Will overpopulation be the end of us all? What will be the solution to overpopulation. Every week we add a million and a half people to this planet.

As of the moment we have 6.8 billion people living on earth that is 8000 miles wide and 24,000 miles circumference.

In 1798, Thomas Malthus said that earth could not indefinitely support an ever-increasing human population and that nature would keep us in check through famine. That our food sources would not outlast us, and eventually we would die out until, once again we could sustain life, and then the process would repeat itself. Scientists through this out the window because they argued that "Technology is also growing, and because of that we continue to find way to increase our growth and production of food to help us"

However, with the amount of people that are being added to our planet every day, about 215 thousand people, will we be able to advance quick enough to survive?

What do you guys think would be a good way to prevent overpopulation?

I've heard many suggestions, such as a mass genocide, or letting terminally ill people just die and offer them no assistance, no comfort.

I personally believe we have 2 options.
1. We need to get out of this comfort zone. Especially in america, and other global powers. We can't continue to use to much excess we need to use less. We need to be more 'green' more or less.
2. Limit the amount of children people can have to 1 or 2. On average throughout the world people have between 1-3 children, which isnt bad. However, multiply that by 3.4 billion couples and you get another 7-10 billion people within the next 100 years. This number will only continue to increase, because there are people who have more than 3. Than there are couples that have 0 kids. And if people do have more than than the appropriate amount of children there will be a consequence(undecided). You can also pay the government a sum of money to have another kid. This will make it so the rich and intelligent will be having more children than the unintelligent. Sounds harsh, but the world is harsh.

TFR(Total fertility rate, or the number of children born to a women in a lifetime) CHART

Year kids
1950–1955 4.95 2000–2005 2.62 2050–2055 1.79
1955–1960 4.89 2005–2010 2.52 2055–2060 1.72
1960–1965 4.91 2010–2015 2.36 2060–2065 1.71
1965–1970 4.85 2015–2020 2.23 2065–2070 1.69
1970–1975 4.45 2020–2025 2.14 2070–2075 1.68
1975–1980 3.84 2025–2030 2.09 2075–2080 1.66
1980–1985 3.59 2030–2035 2.00 2080–2085 1.65
1985–1990 3.39 2035–2040 1.95 2085–2090 1.64
1990–1995 3.04 2040–2045 1.89 2090–2095 1.64
1995–2000 2.79 2045–2050 1.82 2095–2100 1.63

Well this looks good, the number of kids are decreasing!
Yeah, unless there are 10 times the ammount of women in 2100 then there were in 1950s. Which is exactly whats happening.
Take a look at this site http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/
For each death, there are 2 births. Meaning that within 100 years, our population will double, and this will continue and continue.

So, tell me what you think about the ever growing problem of overpopulation? Nature obviously wants to trim us down, it has given us cancer, stds, more natural disasters. What do you suggest we do to fix this problem?

/Discuss



This post was edited by Gusher on May 5 2012 10:41pm

I suspect there will be a system developed that requires permits to have children.

Regardless of that, we will hit our carrying capacity soon enough and will undergo a mass die off from one or more of the following: Disease, starvation, or war.

Nature doesn't play around.

Yes. I agree that this is what will happen if we don't act. We will end up killing ourselves, because we want to live.

Garrett Hardin's Tragedy of the Commons is an interesting read

http://www.garretthardinsociety.org/articles/art_tragedy_of_the_commons.html

I'm sure we'll have war or famines to help kill people off as we start to run out of resources.

As of the moment we have 6.8 billion people living on earth that is 8000 miles wide and 24,000 miles circumference.
Don't lose too much hope, look at Korea and Japan; they're very small countries with very big populations and they maintain their populaces by going vertical (Skylines, apartments, etc..)

I've heard many suggestions, such as a mass genocide, or letting terminally ill people just die and offer themno assistance, no comfort.
Do you know what separates man from a beast? Compassion and love...




I personally believe we have 2 options.
1. We need to get out of this comfort zone. Especially in america, and other global powers. We can't continue to use to much excess we need to use less. We need to be more 'green' more or less.
I couldn't agree with you anymore but the thing is...there is not enough awareness. I think we need to take a really hard look as a society on this planet and recycle everything we can.


2. Limit the amount of children people can have to 1 or 2. On average throughout the world people have between 1-3 children, which isnt bad. However, multiply that by 3.4 billion couples and you get another 7-10 billion people within the next 100 years. This number will only continue to increase, because there are people who have more than 3. Than there are couples that have 0 kids. And if people do have more than than the appropriate amount of children there will be a consequence(undecided). You can also pay the government a sum of money to have another kid. This will make it so the rich and intelligent will be having more children than the unintelligent. Sounds harsh, but the world is harsh.
You sound like China...lol...but that concept really isn't such a bad idea. There are SO many people that have children when they're just not ready for them resulting in so many complications.


TFR(Total fertility rate, or the number of children born to a women in a lifetime) CHART

Year kids
1950–1955 4.95 2000–2005 2.62 2050–2055 1.79
1955–1960 4.89 2005–2010 2.52 2055–2060 1.72
1960–1965 4.91 2010–2015 2.36 2060–2065 1.71
1965–1970 4.85 2015–2020 2.23 2065–2070 1.69
1970–1975 4.45 2020–2025 2.14 2070–2075 1.68
1975–1980 3.84 2025–2030 2.09 2075–2080 1.66
1980–1985 3.59 2030–2035 2.00 2080–2085 1.65
1985–1990 3.39 2035–2040 1.95 2085–2090 1.64
1990–1995 3.04 2040–2045 1.89 2090–2095 1.64
1995–2000 2.79 2045–2050 1.82 2095–2100 1.63
You know what's funny about those statistics? Condoms were invented in 1920...lol.

Well this looks good, the number of kids are decreasing!
Yeah, unless there are 10 times the ammount of women in 2100 then there were in 1950s. Which is exactly whats happening.
Take a look at this site http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/
For each death, there are 2 births. Meaning that within 100 years, our population will double, and this will continue and continue.

So, tell me what you think about the ever growing problem of overpopulation? Nature obviously wants to trim us down, it has given us cancer, stds, more natural disasters. What do you suggest we do to fix this problem?

/Discuss[/QUOTE]

My 2 cents?

Go green, go vertical.

This post was edited by chewbacha on May 6 2012 12:38am

It's going to reach a peak

Its scary to think about.

We still have enough resources for many and many years, but the real problem is that we use them in excess and need to start change this attitude.
For example when you go to a fast-food or restaurant, you usually throw away more then 25% of the food, but we still have 1mld people starving worldwide...
We do care only about ourselves and don't give a dam about the real problems that should concern us more:

- Health and nutrition
- Poverty
- Environmental destruction
- Immunization
- Quality of education
- Preventing infection among adolescents and young people
- Children without parental care
- Sexual violence/trafficking against children/women

While some try to get richer and more richer, others go on an slow death because of malnutrition and that's sad :(

Giving birth shouldn't be restricted to a specific number of children because it's a free right to have as many kids you want as long as you can offer them decent conditions of living.

there was a website that shows all of that....and it's keeping up to date too.

the fact is we need to treat the human race as a bunch of lab rats. by simply controlling our food we control everything.

so say we have 100 lab rats each eating 1 gram of food a day. thats 100 grams of food. if every week you reduce the amount added by .5 grams then the food goes down and therefore the population goes down. but its done at such a rate that no one goes hungry.

this shit is very simple. its the politics of getting things done thats not.