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Old March 20th 04, 09:34 PM
Henry Spencer
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Default Sedna, space probes?, colonies? what's next?

In article ,
G EddieA95 wrote:
The population will go down if Earth goes to subsistence. If don't agree that
it will have to go down otherwise. And aren't you afraid of the necessary
*means* of getting it down?


It will start declining of its own accord around the end of this century,
by a middle-of-the-road current-trends-and-no-surprises projection. The
growth *rate* has been falling for decades now, as industrialization and
its consequences reduce the birth rate in one country after another.
(A number of the industrialized countries would already have negative
growth rates, were it not for immigration; a few do anyway.)

Solar can make the world work, especially if efficiencies improve.


Only if it's accompanied by massive investments in power transmission
infrastructure. The sunlight and the power demand aren't in the same
places, and current power grids are hopelessly inadequate for matching
the two up.
--
MOST launched 30 June; science observations running | Henry Spencer
since Oct; first surprises seen; papers pending. |