Me and 7 Billion Others

[x493x 446]

Today (October 31, 2011) is apparently the day that the world's population reaches 7,000,000,000 people. That is an amazingly large number spawning all sorts of "can we support?" questions. What do you think?

[Alejandro24 575]

This remembers me the book The Sea and the Summer.

The Earth can support us, o more than 9 or 10 billion. It depends on us to do it. The world is poorly balanced. We are at the time to correct that.

[nathanthemayor 1,261]

Hopefully this population boom stops soon. This world is wayyyyy too overcrowded.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Most modern country's are having population decline or breaking even in terms of deaths and births balancing each other out.

[mrbisonm 1,620]

This world is wayyyyy too overcrowded.

....and that is why a third worldwar is secretely being discussed by several governments....That'll do the trick. But don't worry, it will all end on december 13th, 2012 anyways.

Have fun

mrb

[TekindusT 3,809]

This world is wayyyyy too overcrowded.

....and that is why a third worldwar is secretely being discussed by several governments....That'll do the trick. But don't worry, it will all end on december 13th, 2012 anyways. ;)Have funmrb

I'm with the ones who think that WWIII will begin beyond the Peak Oil.

But yeah, I also think that a single planet just simply cannot give enough resources to everybody to have a good starndard of living. We're too many; but all measures to break population growth are truly unpopular and morally frowned upon in most of the cases. I think we're stuck in a really unconfortable inpasse.

  Edited November 1, 2011 by TekindusT  

[Jack³ 291]

....and that is why a third worldwar is secretely being discussed by several governments....That'll do the trick. But don't worry, it will all end on december 13th, 2012 anyways.

Have fun

mrb

I thought it was Dec 22nd, not 13?? And for the world-war III. Many think all the conflict in the Middle-eastern nations will become a world war. And right now it looks as if the whole world is in rebellion.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Another World War wont fix the population pressure,the 1st 2 didnt.its estimated that military and civilian casualties including the deaths resulting from famine after WW2 was about 78-80 million. a meager 4% of the 1.9B world population in 1939.

the same % would be about 300M today,so depopulate the US.

I think we would come to our senses long before that number of deaths was reached.

[Alejandro24 575]

Another World War wont fix the population pressure,the 1st 2 didnt.its estimated that military and civilian casualties including the deaths resulting from famine after WW2 was about 78-80 million. a meager 4% of the 1.9B world population in 1939.

the same % would be about 300M today,so depopulate the US.

I think we would come to our senses long before that number of deaths was reached.

Are you propossing the theory of Thomas Malthus? Isn't a better way a poblational control?

[Meg 368]

Overcrowded conditions usually lead to illnesses of various sorts. The new version of the plague could happen any day.

[Ocram's Razr 963]

Overcrowding is more of a problem in the poorer counties. Poorer countries also have worse health care. If a plague happens, it will wipe out a lot of Africans or Asians.

[mrbisonm 1,620]

Another World War wont fix the population pressure,the 1st 2 didnt.

I would think differently, because today we don't have those rifles and blackpowder cannons they had in WWI, nor do we use tanks, canons and bombers as they used to in WWII, no, today we have lazer guided missiles, star war missiles from above, and to say it all, we have nuclear bombs of all sizes, shapes and colours.....lol. So......it should fix the population pressure.

True , that a sudden raise of a deadly disease caused by overcrowding would do the same in many countries, and like Ocram Seattle says, it will start in the poorer countries, but eventually spread worldwide.

mrb

[Ocram's Razr 963]

With proper education, health (preventative medicine rather than fertility treatment), and subsidized (free) birth control, population growth can be lowered without all the problems of mass genocide. If things get real bad, then legallization of suicide, abortion, and sterilization along with a ban on fertility treatment and multiple children would cut populations even further though this is a morally grey area.

[Eʟᴇᴍᴇɴᴛ 273]

I find it sort of humorous at the fact that we believe we have hit 7 billion as of this week but it is all theoretical because the world population data is quite inaccurate. We could have surpassed this number months ago or we could still be on our way to reaching that number. However, it is a milestone nonetheless.

