Re: Sustainable Growth Is Unsustainable ( Frosty Wooldridge )

Article View: talk.environment

Article #3998

#3998

From: Irving Layton
Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2007 01:04

27 lines
2442 bytes

<tedorn44@hotmail.com> wrote in message 
news:1167956276.475027.172770@51g2000cwl.googlegroups.com...

>> THE MEANING OF SUSTAINABILITY
>>
>> First, we must accept the idea that "sustainable" has to mean "for an
>> unspecified long period of time." Yes, far into the future.
>>
> Second, we must acknowledge the mathematical fact that steady growth
> gives very large numbers in modest periods of time.  For example, a
> population of 10,000 people growing at 7 percent per year will become
> a population of 10,000,000 people in just 100 years.  Please, stop and
> think about that; TEN MILLION for every TEN THOUSAND.
>
> From these two statements we can see that the term "sustainable
> growth" implies "increasing endlessly," which means that the growing
> quantity will tend to become infinite in size.



Isn't that a circular argument?

The author says we must "we must accept the idea that sustainable *has* to 
mean for an unspecified long period of time."   Then he uses a line of 
reasoning to show that "sustainable growth implies increasing endlessly." 
He really hasn't proven anything, since his conclusion is one of the things 
he said had to be accepted prior to his reasoning.

Technical Details

Message-ID: <459da426$0$5821$4c368faf@roadrunner.com>

Path:

arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!g2news2.google.com!news3.google.com!news4.google.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!nx01.iad01.newshosting.com!newshosting.com!post01.iad01!roadrunner.com!not-for-mail

References: <459d7385.711023087@news.isomedia.com> <1167956276.475027.172770@51g2000cwl.googlegroups.com>

Show Full Headers

Complete Article Headers

X-Google-Thread: fb58e,57d7fb878ad08d6c
X-Google-Thread: 114271,57d7fb878ad08d6c
X-Google-Thread: f9833,57d7fb878ad08d6c
X-Google-Thread: 1073ca,57d7fb878ad08d6c
X-Google-Thread: fa22e,57d7fb878ad08d6c
X-Google-Attributes: gidfb58e,gid114271,gidf9833,gid1073ca,gidfa22e,public
X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!g2news2.google.com!news3.google.com!news4.google.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!nx01.iad01.newshosting.com!newshosting.com!post01.iad01!roadrunner.com!not-for-mail
From: "Irving Layton" <irving@nowhere.com>
Newsgroups: talk.environment,rec.backcountry,rec.animals.wildlife,co.general,mn.politics
References: <459d7385.711023087@news.isomedia.com> <1167956276.475027.172770@51g2000cwl.googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Sustainable Growth Is Unsustainable ( Frosty Wooldridge )
Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2007 19:04:33 -0600
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.3028
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.3028
X-RFC2646: Format=Flowed; Original
Lines: 29
Message-ID: <459da426$0$5821$4c368faf@roadrunner.com>
Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online http://www.rr.com
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rr.com

Reply to Parent Message