I agree that at present we are not doing our best to have a sustainable society, but we easily could: increase recycling efforts, switch over to renewable energy sources, live in denser configurations, change diet to be less meat based.

In other words, that currently we are not living sustainably doesn't mean in the future we couldn't. There really is no solid evidence to suggest that if we put our hearts and minds to it we couldn't do it.

And you know what? we have it even better: population is likely to top at 9 billion and then start falling rapidly. See Japan where population is falling at a rate of .250K a year and likely to be aroun 30% less than present by 2060. Most other countries in the world are tracking the Japanese curve, some a mere few years behind others a couple of decades, but essentially every one is tracking it, from Germany to the fastest growing countries in Africa.

[Citation needed]

People were saying the exact same thing 70 years ago, except with "it is not possible to feed 7 billion people".

And guess what? here we are feeding all 7 billion. Just because you cannot see a way to sustain 15 billion people it doesn't mean one doesn't exist.

It is clear you've reached a conclusion and will reject all evidence to the contrary: you rather go on a side tangent about the Israel-Palestinian conflict than pause and think about the main point: 50% of Israel water comes from artificial sources, up from 15% less than a decade ago.

Talk of water shortage is nonsense on the face of these figures.

We have plenty of oil, or did you miss the current drop in price? and if that wasn't enough solar continues to drop in price along an exponential curve.

As for the Israeli situation, here's the reality:

I understand the term perfectly well, and the carrying capacity of the earth is at least 15 perhaps 20 billion. Currently we produce more food that we can consume. The problem is we distribute it rather badly.

In terms of water, we wast so much of it, that this is not really a problem. Call me back when we have ripped out our lawns, moved to high efficiency European washing machines, 1 gallon toilets, drip irrigation, etc. Then I'll believe your claims of water shortages.

Ah crisis, the most over used word of the environmental movement. Everything is a crisis. Ebola is a crisis of a million dead with an actual final tally of thousands, rape on campus (which happens at lower rates than elsewhere) is a crisis, water "shortages" are a crisis even though Israel seems to manage fine (though not without trouble and ingenuity), population is a crisis even though most countries are moving rapidly towards below replacement fertility levels .

Almost none. Human indicators have improved markedly over the last forty years while world population doubled.

He was particularly wrong about this, just like other Malthusians, and just like all of them 200 years of wrong predictions have made no difference in their opinions.

You clearly haven't thought this through. How can you defend only half the country? how can you obtain middle east security for just half the country?

Really, I mean it, think it through.

Don't tell anyone, but I'm using this web site I discovered called Google. It's full of useful tidbits like that. I don't know how it does it, but if I ask for "raw potato alkaloid" I get tens of thousands of matches including many reputable sources like FDA.

But please, I must insist, please keep this Google thing just between you and me. I'm afraid that if many more people hear about it it would become overloaded and not be there anymore.

It doesn't? Every time I try to watch a game it feels like it does: Kick the sand, scratch balls, swing bat in practice three times, step out of the box, adjust the elbow protector and step back in the box. Exciting as this sounds it gets a bit boring after the batter does for the fifth time without a single pitch being thrown.

DON'T. I repeat DO NOT eat raw potatoes. and I quote:

Raw potatoes contain alkaloids. You can have diarrhea, cramps and vomiting. Whereas green potatoes with lots of solanine can cause hallucinations and heart rhythm problems. And if you eat a lot of raw green potatoes, it could kill you.

Silicon valley was built 60 years ago. What was true then is not necessarily true today, despite what the article claims.

Tell you what, try to get a job as a developer in Google and Microsoft without a CS degree or 10 years experience and then get back to me.

I've worked with six software companies over my career and in all of them the vast majority of programmers have a CS degree. Mind you this is advanced software development. I do not doubt that people out there developing web sites never got a CS degree.

We'll give you a grand if you stop posting this --Roscosmos management

You must be one of those idiots who moans and groans when GDP grows by 3% which is such a small percentage of total and "only" 1% over the historical average.

Of course someone who understands math knows that 3% GDP growth is 50% better than historical 2% GDP growth.

Same withe electricity. We are not about to go around ripping out perfectly functional generating plants be them gas, oil, carbon or nuclear. All we can do is change installs.

For those renewables are kicking butt. Over the next fifty years as old plants are decommissioned we will wake up one day to a world where >50% of generated electricity is non-fossil fuel based.

The figures in that article seem to be all wrong. It looks like all numbers should have been Renminbi and somehow got a dollar sign in front of them instead. Current average manufacturing hourly wage in China is around 4 CNY per hour, which is a far cry from the predicted $6 an hour from the CSMonitor article.