From Plato I get the idea that S0crates listened to kooks cause sometimes it was they who thot far enough out of the box to have a right new idea, even if embedded in nonsense. So, I read a lotta postings from those regarded as kooks, and it seems like there has been increasing numbers of them.
Some of it is quite alarming, perhaps nobody more so than Comptroller of the US, David M. Walker, who I saw give a presentation to a national meeting of CPAs. He, and they, know the government numbers do not add up, but figuring out just what they do add up to, is a damn moot point.
When we look at his hard nosed financial analysis now, much less extended out to the looming retirement of the boomers, and look at the propect of coming down off Hubbard's Peak Oil, and reports that it takes 10 calories of oil to produce 1 calorie of food, it dont look sustainable, and simple survival may be in doubt.
http://www.dc-pc.org/farmath/farmath.html gives us some idea of agricultural production in 1885, back when it was done sustainably with draft animals rather than petrochemicals. Even factoring in the Green Revolution with newer hybrids, and wise leadership facilitating a transition away from agribusiness, I'd expect total global food production to fall by half.
Its a complicated analysis based on the ambiguities of what global warming will do. We already see drought in Australia and floods in South America, apparently due to El Nino, which is attributed to climate change. *IF* we have wise leadership, I can see the opening up of farmland in Siberia, Alaska, and Canada meeting the need, but I dont see that leadership coming.
Do you?