Anyway, according to UN data, the population is supposedly supposed to fall once we hit around 8 - 10 billion. Not only that, but most developed countries' population is actually falling...

With proper education, health (preventative medicine rather than fertility treatment), and subsidized (free) birth control, population growth can be lowered without all the problems of mass genocide. If things get real bad, then legallization of suicide, abortion, and sterilization along with a ban on fertility treatment and multiple children would cut populations even further though this is a morally grey area.

I know its a quite radical opinion and not everyone will agree with me on this but I personally think that Euthanasia and Abortion should be legalized already.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Since everyone has thrown in their oar on the cause of WW III, let me lay out my view.

The war will be over fresh water.

Quite a small percentage of the world's water is potable, and Canada has the lion's share. The world is heating up in the normal between-ice-ages cycle. For 12,000 years we've had the luxury of the post-glacial melt water situation in a very slowly warming climate. Now, the ice sheets and glaciers are disappearing. Already in the United States some of the big water supplies, Lake Mead for example, are drying up. Not only are there too many straws in the soda, but there is less water.

I am sure the U.S. congress is looking north to the border that runs through the great lakes and is thinking about importing all that nice Canadian water. We have the International Joint Commission on the great lakes, but things haven't yet come to a water crisis of the proportions I expect. This is only one point of pressure.

The Himalayan ice fields are shrinking. What do you suppose will happen between India and Pakistan when the Ganges dries up? What will happen in the middle east when the Tigris and Euphrates rivers give out? For that matter, what will happen when the great drought continues in the southern U.S.?

The deep aquifers are being depleted faster than the petroleum supply, and while they are renewable, they cannot be renewed at the rate we are taking water out. We are busily wasting the one real thing that keeps us all alive. A tight water economy is coming. If you don't know what a subsistence economy is, look at countries like Bangladesh.

You can be sure that there will be trouble world wide, and this is coming to a head fairly soon. The world will die of thirst in about three days for each person if there is no water. Everyone talks about desalination plants on the oceans but nobody really has the political will to get on with that. There will have to be about a million such plants all over the world to supply man's thirst. Remember that most of the water we use goes into food production, so if there is a great thirst, there will quickly be a great famine. Maybe Malthus was right, after all.

  Edited November 1, 2011 by A Nonny Moose  

[Ocram's Razr 963]

Famine will come before thirst.

I am a strong proponent of desalination plants. The Cedar River Water Shed can support the Greater Seattle area (at projected population growth) until 2050. We are seriously screwed if we do not have desal plants built by 2040.

Legallization of Assisted Suicide/euthanasia and abortion and banning of fertility treatment are all becoming more attractive options as the population grows. Fines/fees/monetary penalties for 3+ children would also become more attractive an option. Dropping welfare payments to unemployed mothers with 3 children might also do the trick with lowering population.

What I said earlier still applies, those are morally grey areas and currently many people who see things as black and white would view laws pertaining to this as evil.

  Edited November 1, 2011 by OcramSeattle  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Famine will come before thirst.

I am a strong proponent of desalination plants. The Cedar River Water Shed can support the Greater Seattle area (at projected population growth) until 2050. We are seriously screwed if we do not have desal plants built by 2040.

The solution to famine is a proper distribution system. The west throws away enough food to support the rest of the world, but has no way to get it there. We expect to be paid, and the others have no money.

What do you suppose happened to all that rain that fell in Thailand? Why all that fresh water ran over the land eroding it and became contaminated then is running into the sea. This happens to a lot of rain fall. One of the big items that can be done relatively cheaply is to capture the rain when it falls. We know where the rain fall areas are. It might need a little purification, but not as much as water from other sources.

The water that melts out of icebergs is pure, distilled water. Most of it runs into the oceans, desalinizing them to the detriment of sea life, and may affect the ocean currents, to say nothing of warming the oceans up to release all the frozen methane held on the sea beds. If this happens, it will make a carbon footprint that will make anything else look puny.

