Adaptive Management: the Sea Serpent, Organized Growth and Natural Harmony
In August 1817, the learned men of the Linnaean Society of New England had studied their Bestiaries, ancient, illustrated volumes of all the animals. They set out from Boston for Gloucester’s high rocky shore to survey the seascape. There, they found what they were looking for. The sea serpent was a “60 to 100-foot long, black, shiny, leathery, scaly, reptilian beast with humps, large eyes, and sharp teeth.” Had they heard the local fishermen, the scientists would have dismissed claims that their sea serpent was a school of bluefin tuna.
In 1798, the English economist, cleric, and scholar Thomas Robert Malthus published anonymously that increased food production would improve the population’s well-being. However, with abundance, population growth would be geometric, while the means of subsistence increase would be arithmetic. The standard of living would go down, and people would suffer “the Malthusian trap.” Malthusians believe
In 1972, the authors of the publication Limits to Growth used computer modeling to predict what would happen with exponential economic and population growth. Funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, they presented three scenarios. Two of the scenarios saw population “overshoot” and societal collapse. A third scenario resulted in a “stabilized world.”
