on the Principle of Population stated that ‘’The power of population is so superior to the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man, that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human race.’’ Since then, many warnings were issued, from the imminent end of coal and oil to various minerals. Needless to say that these were all wrong, since the prediction of imminent disasters continues to be pushed into the future.
