(July 6, 2014 at 4:51 pm)Blackout Wrote: I've seen people discussing the overpopulation issue quite frequently and I've heard arguments from both sides. Generally speaking, people who see overpopulation as a problem advocate that we have way too many people living on earth and these numbers need to be reduced considerably or even drastically. On the other hand, people who don't see overpopulation as an issue argue that we can support the current number of people on earth as long as we started to control the population numbers right now and implemented a better share, allocation and trade of resources (I've even heard someone proposing a Resource Based Economy)
What are your thoughts on this?
Since I live in a country with a lack of young population, I may not be seeing the big picture.
I'm largely in the second camp, I think. Over-population isn't a problem yet, but it very well could be if people continue to be short-sighted on the issue. The problem with feeding, watering, housing, educating, and getting medical care to people in less developed, over-populated areas of the world isn't so much the lack of the resources as it is the management of them.
That being said, as long as the Catholic church, with its medieval notions about birth control, continues to have a stranglehold on the minds of a significant number of the world's poor, over-population IS going to be a significant issue within a hundred years or so.
I would sooner see this issue addressed in a humane fashion (via education, resource allocation, etc) than to let Dr. Malthus have the last say. Because one way or another, the issue of human population is going to be resolved. If we ignore it, the resolution isn't going to be pretty.
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
