Trivia / Make Room! Make Room!

• Science Marches On: A mitigating factor in the dire predictions about a post-oil world with a population of 7 billion is that many prominent scientists of the time were making the same predictions at the time, just as they do today for a world of 14 billion.
• Technology Marches On: A major part of why the world today doesn't look like the world of the book:
  • Advances like more productive and heartier strains of major crops like rice, soy, and wheat and industrial farming and ranching have allowed humanity to produce more food at less cost using previously unproductive land. Meanwhile the increasing prevalence of sustainable agricultural practices and more efficient industrial production^note Whether led by Honest Corporate Executives or Pragmatic Villains, at the end of the day, an environmentalist's toxic waste is still any company's "stuff that we could be turning into more money or selling to somebody else". And there's also the good publicity that comes with going green... have helped slow or even reverse ecosystem damage in many parts of the world.
  • The other dire warning, the ever looming specter of "peak oil", is continually being pushed farther back by advancing oil drilling methods. While fracking remains something of a Dangerous Forbidden Technique, it has allowed massive, previously inaccessible deposits to be extracted, and improving safety practices and regulation have helped reduce its drawbacks. Research into things like biodiesel and renewable power may even someday allow us to shift away from oil-based fuels entirely, and in the meantime more efficient engine and body designs have made even huge SUV's more efficient than the gas-guzzling land-boats of yesteryear.

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