# Climate Change Wars: Water - Egypt and Ethiopia **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 9, 2020, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/climate-change-wars-water-egypt-and-ethiopia/847685 "2020-02-09T20:11:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2023, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/climate-change-wars-water-egypt-and-ethiopia/847685/61 "2023-09-14T12:56:16Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > if anything like that has a chance to actually succeed, humans will have to exhibit a level of discipline, behavior, and global cooperation far above anything they have ever attained before. That’s a little ridiculous don’t you think? Imagine that you went back in time and found a hunter gatherer tribe living in a small secluded valley, whose game population is high enough to support a small band of hunters in a relatively sedentary lifestyle. Even without technology, these people are not dumb - they understand the land and what sort of population it can support. So when you tell their leader that in 10,000 years, the forests of the valley will be stripped away, but rather meaning starvation for the tribe this will mean that ten thousand people can live in the valley where only a few hundred live now - of course, they will think you mad. How is that possible? That’s not how the world works! The hunter gatherers may point out that in order to accomplish this “humans will have to exhibit a level of discipline, behavior, and global cooperation far above anything they have ever attained before”, and they’d even be write - yet, that turned out to be no problem. > [@Jasmine](#): > > I’m not familiar with Malthus or his exact theory, so I can’t speak to that one way or the other > **[Malthusianism](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malthusianism)** > > Malthusianism is the theory that population growth is potentially exponential, according to the Malthusian growth model, while the growth of the food supply or other resources is linear, which eventually reduces living standards to the point of triggering a population decline. This event, called a Malthusian catastrophe (also known as a Malthusian trap, population trap, Malthusian check, Malthusian crisis, Malthusian spectre, or Malthusian crunch) occurs when population growth outpaces agricul Th... Malthus believed that yhe population was growing out of control, that attempts to aid suffering caused by overpopulation (such as starvation) would only make things worse (by temporarily alleviating the starvation, allowing more kids to be born, who would then eat all the food and starve). Of course, it’s understandable why Malthus was concerned. After all, world population in his day had grown to the staggering, unmanageable, unimaginable size of - err, 1 billion. Turns out Malthus was full of shit. Quick aside - based on the way things were taught when I was in high school, I’d always assumed that Jonathan Swift’s essay _A Modest Proposal_. The two concepts were always presented together, with Malthus first and Swift presented as a rebuttal. However, it turns out that Swift’s essay predates Malthus’ birth by decades! Learn something new every day… ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2023, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/climate-change-wars-water-egypt-and-ethiopia/847685/62 "2023-09-14T13:48:57Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > That’s a little ridiculous don’t you think? Yes, I do, which is why I think a global catastrophe is inevitable. I make the “over/under” 2100. That’s 75 years. I may be overly optimistic. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2023, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/climate-change-wars-water-egypt-and-ethiopia/847685/63 "2023-09-14T14:01:56Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > Yes, I do, which is why I think a global catastrophe is inevitable. I make the “over/under” 2100. That’s 75 years. I may be overly optimistic If you want to base your worldview on the latest economic models from 1798, I can’t stop you; I’m just informing you that serious economists have long moved on. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2023, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/climate-change-wars-water-egypt-and-ethiopia/847685/64 "2023-09-14T15:20:01Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > If you want to base your worldview on the latest economic models from 1798, I can’t stop you Thank you! ❤ 👼 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/climate-change-wars-water-egypt-and-ethiopia/847685.md?page=3)