No it's not. And you are still talking about rates of return on currently 7 billion in principal vs less than 1/2 that 50 years ago. Somehow, the principal keeps accruing rapidly and can be predicted to continue to accrue. This more and more rapidly because the rates are compounding on ever increasing principal.anderson wrote:Again, compound interest would not be relevant because world population stopped growing exponentially a few decades ago. Inflection point. Curve went from concave up to concave down.Farcus wrote:anderson wrote:Because population isn't increasing geometrically. Not for the past 10, maybe 20 years. Check the global stats.
Human population went from 5-6 billion, an increase of 20%, in, if I recall, about 12 years. 6-7 billion, an increase of only 16.7%, took over 15 years. 17 years if I recall correctly. The rate of increase is slowing, and has been for a while. Reasons? China one child is one factor. Another is cultural - as developing world develops, populations become more urbanized, and families smaller.
More rates while simply not addressing the number of mouths? The religious need to abstract to sidestep the main thrust.
Maybe it would help if framed population as a discussion of compound interest?
You need graphs with better resolution. The curve is no longer exponential. It is becoming s-shaped.
WikiIt is estimated that the world population reached one billion for the first time in 1804. It was another 123 years before it reached two billion in 1927, but it took only 33 years to reach three billion in 1960. Thereafter, the global population reached four billion in 1974, five billion in 1987, six billion in 1999 and, according to the United States Census Bureau, seven billion in March 2012
According to current projections, the global population will reach eight billion by 2030, and will likely reach around nine billion by 2050.
Contrast with food production, which cannot be confidently projected to accumulate at equal rates. And, as MG noted, depletes nonrenewable components of carrying capacity.