Nicholas Stern: 'I got it wrong on climate change – it's far, far worse'

[GliderGuider]

17. The population bomb was *temporarily* defused by the GR.

The system we are living in will continue to grow until it hits an external limit that we can't find a way around. Borlaug found a way around the Malthusian trap, but that merely freed us to continue growing. Borlaug said in his Nobel address that he'd just given us breathing room to get our shit together. We didn't, and now other limits are coming up, not the least of which is climate change. That may undo all Borlaug's hard work - we're open to hitting the same Malthusian limit again, but this time in conjunction with another one (or two or three, if you count Peak Oil and the world's economic instability)

That convergence will continue until we can't overcome it, because the system does not contain any internal constraints. It appears that civilization can't "slow down" of its own accord, so its growth will continue in one fashion or another until the bus goes off a cliff.

So it goes.