Population Problem (2 Viewers)

[Ian]

According to all rational thought on the matter, humans have vastly overpopulated the planet. There are somewhere between six and seven billion people on the planet today. This population is sustained (omitting the 45,000 people who starved to death in the last 24 hours), by the use of fossil fuels and clear cutting forests, to provide additional productivity and acerage for food. Living on renewable, local resources; the earth can support approximately one billion humans.

In this explosion of growth, which has occured from 1800 onwards, humanity has turned millions of acres of land into dessert (through clear cutting forests and the resultant alteration of the water cycle), destabilized the atmosphere (global warming, ozone holes), and perpetrated a mass extinction not equalled since the demise of the dinosaurs.

To add to the problem, we're running out of oil, and even if another energy source is found, it will only exaccerbate the problem. By using our energy to produce more food (and more people), we're threatening the ecological balance of the world, by poisoning our water, soil, and air.

Any thoughts?

 

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[Lawnchair Bes]

canibalism

 

[Ian]

canibalism

Actually, canibalism has its' places (mostly remote pacific islands), but eating that much human flesh would be poisonous...

 

[Lawnchair Bes]

plus are we due for a pandemic.

 

[Ian]

plus are we due for a pandemic.

Ahh, too true. I didn't mention that our use of pesticides has drastically increased our crop loses due to insects. This is a result of a grave miscalculation. While pesticides, and insecticides kill a lot of bugs, the ones who survive and are resistant multiply and the whole population become resitant in less than one hundred generations. For insects, this happens in a matter of years.

Similarly, our use of anti-biotics has bread a race of supergerms that are resistant to all known medicine.

However, the point of the thread was to discuss reasonable and humane measures of population control; not extreme, violent, or generally painful ones.

 

[Lawnchair Bes]

lets just stop having kids. poeple from western europe and North america can adopt kids from poorer countries if they want one

 

[Gianluigi]

Global warming is a big issue. It can be tackled by using less cars and using cars with different fuels. Right? But who wants to drive boring hybrid cars and driving diesels wont make a big difference to stop global warming.

 

[Tourinorum]

Move to Mars.

 

[Hambon]

India and china need to be wrapped up in One big ass Condom....

 

[Tourinorum]

Genocide.

 

[Zé Tahir]

dammit :

"You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to hambon again."

sorry boner

 

[Hambon]

You know that was funny....no offence to the Chinese and Indains though....

I got you just for being on the same wavelength.....+ rep!

 

[Enron]

According to all rational thought on the matter, humans have vastly overpopulated the planet. There are somewhere between six and seven billion people on the planet today. This population is sustained (omitting the 45,000 people who starved to death in the last 24 hours), by the use of fossil fuels and clear cutting forests, to provide additional productivity and acerage for food. Living on renewable, local resources; the earth can support approximately one billion humans.

In this explosion of growth, which has occured from 1800 onwards, humanity has turned millions of acres of land into dessert (through clear cutting forests and the resultant alteration of the water cycle), destabilized the atmosphere (global warming, ozone holes), and perpetrated a mass extinction not equalled since the demise of the dinosaurs.

To add to the problem, we're running out of oil, and even if another energy source is found, it will only exaccerbate the problem. By using our energy to produce more food (and more people), we're threatening the ecological balance of the world, by poisoning our water, soil, and air.

Any thoughts?

Here are a couple.
Quit using our crops to feed animals. Grow food in non traditional fashion such as monocropping and crop rotation. Throw a shit load of funding into sustainable engergy research such as geothermal and solar energy.

Thats my major Environmentals Studies with a Concentration in Resource Management mainly Sustainable Agriculture.

 

[Zé Tahir]

You know that was funny....no offence to the Chinese and Indains though....

I got you just for being on the same wavelength.....+ rep!

holla at yo boy azizi

 

[Layce Erayce]

Here are a couple.
Quit using our crops to feed animals. Grow food in non traditional fashion such as monocropping and crop rotation. Throw a shit load of funding into sustainable engergy research such as geothermal and solar energy.

Thats my major Environmentals Studies with a Concentration in Resource Management mainly Sustainable Agriculture.

I love you in a purely heterosexual fashion.

When people start to feel the pinch of dwindling resources, humans will start fighting each other. A social hierarchy will be formed and discrimination will start again.

Its almost like a caste system.

 

[Zé Tahir]

I love you in a purely heterosexual fashion.

When people start to feel the pinch of dwindling resources, humans will start fighting each other. A social hierarchy will be formed and discrimination will start again.

Its almost like a caste system.

where's Erik btw?

 

[Ian]

Here are a couple.
Quit using our crops to feed animals. Grow food in non traditional fashion such as monocropping and crop rotation. Throw a shit load of funding into sustainable engergy research such as geothermal and solar energy.

Thats my major Environmentals Studies with a Concentration in Resource Management mainly Sustainable Agriculture.

True, but even with those measures, you're still aiming at sustaining a population well over the minimum for long term stability. You'd still have more people than you could feed without affecting the global ecosystem in a drastic way.

You'd still be tied to fossil fuels. Both geothermal and solar energy require petroleum for their construction. Besides, solar energy isn't efficient enough except in highly uncloudy areas.

You'd stil be deforesting the entire planet at an extremely high rate. This causes a drop in the CO2 being absorbed from the air, and disrupts the water cycle causing downwind desertification.

There are more issues tied to our problem of over-population.

 

[Ian]

I love you in a purely heterosexual fashion.

When people start to feel the pinch of dwindling resources, humans will start fighting each other. A social hierarchy will be formed and discrimination will start again.

Its almost like a caste system.

Ah, that's an interesting thought. What you've said is certainly a possibility, but by no means inevitable. We could voluntarily (through the use of good science), reduce our population rapidly over the next 2-3 generations. We could also live in a more ecologically conscious and sustainable manner, and teach that to the next generation.

We could also all be forced to go out in the woods and trip on mushrooms. It will definitely change your perspective. Don't think that I'm joking around. Members of many tribes that still exist, use psyllocibe mushrooms to enduce a powerful meditative state and connect powerfully with the earth spirits.

 

[Zé Tahir]

 

[Ian]

Have you ever tried it, man?