Things aren't as simple as this thread's theme would lead one to believe. Certainly, Malthus would agree with the simplicity, unfortunately, his theories have crumbled into the dust heap of history, with only a few true believers, mostly on the Left.

The Middle Ages were far more complicated than Black Death being the catalyst of the Renaissance. Clearly, the Medieval Warm Period created an unsustainable population growth in Europe, which Maunder Solar Minimum cut short and causing famine before Black Death even arrived. It's also true that the seeds of Renaissance were occurring at the same time as Black Death.

What spread the Renaissance were two things: the Printing Press and the Reformation. It's pretty naive' to believe that working stiffs supported da Vinci, et al.

The irony is that if the Global Alarmists are correct, that high population and it's demands for fossil fuel is feeding Global Warming, that Global Warming will enable even more population growth.

food and potable water are a far bigger issue relative to the population increases. and with food and water come sewage issues. gas for their humvees not so much so.

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Socialism doesn't create a rising tide that lifts all boats. It drains the lake and teaches the boat riders not to help themselves by rowing.

Jesus loves you, allah wants you dead

"Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others."

Ayn Rand

Can't argue with that. OTOH, I believe we're at the early stages of a new Ice Age (or end of the Modern Warm Period). Famine will increase, not due to Global Warming, but just the opposite. I could be wrong, but a new Ice Age (or even a modern minimum) will be more damaging than anything Al Gore could possibly dream up.

As far as the Renaissance, it's not odd it started in Italy. It was a yearning for their old Roman Classical Art. The Merchants, the Church and Noblemen (all of whom were the Capitalists of their day) who brought it back, and in fact expanded it.

Huh?

Perhaps you could explain what this means?

Andrew

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“...corporations and those who run them cannot stop exploiting resources and amassing wealth until they have... .I cannot finish this sentence, because the truth is that can never stop; like cancer, they can only continue to expand until they kill the host.”

-- Derrick Jensen

Plants love three things: Rain, CO2, and Heat

An ice age would not be near as bad as runaway heating. People (and life in general) are far more adapted to cooler temperatures than they are to hotter temperatures. A significant increase in heat would make tropical areas unbearably hot and dry. An ice age would merely make already relatively sparsely populated areas uninhabitable.

Andrew

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“...corporations and those who run them cannot stop exploiting resources and amassing wealth until they have... .I cannot finish this sentence, because the truth is that can never stop; like cancer, they can only continue to expand until they kill the host.”

-- Derrick Jensen

Sure, but only to a threshold. A plant can be saturated with too much CO2.

Global warming does not mean more rainfall uniformly spread out over the globe. It means more rainfall dumped in places and no rainfall in others. These problems have already begun.

Heat is only good up to a point as well. Too much heat, combined with deforestation and intensive agriculture only produces a desert.

Andrew

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“...corporations and those who run them cannot stop exploiting resources and amassing wealth until they have... .I cannot finish this sentence, because the truth is that can never stop; like cancer, they can only continue to expand until they kill the host.”

-- Derrick Jensen

Really? Eskimos took over the world during what era? The Vikings died out in North America because of the Maunder Solar Minimum destroyed their crops and animals. If and when we see the day that the ice cap once again covers the Corn and Wheat Belts, massive starvation will occur.

Global Warming doesn't make the world drier, it does the opposite as evaporation increases with a rise in temperature. Whomever is telling you otherwise doesn't have a basic understanding of the environment.

LOL, all animal life on the planet will cease long before plants have too much CO2.

Yes, the heating from the extra CO2 could cause a positive feedback that releases huge concentrations of methane.

The point is that there are limits.

Andrew

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“...corporations and those who run them cannot stop exploiting resources and amassing wealth until they have... .I cannot finish this sentence, because the truth is that can never stop; like cancer, they can only continue to expand until they kill the host.”

-- Derrick Jensen

I do not measure the success of a species based on its ability to conquer. I base it only on its ability to persist over long periods of time, as would any evolutionary biologist. The eskimos did that just fine, as do most other hunter/gatherer type cultures in cooler climates. Humans have persisted through more than one ice age and have adapted successfully, but humans have never done well in extremely hot environments.

Global warming increase evaporation on the whole, but like i already said, it does not follow from that that this rainfall is uniformly spread out over the globe for the benefit of human crops and drinking water. There is more heat in the system and that causes more unpredictable weather, more rain in storms, etc.. It only means that there will be less or no water in some areas at some times and huge rainfalls in other areas at other times.

Here is some reading for you:

The Irony of Global Warming: More Rain, Less Water | LiveScience
Global Warming and the Hydrologic Cycle

Andrew

__________________
“...corporations and those who run them cannot stop exploiting resources and amassing wealth until they have... .I cannot finish this sentence, because the truth is that can never stop; like cancer, they can only continue to expand until they kill the host.”

-- Derrick Jensen

Extremely hot? No, I suppose we don't do well on Mercury. Not even the hyperbolic Al Gore makes a claim that humans will face an "extremely hot" climate. The modern world wouldn't exist if we were in an Ice Age. I don't think you've given it much thought at all.

No one can predict the weather patterns next year, much less centuries from now.

The human body (as well as agriculture) has a certain temperature threshold. We can heat to death as well as freeze to death. But the fact remains that human beings are way more adaptable to cooler temperatures. It is far easier to escape the cold with mere stone age technology. Escaping the heat requires advanced technology and massive amounts of fossil fuel energy. These are just basic facts.

I think you mean that the neolithic revolution would not have happened had we not come out of the ice age. That is very true. But it does nto mean we can heat the planet beyond the threshold for agriculture and human biological processes. There is a threshold.

The various positive feedback loops and tipping points in the climate are not understood perfectly, but it is conceivable that a tipping point could put us in a runaway greenhouse effect and literally fry the surface of the planet. Im certainly not saying that is likely or unlikely, only that we doing things to the system without realizing the risks. Witness the massive death tolls of heat waves. Way less people die in cold snaps, and if they do it is mostly accidental, drunkenness, or homeless people.

Ah yes, that tired old canard. We are talking about the average weather over long periods of time, otherwise known as climate. This is not difficult to predict in a stable and well known climate, ask anybody from the pacific north west. Its ridiculous to assume that because there is more precipitation as a result of global warming that this precipitation will fall uniformly on human crops evenly over a period of a growing season.

Andrew

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“...corporations and those who run them cannot stop exploiting resources and amassing wealth until they have... .I cannot finish this sentence, because the truth is that can never stop; like cancer, they can only continue to expand until they kill the host.”

-- Derrick Jensen

Last I looked the warmer parts of the world had higher populations then the colder portions.

IOW, you think agriculture produces more protein per acre than seal hunting? I think the evidence is fairly overwhelming, and that evidence was overwhelming before the invention of John Deere tractors.

Is it odd that people retire in America and move to the hottest states? Why is that? Surely, we adapt to the cold better than the hot so we all retire and move to International Falls, ND, beings Alaska is now over populated. LOL