And some people still cling to the myth of the 'Population Explosion'

[bripat9643]

It is not and has never been a "crisis." Human innovation has more than kept pace with what is needed to feed the population (why some people in certain parts of the world are starving despite this has to do with politics, planning, and human nature). Innovation suffers when populations decline. Read the link.

We may not be starving, but we are driving many other species to extinction. I don't want to live in a world where we are the only large animals.

Don't worry, you won't. Some animal species will, however, become extinct as has always been the case for as long as there have been animal species on this planet.

They never went extinct at the rate they have been going extinct for the last 100 years. If it continues, there won't be any animals larger than a rat in another 100 years.

 

[The Rabbi]

It is a crisis. Only science has kept us from starving. .......

It is not and has never been a "crisis." Human innovation has more than kept pace with what is needed to feed the population (why some people in certain parts of the world are starving despite this has to do with politics, planning, and human nature). Innovation suffers when populations decline. Read the link.

our planet can only support a finite number of humans, obviously we have not reached that number yet, but someday we will.

fewer people on earth means fewer problems and a better life for everyone.

Actually the opposite of all those statements is the truth.
The planet can support virtually an unlimited number. Obviously there is some max number out there and we are nowhere near that. Since population has peaked and is declining in many areas we will never reach that number.
Fewer people creates its own problems. Ask the Japanese, who have an aging declining population.

 

[bripat9643]

What China has "figured out" is that they will soon be staring down the barrel of the same problems all countries with declining fertility rates do. The unintended consequences of the One-Child Policy may end up being as serious (if not as directly inhumane) as the enforcement of that policy has been.

China's population: The most surprising demographic crisis | The Economist

South America doesn't have to "figure it out."

Fertility rates plunging across Latin America - The Washington Post

Chine would have to lose 3/4 of its population before it suffered any "serious consequences."

You're not thinking about it carefully. Read the link.

China's problems stem from the "one child" policy, not from a reduction in the birth rate.

 

[Unkotare]

We may not be starving, but we are driving many other species to extinction. I don't want to live in a world where we are the only large animals.

Don't worry, you won't. Some animal species will, however, become extinct as has always been the case for as long as there have been animal species on this planet.

They never went extinct at the rate they have been going extinct for the last 100 years. If it continues, there won't be any animals larger than a rat in another 100 years.

They've gone extinct much faster at many times in history. Usually when something pretty devastating has happened, though.

 

[Unkotare]

Chine would have to lose 3/4 of its population before it suffered any "serious consequences."

You're not thinking about it carefully. Read the link.

China's problems stem from the "one child" policy, not from a reduction in the birth rate.

Read the link. It won't bite ya.

 

[Pete7469]

We may not be starving, but we are driving many other species to extinction. I don't want to live in a world where we are the only large animals.

Don't worry, you won't. Some animal species will, however, become extinct as has always been the case for as long as there have been animal species on this planet.

They never went extinct at the rate they have been going extinct for the last 100 years. If it continues, there won't be any animals larger than a rat in another 100 years.

I don't think that's true.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSY1HbpzTjM]Penn & Teller Bullshit - Endangered Species Part 1 - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Toro]

Technology creates wealth and abundance.

The only limitations on population are the limitations of the human mind.

 

[bripat9643]

Don't worry, you won't. Some animal species will, however, become extinct as has always been the case for as long as there have been animal species on this planet.

They never went extinct at the rate they have been going extinct for the last 100 years. If it continues, there won't be any animals larger than a rat in another 100 years.

They've gone extinct much faster at many times in history. Usually when something pretty devastating has happened, though.

Yeah, disastrous like the existence of mankind. Do you want to wait 20 million years for the biosphere to recover? I certainly don't.

 

[bripat9643]

Don't worry, you won't. Some animal species will, however, become extinct as has always been the case for as long as there have been animal species on this planet.

They never went extinct at the rate they have been going extinct for the last 100 years. If it continues, there won't be any animals larger than a rat in another 100 years.

I don't think that's true.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSY1HbpzTjM]Penn & Teller Bullshit - Endangered Species Part 1 - YouTube[/ame]

Yes it is.

 

[Survivalist]

The problem with large populations occur when there are not enough resources nearby to sustain them.

The one the biggest problems is the water stortage in US SW and West. The Colorado is reduced to a tricke by the time it leaves for Mexico. Lake Meade's water level continues to go down. Many other places in the world experience similar shotages.

Large cities are artifical enviornments. Any big disater that disrupts the supply chain can create the potential for mass die-offs. "Peak Oil" has already come and gone---production of crude oil is only going down. Just to make one tire on a car takes 8 gallons of oil.

The Third World will likely be hit the hardest when the next super-bug epidemic hits. Even if only 1 person in a hundred were to die of an Influenza outbreak in civilized areas (like in 1918), the entire grid would likely fail as most of the people required to keep society running would stay home.

There are enough other potiential mega-disasters to create mass deaths, and those don't even include the silly ones involving aliens and zombies.

Just an eventuality of time.

 

[nodoginnafight]

Just about all the problems we face are the result of over population.
A dirtier world, with fewer food choices, increased violence, larger animals disappearing,

yeah ... we're doing just fine.

 

[The Rabbi]

. "Peak Oil" has already come and gone---production of crude oil is only going down. Just to make one tire on a car takes 8 gallons of oil.

Another myth destroyed by reality.

