Cornucopian
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A cornucopian is someone who believes that continued progress and provision of material items for mankind can be met by advances in technology. Fundamentally there is enough matter and energy on the Earth to provide plenty for the estimated peak population of about 9 billion in 2050. Looking further into the future the abundance of matter, energy and real-estate in space would appear to give humanity almost unlimited room for growth.
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[edit] Description by an opposing view
A cornucopian is someone who posits that there are few intractable natural limits to growth and believes the world can provide a practically limitless abundance of natural resources. The term 'cornucopian' is sometimes used derogatorily, especially by those who are skeptical of the view that technology can somehow solve, or overcome, the problem of an exponentially-increasing human population living off a finite base of natural resources.
In practice, the cornucupian view relies upon the economic law of supply and demand: as demand rises for any commodity, its price rises accordingly, inducing producers to deliver more of it (since they stand to earn more per each unit sold). The subsequent increase in production tends to lower the price and make the commodity available to a wider range of consumers. This view assumes that the resource in question is renewable, or so vast that continued exploitation of supply can continue to meet demand.
In the Peak Oil debate, cornucopians posit that rising prices make oil deposits which were previously considered too expensive to extract and produce become profitable, and also spurs the development of alternative fuels. Peak Oil critics of the Cornucopian view stress that liquid petroleum is a finite resource, and production cannot be increased above a set amount no matter how much demand increases, because of Hubbert's Peak. They also argue that alternative energy cannot simply be plugged in, since they lack the fungibility and energy density of liquid hydrocarbon fuels.
The term comes from the Greek cornucopia, the mythical "horn of plenty" which supplied its owners with endless food and drink magically.
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[edit] Further reading
- The Doomslayer
- The Problem of Denial
- Julian Simon & Perilous Optimism
- Homer-Dixon, Thomas F. "On the Threshold: Environmental Changes as Causes of Acute Conflict." International Security, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Autumn, 1991), 76-116.
- Homer-Dixon, Thomas F, "Environment, scarcity and violence", Princeton, 1999.
- Simon, Julian L. "The ultimate resource", Oxford, 1981.
