[grapeskin]

Yes, that was before we manufactured fertilizer. If that invention didn't exist, this number absolutely wouldn't be sustainable.

Soil is now becoming depleted and fertilizer isn't enough.[1] Globally, much also depends on rapidly depleting ground water that isn't being replenished. Agriculture is exceeding its limits.

[1] https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/environment-and-conserv...

[j245]

We will come up with a way to “fix” that (if it’s even a problem), as we have done in the past.

Why ignore human ingenuity ?

[grapeskin]

Humans thought they'd find a fix for their problems before, so nothing to worry about.

A lot of those people died because no fix was found in their lifetimes. Nobody fixed the plagues that went around Europe. Nobody fixed the droughts that killed millions. Entire civilizations went extinct because they weren't able to find a fix before a problem caught up with them.

A lot of problems won't have a fix within our lifetime. Thinking it's guaranteed to happen is magical thinking--assuming we're the main characters in the universe and things must work out. Most of the time, they don't.

[j245]

Yet here we are.. having a discussion about whether too many humans are surviving for too long.

[grapeskin]

And yet here the Aztec aren’t.

Living today doesn’t guarantee living tomorrow.

[j245]

I don’t think anyone is arguing that specific groups will survive no matter what.

The discussion is around whether the human race will survive and continue to grow.

As you may have noticed, population numbers have increased since the days of the Aztecs.

[ekianjo]

> Yes, that was before we manufactured fertilizer. If that invention didn't exist, this number absolutely wouldn't be sustainable.

Hence proving the fact that we have no good insight of the future.