Cornucopianism

Cornucopianism is the idea that continued supply of the material needs of humankind can be achieved through continued advances in technology. It contends that there is enough matter and energy available for practically unlimited growth.

The term comes from the cornucopia, the "horn of plenty" of Greek mythology, which magically supplied its owners with endless food and drink. Adherents are called "cornucopians" or sometimes "boomsters," in contrast to doomsters, whose views are more aligned with Malthusianism."^[1]

Theory

"When civilization [population] increases, the available labor again increases. In turn, luxury again increases in correspondence with the increasing profit, and the customs and needs of luxury increase. Crafts are created to obtain luxury products. The value realized from them increases, and, as a result, profits are again multiplied in them. Production there is thriving even more than before. And so it goes with the second and third increase. All the additional labor serves luxury and wealth, in contrast to the original labor that served the necessity of life." — Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406), from Muqaddimah^[2]

As a society becomes more wealthy, it also creates a well-developed set of legal rules to produce the conditions of freedom and security that progress requires.^{[citation needed]}

In Progress and Poverty written in 1879, after describing the powerful reproductive forces of nature, the political economist Henry George wrote, "That the earth could maintain a thousand billions of people as easily as a thousand millions is a necessary deduction from the manifest truths that, at least so far as our agency is concerned, matter is eternal and force must forever continue to act."^[3]

Julian Simon was one of the best known cornucopian thinkers in modern times who suggested in his book, The Ultimate Resource, published in 1981, that humans have always found a way in the past to develop and enhance past resources over virtually any roadblock. He suggested that while resources may come and go, the knowledge that can come from a bigger population, and thus more manpower/intellect, humanity would continuously be able to find newer sources of energy. Simon did argue however that in order for humans to seek innovation and new sources of energy, free markets must be present to place value on sources of energy through their price to produce and use. Once the price of a certain resource become too high due to lack of supply, it would encourage new research into alternative sources to seek cheaper energy. ^[4]

Description by an opposing view

Stereotypically, 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 label "cornucopian" is rarely self-applied, and is most commonly used derogatorily by those who view this perspective as overly optimistic about the resources that will be available in the future.^{[citation needed]}

One common example of this labeling is by those who are skeptical of the view that technology can solve, or overcome, the problem of an exponentially-increasing human population^[5] living off a finite base of natural resources. Cornucopians might counter that human population growth has slowed dramatically, and not only is currently growing at a linear rate,^[6] but is projected to peak and start declining in the second half of the 21st century.^[7] However, more recent projections have the global population rising to 11 billion by 2100 with continued growth into the next century.^[8]

Criticism

Lindsey Grant accuses cornucopians, especially Julian Simon and Herman Kahn, of making arguments with logical flaws, omissions and oversights and of making assumptions and choosing methodologies that ignore or dismiss the most critical issues.^[9] Historian of science Naomi Oreskes criticized cornucopianism, arguing that while there were technological innovations to increase agricultural productivity for a growing world, "the cornucopian perspective ignores other important facts", such as that "an enormous number of these inventions" such as gains in health and life expectancy, "came into being through government actions", and arguing that "technological progress has not stopped the unfolding climate crisis."^[10]

References

^ Tierney, John (December 2, 1990). "Betting on the Planet". The New York Times.
^ Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, 2:272-73, quoted in Weiss, Dieter (1995). "Ibn Khaldun on Economic Transformation". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 27 (1): 29–37. doi:10.1017/S0020743800061560. JSTOR 176185. [30].
^ George, Henry (1898). Progress and Poverty, Volumes I and IIAn Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth.^{[page needed]}
^ Moseley, William (2014). An Introduction to Human-Environment Geography: local dynamics and global process. Blackwell Publishing. pp. 240–241. ISBN 978-1-4051-8931-6.
^ "Population Growth over Human History". University of Michigan. Archived from the original on July 24, 2011.
^ "International Data Base (IDB): Total Midyear Population for the World: 1950–2050". U.S. Census Bureau. Archived from the original on October 17, 2007.
^ World population to 2300 United Nations; Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2004
^ Gerland, Patrick; Raftery, Adrian E.; Ševčíková, Hana; Li, Nan; Gu, Danan; Spoorenberg, Thomas; Alkema, Leontine; Fosdick, Bailey K.; Chunn, Jennifer; Lalic, Nevena; Bay, Guiomar; Buettner, Thomas; Heilig, Gerhard K.; Wilmoth, John (October 10, 2014). "World population stabilization unlikely this century". Science. 346 (6206): 234–237. Bibcode:2014Sci...346..234G. doi:10.1126/science.1257469. PMC 4230924. PMID 25301627.
^ The Cornucopian Fallacies. TEF Reports. by Lindsey Grant
^ Oreskes, Naomi (March 1, 2023). "Eight Billion People in the World Is a Crisis, Not an Achievement". Scientific American. Springer Nature. Retrieved April 3, 2023. This argument is a retread of a theoretical framework that was named cornucopianism in the 1980s. Cornucopians, led by economist Julian Simon and military strategist Herman Kahn, argued that anxiety over limited natural resources is misguided because human ingenuity can overcome any limits. Let populations grow alongside markets operating under minimal government constraints, and people will invent solutions to whatever problems they face. It's true that technological innovations in the 19th and 20th centuries created more agricultural productivity—enough to feed much of a growing population. But the cornucopian perspective ignores other important facts. For instance, an enormous number of these inventions came into being through government actions. From the canals and railroads of the 19th century to the interstate highways and Internet of the 20th, most large-scale technological achievements have relied, at least in part, on government initiatives and support. Big gains in health and life expectancy stemmed from state investments in scientific research and public health. In the early 21st century the price of renewable solar energy fell dramatically, largely because of state-funded research and policies to help ensure demand. And although much of our population grew healthily in the 20th century, hundreds of millions died in famines, pandemics and wars. Scientists have been warning us about the risks of anthropogenic climate disruption since the 1950s, but technological progress has not stopped the unfolding climate crisis.

Cornucopianism

Theory

Description by an opposing view

Criticism

See also

References

Further reading