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The Overpopulation of Planet Earth (1 Viewer)

So if we cure cancer, solve world hunger and achieve world peace...we will have overpopulated the earth to the point where we will all die?

 
It would seem logical that improvements in renewable energy and a change in human diet could result in supporting tens of billions more, no?

 
In any event, in 30 years or so, people will no longer die due to advances in modern medicine. So we are headed this way regardless. 

 
No one should ever have more than two kids.

Anything more than 3 or 4 and I seriously question people's mental condition.

 
Three kids here, trying to convince Mrs O to go for a 4th. 

Honestly, I was at Target this morning, and I saw what else is running around out in the world. We are better off with Oat’s offspring. 
You can never have too many farmhands.

 
It would seem logical that improvements in renewable energy and a change in human diet could result in supporting tens of billions more, no?
Good chance people will get most of their protein from insects after 2100, if it is even from a living creature by then.  We may be rushing toward the singularity quicker than we know.

 
:lol:  haven't thought about that in forever
It's funny and scary how many high school seniors read it and don't get the satire. We always get complaints from kids about how horrible it is and that Swift was a monster. Even when we explain it, many of them still can't understand the story beyond it's literal meaning.

 
In any event, in 30 years or so, people will no longer die due to advances in modern medicine. So we are headed this way regardless. 
Unless a solution is found, thanks to the antibiotic resistance crisis, a lot of modern medicine will become too hazardous to practice in less than 30 years.

 
You guys do realize that everyone on earth could fit in the state of Rhode Island. 

33,798,204,000 sq. ft. with a population of 7.6 billion. You have a little over 4.4 sq. ft. per person. Tight but it works.

 
You guys do realize that everyone on earth could fit in the state of Rhode Island. 

33,798,204,000 sq. ft. with a population of 7.6 billion. You have a little over 4.4 sq. ft. per person. Tight but it works.
How much food can you grow in a year in 4.4 sq ft?

 
Opie said:
First, I read this article this regarding the overpopulation of the Planet (a speech given by a man awaiting the birth of his third child)

Then, I read this article regarding the population of Earth.

Are we in trouble?   :shock:
We aren't We will all be dead before it becomes a problem but eventually it will become a problem if nothing is done. The good news is mother nature will probably take over and thin the herd herself someday.

 
Otis said:
In any event, in 30 years or so, people will no longer die due to advances in modern medicine. So we are headed this way regardless. 
true.  they will die due to nuclear holocaust or irreversible climate change.

 
Paul Ehrlich wrote about this all the way back in 1968: his book The Population Bomb was a bestseller, and predicted that mass starvation would shortly hit the planet. Then Norman Borlaug created a new way to grow wheat, and it saved a billion people. Ehrlich later admitted that he could not have predicted what Borlaug did.

The lesson is clear: technology and science can save us, if we use it properly.

 
once most of the working class is replaced by robots and AI, a rash of incurable and fatal diseases will suddenly wipe out most of the poor and uneducated.  

 
Three kids here, trying to convince Mrs O to go for a 4th. 

Honestly, I was at Target this morning, and I saw what else is running around out in the world. We are better off with Oat’s offspring. 
We were going to stop after 3. Then SURPRISE! We're done now. I'm not buying another house. 

 
Mathus.  "An Essay on the Principle of Population", 1798.   The rate of population grows exponentially, while natural resources do not.  He wasn't totally right, but his general argument has merit.  And what he wrote is nothing new.  it goes back at least 2000 years.

In reality, barring a cosmic event, "Life finds a way".

When we outgrow Earth, we will find cheap way to send our trash into space.  When we run out of food, we will develop new methods to production.  Almost anything can be synthesized.  And if it can't, well then society will find a way to stay in balance.   People won't spend resources to keep people alive and equilibrium will return.  Whether that's medical, or a rampant disease, or monetary, or "you can pay half the poor to kill the other half".  In some way, equilibrium will return when this is a major problem in say 100 years.

That being said, the biggest problem isn't the rate of birth.  It's how long people live.  Far less people die from disease, malnutrition, war, etc than ever.  Resources (basically money to feed, cloth, and medicate) to keep people living from age 65-100 when they don't contribute to society are staggering.  No, don't run off and kill all the old people.  But it's a fact.  Our society no longer looks as death in passive terms, so we do everything we can to keep people alive, and in the long run that may lead to some not so ideal ways to keep everything in equilibrium.

 

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