Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

what if I told you that to be actually sustainable at current population levels long term, we'd need to surrender 70% or more of currently used pastureland and farmland?

Oh wait, we aren't going to stay at current population levels. Still at least have, what, another 4-5 billion people to crank out before we allegedly plateau?

Wind power doesn't take up a lot of space, especially offshore. Solar? There's this thing called a desert.

People, we are in the midst of a mass extinction. We NEED that land for biodiversity. Mass extinctions occurred over long periods of time that enabled evolutionary adapatation to some degree. We're doing ours over the span of a thousand years. Most mass extinctions at least get to "experiment" will all Earth's land surface to find new adapted animals. We've taken a huge portion of the world's biodiverse and fertile lands and industrialized them.

Otherwise, yeah, we'll have vertical farms... in space, because we won't be on earth.

I guess you think solutions to traditional farming, which is unsustainable, will come out of THIN AIR.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: