Exponential population growth and other unkillable science myths

[anon50609448]

@julian_bond1

If it’s not an exponential curve, then what is it? Perhaps part of the cognitive problem here is that population growth is often quoted as a percentage of the current total (see Population growth - Wikipedia) which is inherently exponential. But the description is then that the exponential growth rate is dropping. This is what you would get if the growth rate was actually linear.

Yes, that’s not exponential. “Exponential growth” has a particular meaning. Expressing linear growth or some other kind of growth as a percentage doesn’t make it exponential. That’s just a plain misuse of the term. Even if we leave out rigour and just talk colloquially, I don’t see how the term “exponential growth” can be defended unless something is at least growing at an ever increasing rate. You may feel we already have a population problem, but that doesn’t make “exponential” anything but a myth.