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Overpopulation - Problem or not?
July 6, 2014 at 4:51 pm
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.
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RE: Overpopulation - Problem or not?
July 6, 2014 at 5:04 pm
Yes we have an overpopulation problem. Eventually I believe the only animal species left will be those who can adapt to human cities, like those birds you always see around the Walmart parking lot, and raccoons, and any animals we really like.
We may eventually kill ourselves, but the world will most likely exist after we die. Until the sun dies, at least.
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RE: Overpopulation - Problem or not?
July 6, 2014 at 5:08 pm
(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
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RE: Overpopulation - Problem or not?
July 6, 2014 at 5:16 pm
Yes.
http://chimalaya.org/2012/04/12/rivers-o...-himalaya/
Quote:The snow and ice stored within this resplendent arc of nearly 50,000 high-altitude glaciers are vital sources of water for the major rivers of Asia. Although the exact consequences of changing glacial melt cannot be known, any disruption to the water supply will inevitably present myriad challenges to the millions of people living downstream.
Normally I'd say that it depends where you are but since the US apparently cannot keep its nose out of anything anywhere I expect we will soon be up to our armpits in it.
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RE: Overpopulation - Problem or not?
July 6, 2014 at 5:36 pm
I wonder if the running out of oil and huge overpopulation might clash around the same time. I imagine the world could suddenly get pretty dramatic with 10+ billion people and no resources.
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RE: Overpopulation - Problem or not?
July 6, 2014 at 6:11 pm
Meh, we've been through it before. Kept plugging along largely the same way as before.
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RE: Overpopulation - Problem or not?
July 6, 2014 at 8:54 pm
Mad max 2 in 300 years!
Depends if those nukes go off or not.
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RE: Overpopulation - Problem or not?
July 6, 2014 at 9:02 pm
Like the popping of a big, festering pimple... The Earth will one day purge herself of the Human puss infecting her.
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RE: Overpopulation - Problem or not?
July 6, 2014 at 9:03 pm
(July 6, 2014 at 6:11 pm)Rhythm Wrote: Meh, we've been through it before. Kept plugging along largely the same way as before.
We've faced a population and energy crisis before? On the same scale as what faces us now? When?
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RE: Overpopulation - Problem or not?
July 6, 2014 at 9:10 pm
The decline in alkalinity of sea water will be a big problem. Way bigger than global warming, and what ever overpopulation is going on then will be taken care of abruptly in a mass extinction event along with quite a bit of the rest of the biosphere.
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