'But seriously, the way I see it, we are where we are. The whole 8 billion.' - yeah, it's a problem, to put it mildly. I'm not in favour of a mass cull, intentional or otherwise, but equally I don't think we can afford to hold the rest of the planet hostage to keep those artificially inflated numbers up (in fact, still growing) for the long term. It's not remotely in balance with the rest of the ecology, and clearly unsustainable especially when you digest the implications of around half of global calories being derived from natural gas fertilisers: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/world-population-with-and-without-fertilizer I'd say we need a managed decline, if the word 'managed' didn't carry so much baggage and a history of elites only ever 'managing' things to expand their empires and the resource extraction that underpins that. That's why 'how can we feed the growing population' is for me the wrong question. It's just talking about setting in motion another round of expansion, when what needs to happen is contraction. The population grows because the food has been produced to grow it, not the other way round. That was the toxic gift of agriculture, allowing civilisation to artificially raise the carrying capacity by overproducing food, largely grains. Quinn explained it best: https://howtosavetheworld.ca/2004/02/06/population-a-systems-approach/
Haven't read Pepe on the subject of BRICS - got a link? On the face of it the 'win-win' scenario of co-operation between states you describe could bring lots of benefits compared to a unipolar world system dominated by the US. However, I've not seen any challenge to the growth paradigm, and the main focus seems to be on expanding trade and ongoing resource extraction, just with more nodes in play. The belt & road initiative is not carbon neutral, and China's growth is as dependent on fossil fuels as the western economies were. Probably would be beneficial to have a multipolar order to manage the decline, though, than one crazy superpower with an itchy nuclear trigger finger...
Anyway, thanks for the vote of confidence from your perch. Keep on truckin' yourself - but learn how to ride a horse and cart too, if you'll take my advice
'My grandfather rode a camel. My father drove a car. I fly in jet planes. My son will drive a car. My grandson will ride a camel.' - Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani - https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780191866692.001.0001/q-oro-ed6-00017466
cheers,
I
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