"The World Might Actually Run out of People." Topic

"YOU KNOW THE story. Despite technologies, regulations, and policies to make humanity less of a strain on the earth, people just won't stop reproducing. By 2050 there will be 9 billion carbon-burning, plastic-polluting, calorie-consuming people on the planet. By 2100, that number will balloon to 11 billion, pushing society into a Soylent Green scenario. Such dire population predictions aren't the stuff of sci-fi; those numbers come from one of the most trusted world authorities, the United Nations…."
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Amicalement
Armand

Sure it will.

How many billion do we have now?

I don't think we'll be running out of people anytime soon, or even in the future.

If we did, would that be such a bad thing?

Besides, if we run out of Soylent Green, there are always plenty of insects, and I've been told they're far more "calorie and protein efficient", so…………

Perhaps they're good with lots of barbecue sauce. Now, if we run out of that, it truly could be a global tragedy.

" most trusted world authorities, the United Nations"

Uh, not.

I doubt the billions on the planet will allow that to happen, but at least it's a total reverse of the planet will over populate.

Evidently they found the last person on the planet who trusts UN figures to do the interview.

I'm sure the UN will take immediate action by calling for redistribution of wealth and pass a resolution condemning Israel.

+1. PzIVH43.

I'd want 3 independent sources for confirmation if the UN announced that water was wet.

I saw a pop news story about a book, whose title, I think, was "The Empty Earth.". The premise was that the influences that are slowing the birth rate in the westernized countries will spread worldwide. By the middle of this century, growth will level, then begin to fall.

Not disease. Not cataclysm. Not war. Choice.

Intriguing premise.

…"one of the most trusted world authorities, the United Nations…."

Cough, cough, ahem sorry kinda choked a little there.

Gotta run, need to find a sharp knife to cut through the irony here.

I'd want 3 independent sources for confirmation if the UN announced that water was wet

I'd want my personal confirmation

If it only was that simple, we've seen the phenomenon across the world, first in the West, then East Asia and now Africa.

The moment the vast majority of children survive infancy we see birth rates take a dive.

In fact right now one of the biggest contributors to the increasing population are those who will get to live into their 80's and 90's in massive numbers. That's about a billion that will be added to the population in 2050 because a lot of people born in 1970-1980 will have nearly a decade and a half on the people who can expect to live to 75-80 today.

Just a matter of perspective.

Read "How Civilizations Die" by Goldman.

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

…"one of the most trusted world authorities, the United Nations…."

Who ?!??!?

Avery timely book. There is no overpopulation problem. Thomas Malthus said this in 1799. Paul Ehrlich said this in 1968. Both were astoundingly wrong. Already global population growth has dropped down to almost 1%/year, and will continue to drop.

Why? As pointed out in the article, primarily economic and social development. As a society develops its economy, and more importantly as girls can get a education and have life choices like careers, population growth naturally stalls and then drops. In really affluent, educated societies like Japan and many European nations their population worries are *depopulation* as they are now at *negative birth rates.* As I said before, already global population growth has dropped down to almost 1%/year, and will continue to drop.

So based on reality, if the world continues to advance, the global population might peak at around 11 Billion people by 2100 and then start dropping until it may settle around at around 6-7 Billion, though some UN estimates place global population at 3 Billion by the year 2300.

So it's more rational to worry about how best to help 3rd world countries develop more fully, to empower girls and women in their societies, which naturally slows population growth without any intrusive social controls and programs.

And, what do we do if the human species risks extinguishing itself through voluntary de-population -- not having kids?

What does that mean for all those countries with expensive social welfare programs who have relied in the past on a growing population of new worker-wage earners that were taxed to pay for social welfare programs??

We may see that in Japan their population growth rate is -0.2%. So not only are they not having enough kids for population stasis, they are losing more people each year than are born. That's true in many European countries as well.

I think there are too many people on the planet as it is, the planet cannot sustain western resource use levels everywhere and the pollution that comes from the industrial complex that feeds the Western lifestyle without a major correction coming in the future. Better a voluntary diminishment of global population than poisoning our environment or cooking our life sustaining bio-system to the point of cataclysmic collapse that might kill 90% in a few short years.

Such a cheery thought

Do we get to pick the people we run out of?

Seems the 1st World is losing more people than are being replaced. And the 3d World it is just the opposite. So I'm not worried about the planet running out of people.

But I think in the long run … it may come down to "Survival of the Fittest" ?

Or just raw numbers. E.g. 40% of the planet are from China or India … So …

Aethelflaeda was framed 11 Jun 2019 10:04 a.m. PST
I think there are too many people on the planet as it is,

Then you didn't read the article. Developed nations like Japan and most European countries are in population free fall, which portends all sorts of messy things for their economies.

Legion 4 12 Jun 2019 6:33 a.m. PST
Seems the 1st World is losing more people than are being replaced. And the 3d World it is just the opposite. So I'm not worried about the planet running out of people.

Again, read the article and look at the data. Population growth rates in the 3rd world are down, global population growth has dropped down to almost 1%/year, and will continue to drop.

There is no overpopulation problem. We will not see teeming Hive Cities except by odd local policy, not because there's nowhere to live. As population declines the entire social safety net premise of Europe and other heavy social welfare states will have to go through a big adjustment -- not enough workers to tax to pay for all the old folks…

You are right my friend…..

Amicalement
Armand

You mean Paul R. Ehlich was WRONG?!?!? what a shock.

Again, read the article and look at the data.

Yes, must have miss read the article. Regardless 40% of the planet are Chinese or India. Which is just raw data. IIRC the USA makes up @ less than 5% of the planet. Again, so what … ? Just raw academic data.

There is no overpopulation problem. We will not see teeming Hive Cities except by odd local policy, not because there's nowhere to live. As population declines the entire social safety net premise of Europe and other heavy social welfare states will have to go through a big adjustment -- not enough workers to tax to pay for all the old folks…

I do agree with that …

From: etotheipi
Do we get to pick the people we run out of?

Gawd I hope so, I've made a list.

As long as there are other people my clan will not go hungry.

I've made a list.

A list ..?
YouTube link

Don't worry, you're not on it.

BTW cute link

From: Your Kidding
As long as there are other people my clan will not go hungry.
(Cue Eric Carmen, "Hungry Eyes")

Now you're scaring me!

Just pass the BBQ sauce …

The population is still increasing, to the tune of 8.2 million more mouths to feed a year.

It is the rate of increase that is decreasing. Roughly 1 in 9 people worldwide do not have enough food to eat to maintain proper health. In the developing countries, almost 13% of all people are undernourished.

So the rate of increase of 1% sounds great, but the reality is quite different. We are very far from worrying about an empty planet.

From: Legion 4
Just pass the BBQ sauce…

Now don't you start!!