 

[The Rabbi]

Just about all the problems we face are the result of over population.
A dirtier world, with fewer food choices, increased violence, larger animals disappearing,

yeah ... we're doing just fine.

Obesity is due to over population? Al qaeda terrorism is due to over population? Islamic radicalism is due to over population?
Where do they teach this crap?

 

[koshergrl]

As always, the fascist progressives are promoting elimination of populations that are already being targeted...those who are starving and diseased...they need to have fewer babies!

It's crazy. As is the hand-wringing over imaginary planetary distress and the fantasy of accelerated extinction of various and assorted animals.

 

[koshergrl]

Just about all the problems we face are the result of over population.
A dirtier world, with fewer food choices, increased violence, larger animals disappearing,

yeah ... we're doing just fine.

Obesity is due to over population? Al qaeda terrorism is due to over population? Islamic radicalism is due to over population?
Where do they teach this crap?

Yes, the latest pro-foodstamp, government-food-control meme is that starvation makes you obese. That's why so many foodstamp recipients are obese. It isn't that they're lazy pigs who don't work and get more money in Foodstamps than they need...it's because hunger makes you fat! They need MORE foodstamps, not less! They need to eat more in order to slim down!

It makes as much sense as saying abortion will *help* populations that are being wiped out via old fashioned genocide.

Uh..yeah. That's why Hitler encouraged abortion among the Jews & Poland. To help them...*recover* their numbers. To make them...*healthier*.

 

[Unkotare]

They never went extinct at the rate they have been going extinct for the last 100 years. If it continues, there won't be any animals larger than a rat in another 100 years.

They've gone extinct much faster at many times in history. Usually when something pretty devastating has happened, though.

Yeah, disastrous like the existence of mankind.

Are you the president of your own misanthropic institute? Tell you what, if you hate us humans so much you feel free to leave. But we're keeping the house.

 

[g5000]

For - what - 40 years or so now some people have been predicting doom and gloom over an "overcrowded world." Not only has it never been a real 'crisis,' the future holds challenges in exactly the opposite direction. Some of these challenges are presenting themselves before us now, and we would be wise to start thinking hard about the ones to come.

America's Baby Bust - WSJ.com

Developed nations always see a decline in birth rate. People get fat, dumb, and happy and don't want kids draining their incomes away. When faced with a choice between no kids (maybe one), a BMW and dining out at nice restaurants; or three kids, a Honda Civic and McDonald's; they go with the former.


Developing nations have sky high birth rates. Have you noticed the world population has passed the 7 billion mark? So it is laughable to hear someone say "the future holds challenges in the opposite direction".

Anyone who regularly trades in commodities (cough) can tell you the effect a rising world population is having on raw materials.

As nations prosper, their per capita use of resources rise. It's always a competition between maximizing efficiency and rising demand.

 

[Unkotare]

The problem with large populations occur when there are not enough resources nearby to sustain them.

The one the biggest problems is the water stortage in US SW and West. The Colorado is reduced to a tricke by the time it leaves for Mexico. Lake Meade's water level continues to go down. Many other places in the world experience similar shotages.

Large cities are artifical enviornments. Any big disater that disrupts the supply chain can create the potential for mass die-offs. "Peak Oil" has already come and gone---production of crude oil is only going down. Just to make one tire on a car takes 8 gallons of oil.

The Third World will likely be hit the hardest when the next super-bug epidemic hits. Even if only 1 person in a hundred were to die of an Influenza outbreak in civilized areas (like in 1918), the entire grid would likely fail as most of the people required to keep society running would stay home.

There are enough other potiential mega-disasters to create mass deaths, and those don't even include the silly ones involving aliens and zombies.

Just an eventuality of time.

A lot of cities were built in places where, in hindsight, they shouldn't have been. But, improved water management is certainly possible. Medical science (and related logistics) has advanced to the point where - hopefully - something like the mortality rate of the 1918 Influenza pandemic is unlikely. With innovation, ingenuity, and a little luck we can keep ourselves together. The point is that 'overpopulation' is a myth and always has been. We need to start considering the real challenges that lie ahead for future generations.

 

[Unkotare]

Just about all the problems we face are the result of over population...

There is no "overpopulation." The problems attributed to it are the same ones that existed when the global human population was less than 500 million.

 

[Unkotare]

For - what - 40 years or so now some people have been predicting doom and gloom over an "overcrowded world." Not only has it never been a real 'crisis,' the future holds challenges in exactly the opposite direction. Some of these challenges are presenting themselves before us now, and we would be wise to start thinking hard about the ones to come.

America's Baby Bust - WSJ.com

Developed nations always see a decline in birth rate. People get fat, dumb, and happy and don't want kids draining their incomes away. When faced with a choice between no kids (maybe one), a BMW and dining out at nice restaurants; or three kids, a Honda Civic and McDonald's; they go with the former.


Developing nations have sky high birth rates. Have you noticed the world population has passed the 7 billion mark? So it is laughable to hear someone say "the future holds challenges in the opposite direction".

Anyone who regularly trades in commodities (cough) can tell you the effect a rising world population is having on raw materials.

As nations prosper, their per capita use of resources rise. It's always a competition between maximizing efficiency and rising demand.

"Fat, dumb, and happy"? No. Fertility rates fall hardest as people become wealthier, more educated, and freer. You haven't read any of the many links I've posted on this thread, have you?