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Written by Jan Lundberg
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Culture Change Letter #184
Note: I spent much of April up and down Mexico, and this little essay is one result. More to come, along with a new section for our website called Spanish Speaking World that will feature unique and timely contributions from our special contacts. - JL
Beyond the usual thoughts and feelings that dominate in my daily life, such as those about food, bus tickets, beautiful Mexican women, etc., insightful observations come to me that I sometimes commit to paper. My good and bad luck, as well as keen interest in the future, have afforded me -- with my self-preservation discipline -- a bit of heightened awareness. If it's useless in the coming industrial collapse, it has at least been a hobby.
As I view the beautiful countryside north of Hermosillo and marvel at the steady if not eternal overall dryness that somehow permits so much life, a tranquility and peacefulness descend on me. Others around me, and those who have been here, seem to share it.
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Confronting the inevitable: Population reduction, voluntary and otherwise |
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Written by J. Kenneth Smail
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Editor's note: One can run into a good report on a critical subject, only to find the author has a deficit of understanding on peak oil, for example. Or one may encounter the delusion that population growth is a problem basically in "Third World" countries. Not with this new essay for Culture Change. Professor Ken Smail has put together the best argument for facing depopulation.
Its full title was Acknowledging and Confronting the Inevitable: A Significant Shrinkage in Global Human Numbers, and Other Inconvenient Truths. Some readers may find Ken's timing-scenario for depopulation optimistic -- picturing it further off into the future than the 21st century -- but he acknowledges its possibly being played out earlier due to today's "toxic brew" of crises.- JL
Assuming then, my postulata as granted, I say that the power of population is
indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man.
- Thomas Malthus (1798)
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Post Harvest Technology – yet another reason there are so many people |
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Written by Alice Friedemann
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Book review and commentary
Peter Golob, et. al. 2002. Crop Post-Harvest: Science and Technology. Volume 1: Principles and Practice. Volume 2: Durables. Volume 3: Perishables. Blackwell Science.
Introduction
It is amazing farmers can grow anything -- crops can be destroyed by drought, wildfire, flood, insects, birds, snails, rodents, fungi, bacteria, viruses, hail, frost, lack of vital nutrients, too much pesticide, and so on.
But that's only half the story -- once a crop has successfully been harvested, how do you keep it from being destroyed by all of the above plus spoilage and silo explosions? Civilization exists because our ancestors figured this out.
Before fossil fuels initiated the Industrial Revolution, 90% of the population was rural, unlike now, where over 80% of the population in the United States is urban. People preserved perishable food like meat, vegetables, and fruit by drying or with preservatives such as salt and alcohol. |
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