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s240779

Registered: 12/07/10
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Overpopulation
#19173780 - 11/22/13 06:25 AM (10 years, 3 months ago) |
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Do you think it's ever going to get to the point where hoards of people are without food and shelter and literally begin to drop like flies?
edit By "shelter" I really mean simply being able to keep warm at night.
Edited by s240779 (11/22/13 06:38 AM)
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KremrBigSikter
Spränger Språnger




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Re: Overpopulation [Re: s240779] 2
#19173792 - 11/22/13 06:31 AM (10 years, 3 months ago) |
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Inevitably. Depending on your definition of hordes, it's happened.
-------------------- I have pneumonia
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Patlal
You ask too many questions



Registered: 10/09/10
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Nope, it has been predicted that the population of earth will be steady at 10 billion people, for there growth will be very slow.
The reason is, almost every country (a good 90%+) has an average of 2 kids per family, which is just enough to replace the parents. Even the countries where family have 5 or 6 kids have seen a reduction in kids per family. In 50 years (if the trend continues), they should be around the same 2 kids per family average.
There's a TED video about it, but I forgot both the title and the name of the guy. It was a very well explained and interesting video.
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KremrBigSikter
Spränger Språnger




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Re: Overpopulation [Re: Patlal]
#19173821 - 11/22/13 06:49 AM (10 years, 3 months ago) |
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Just because the human population won't increase into infinity doesn't mean there won't be a shortage of food and homes.
-------------------- I have pneumonia
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NotTheDevil
Transhuman


Registered: 01/08/13
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Quote:
KremrBigSikter said: Just because the human population won't increase into infinity doesn't mean there won't be a shortage of food and homes.
We have no shortage of food, only a lack of proper distribution infrastructure.
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Patlal
You ask too many questions



Registered: 10/09/10
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Quote:
KremrBigSikter said: Just because the human population won't increase into infinity doesn't mean there won't be a shortage of food and homes.
You could fit the entire population of earth in Canada and people woundn't be all that crowded. Food production is just a matter of how much food you want. We have fertilizers and plenty of land and earth. Food is not going to be a problem.
As for homes, not a problem either. You need resources, that's all. We are so far away from depleting the earth's resource that thinking that we are going to run out of them is ridiculous. The earth's mantle is 2800km thick and the deepest man made hole is 12 km... We have a whole lot of digging left to do
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badchad
Mad Scientist

Registered: 03/02/05
Posts: 13,373
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Quote:
NotTheDevil said:
We have no shortage of food, only a lack of proper distribution infrastructure.
I tend to agree with this. It seems that if/when food runs low, the price will increase. As that happens more people will get involved in the "Food production" business.
Also, as Patal posted, the population of industrialized countries is growing slowly. In fact, there was a recent TIME article about how the number of adults in the U.S. going "childless" was nearing an all-time high.
-------------------- ...the whole experience is (and is as) a profound piece of knowledge. It is an indellible experience; it is forever known. I have known myself in a way I doubt I would have ever occurred except as it did. Smith, P. Bull. Menninger Clinic (1959) 23:20-27; p. 27. ...most subjects find the experience valuable, some find it frightening, and many say that is it uniquely lovely. Osmond, H. Annals, NY Acad Science (1957) 66:418-434; p.436
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NotTheDevil
Transhuman


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Re: Overpopulation [Re: Patlal]
#19173849 - 11/22/13 07:06 AM (10 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Patlal said:
Quote:
KremrBigSikter said: Just because the human population won't increase into infinity doesn't mean there won't be a shortage of food and homes.
You could fit the entire population of earth in Canada and people woundn't be all that crowded. Food production is just a matter of how much food you want. We have fertilizers and plenty of land and earth. Food is not going to be a problem.
As for homes, not a problem either. You need resources, that's all. We are so far away from depleting the earth's resource that thinking that we are going to run out of them is ridiculous. The earth's mantle is 2800km thick and the deepest man made hole is 12 km... We have a whole lot of digging left to do
Plus you know, like mars. We can possibly be on mars by the end of the century.
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Sleepwalker
Overshoes

Registered: 05/07/08
Posts: 5,503
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Quote:
NotTheDevil said:
Quote:
KremrBigSikter said: Just because the human population won't increase into infinity doesn't mean there won't be a shortage of food and homes.
We have no shortage of food, only a lack of proper distribution infrastructure.
Hordes of people without shelter or food...this is already happening on our planet....
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Moonshoe
Blue Mantis


Registered: 05/28/04
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Re: Overpopulation [Re: s240779] 3
#19173873 - 11/22/13 07:16 AM (10 years, 3 months ago) |
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If the rate of human population growth is not rapidly reduced and eventually reduced (so that we have less people each year rather than more) than we are all collectively doomed.
Imagine taking a fish tank of finite size and dropping one more fish in a day. At a certain point the fish will be crammed side by side, suffocating each other, and all the fish will die.
Technology can stall this for a certain amount of time by coming up with ever more sophisticated methods of food production etc, but inevitably it will reach a tipping point that will be disastrous.
The population has risen from 3 billion to 7 billion in 1-2 generation (aprox). It is estimated to rise to 9 billion by 2050.
This is one of the biggest and most pressing problems facing us.
We need to use policies such as family planning, education, free condoms, free safe and available abortions, tubal ligations, vasectomies, and child limitation policies to address this issue.
The only way infinite population growth can be sustained is if we become an interplanetary and interstellar species.
So thinkum chief big smokum.
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Everything I post is fiction.
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KremrBigSikter
Spränger Språnger




