Between 1200 and 1350 China's population more or less halved. But it
wasn't a smooth decline: war caused starvation, corpses were lying in
the fields. Perhaps a more optimistic scenario would be the collapse of
the Roman empire, with the population of Europe halving between 200 and
600. About a third of that happened before the fall of Rome in 410, as a
result (apparently) of infertility, presumably through choice as the
economic situation deteriorated.
-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan Ward [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 01 February 2006 13:03
To: Paul Taylor; [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: The Way Ahead . . .
it's a very good point, i think most estimates of long term sustainable
population size are around 2 billion tops. population size is a crisis
in
itself.
if that is case how do we contract to that population? it's a very murky
area. some seem to believe ina Gaia'esque view that over-population will
bring about disease, famine and so on which will regulate the population
and
return it to a 'safe' level.
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