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Re: Overpopulation [Re: Patlal]
#19173897 - 11/22/13 07:26 AM (10 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Patlal said:
Quote:
KremrBigSikter said: Just because the human population won't increase into infinity doesn't mean there won't be a shortage of food and homes.
You could fit the entire population of earth in Canada and people woundn't be all that crowded. Food production is just a matter of how much food you want. We have fertilizers and plenty of land and earth. Food is not going to be a problem.
Crowding obviously isn't the problem, it's the added footprints of our consumption. Synthetic fertilizers aren't sustainable, we can farm the oceans for algae and eat that though, that'll give us a bit more food to play with. Desertification and the lack of freshwater for irrigation are serious problems today, never mind twenty years from now with a billion more people on the planet.
Quote:
Moonshoe said: We need to use policies such as family planning, education, free condoms, free safe and available abortions, tubal ligations, vasectomies, and child limitation policies to address this issue.
-------------------- I have pneumonia
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NotTheDevil
Transhuman


Registered: 01/08/13
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Quote:
KremrBigSikter said:
Quote:
Patlal said:
Quote:
KremrBigSikter said: Just because the human population won't increase into infinity doesn't mean there won't be a shortage of food and homes.
You could fit the entire population of earth in Canada and people woundn't be all that crowded. Food production is just a matter of how much food you want. We have fertilizers and plenty of land and earth. Food is not going to be a problem.
Crowding obviously isn't the problem, it's the added footprints of our consumption. Synthetic fertilizers aren't sustainable, we can farm the oceans for algae and eat that though, that'll give us a bit more food to play with. Desertification and the lack of freshwater for irrigation are serious problems today, never mind twenty years from now with a billion more people on the planet.
Quote:
Moonshoe said: We need to use policies such as family planning, education, free condoms, free safe and available abortions, tubal ligations, vasectomies, and child limitation policies to address this issue.

Nitrogen fertilizer can be synthesized using only energy and air.
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akira_akuma
Φύσις κρύπτεσθαι ὕψιστος φιλεῖ


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not a problem. i'm sure none of you here will be taking on the capacity for solving any of the world's shortages of anything; but it won't of a major concern to anyone here (i mean, by lieu of actually having to deal with any of the proposed problems here) for a long while.
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KremrBigSikter
Spränger Språnger




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Quote:
akira_akuma said: not a problem. i'm sure none of you here will be taking on the capacity for solving any of the world's shortages of anything; but it won't of a major concern to anyone here (i mean, by lieu of actually having to deal with any of the proposed problems here) for a long while.
Well no, it probably won't be a concern for anyone here, because most members here are middle class people from industrialized countries and so will probably at most have to deal with nuisances like increased food prices and an influx of immigrants from places that do have to deal with it.
-------------------- I have pneumonia
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akira_akuma
Φύσις κρύπτεσθαι ὕψιστος φιλεῖ


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also, i said, no one here will probably do anything about any of said problems anyways... even if they went to go live in Africa. they'd still be just hanging out... playing Nintendo.
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schwarg



Registered: 07/15/12
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Re: Overpopulation [Re: Patlal] 1
#19173963 - 11/22/13 08:03 AM (10 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Patlal said:
Quote:
KremrBigSikter said: Just because the human population won't increase into infinity doesn't mean there won't be a shortage of food and homes.
You could fit the entire population of earth in Canada and people woundn't be all that crowded. Food production is just a matter of how much food you want. We have fertilizers and plenty of land and earth. Food is not going to be a problem.
As for homes, not a problem either. You need resources, that's all. We are so far away from depleting the earth's resource that thinking that we are going to run out of them is ridiculous. The earth's mantle is 2800km thick and the deepest man made hole is 12 km... We have a whole lot of digging left to do
You can't just put fertilizer in the dirt and expect endless harvests. All the best farmland in the world has had highly nutrient rich soil before farming started. Fertilizers are more like a supplement for the soil. Fact of the matter is, in the current drought, most of our current farmland is in the shitter and in the coming years we'll have trouble supporting our population as is, unless we get some serious weather changes.
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KremrBigSikter
Spränger Språnger




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Quote:
akira_akuma said: also, i said, no one here will probably do anything about any of said problems anyways... even if they went to go live in Africa. they'd still be just hanging out... playing Nintendo.
Well I haven't produced any new humans. What have you done?
-------------------- I have pneumonia
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akira_akuma
Φύσις κρύπτεσθαι ὕψιστος φιλεῖ


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acknowledged that i am not going to sacrifice my livelihood for the notion of a better planet. that i must work indefinitely to help "save" the human race from it's eventual extinction; to be a productive member of society... is just wrong. plus, i keep my little planet killer in my pants for the most part. i don't wanna contribute to global warming either! (plus, i can't seem to laid anyways.)
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KremrBigSikter
Spränger Språnger




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Quote:
Problems don't exist because I don't wanna bother
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Moonshoe
Blue Mantis


Registered: 05/28/04
Posts: 27,202
Loc: Iceland
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The single most important positive environmental choice a person can make is to not have any children. To choose not to have children is to make a real sacrifice for the greater good and the planet earth.
Conversely, deciding to have children is the single most ecological harmful choice that most people will ever make.
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Everything I post is fiction.
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