[Barbarossa 51]

.

  Edited September 8, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[Jack³ 291]

This is turning into a dark and scary topic.

I will say something nice:

Wow! 7 Billion! That is one special baby!

[Ocram's Razr 963]

Eventually, the global population will decrease. The impoverished people who believe that more children will get them more money will die of disease, famine, or thirst or kill each other in wars over resources. The wealthy and semi wealthy (so those making 5 figures or more at the value of money today) will have lowered birth rates.

So population will decrease from higher death rates or lowered birth rates. Lowered birth rates are common in the wealthy nations and humanitarians cry about the horrible conditions and massive amounts of death in the impoverished or primitive nations.

[Meg 368]

Lowered birth rates are common in the wealthy nations and humanitarians cry about the horrible conditions and massive amounts of death in the impoverished or primitive nations.

Perhaps I'm reading this wrong but you seem to think that humanitarian is a bad word. or a bad thing to be.

[Ocram's Razr 963]

No, they are just loud and are the main reason why most people of the developed (and still developing) nations are aware of the problems in the undeveloped (and mostly stagnant and barely developing at all) world.

[Easy Bakes 253]

banning of fertility treatments

probably wont happen anytime soon,even thou those are expensive treatments it seems the are available to most people now.

What i found incomprehensible:at one point last year a local Church raised a lot of money to go for fertility treatment for some couple that wanted to have a child.I wondered why the church just didnt point these people toward to local orphanage?

  Edited November 2, 2011 by Easy Bakes  

[GreekMan 246]

we need to start shipping people to other planets like in Halo...if that could only happen

[RipRap 4,400]

:| That wouldn't happen until 2100-2500...

We have a lot of space (6billion people can fit in an area the size of France) but, We do need a lot of area for resources, and we are running out of it...

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Anyone in the southwestern U.S. should go and have a look at what's left of Lake Mead. Soon the Colorado River will be dry, and the lake empty. The Hoover Dam won't be generating any power, and large stretches of the area that should never have been populated will dry up and blow away. They are already having dust storms in Las Vegas. Do you suppose nature is telling us something?

All those irrigation projects dependent on the Colorado are just too many. How many desert farms are now sucking the water table dry and/or ripping up orchards because they can't water them? The Anasazy people learned this a few centuries ago and had to abandon their main settlements because of a drought in the same area. They became the Pueblo people and couldn't make it go even after that.

The current climate changes are starting to become obvious even to the most zealous deniers. There will be a water panic soon, and it will be altogether too late.

I will hopefully have shuffled off this mortal coil before the water wars start.

[Meg 368]

The problem with water is that is can't be transported in any large quantity. Those of us in the soggy northeast would be happy to sent some wet stuff down to the southwest but there is no effect way of doing it.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Meg, dear, your itchy mouse finger has caused a double post.

But anyway, water moves through pipelines much more easily than oil. You only have to keep it slightly above freezing while crude oil has to be warmed. Guess what can be done with all those pipelines when the oil runs out? Of course, we'll run out of water first. Any plumber will tell you that you can't freeze moving water.

  Edited November 2, 2011 by A Nonny Moose  

[Meg 368]

Meg, dear, your itchy mouse finger has caused a double post.

Thanks. I have deleted one.

But anyway, water moves through pipelines much more easily than oil. You only have to keep it slightly above freezing while crude oil has to be warmed. Guess what can be done with all those pipelines when the oil runs out? Of course, we'll run out of water first. Any plumber will tell you that you can't freeze moving water.

First there is the matter of building the pipelines, then there is the issue of getting the water into them.

The past few months we have had record amounts of rainfall here in the DC area. We would have happily given up the last 8 inches or so of rain.

Here, we have crops being destroyed due to flooding. In the southwest, they have crops being destroyed due to drought.

But, assuming there was a pipeline from here to Texas or Arizona, how would the water get into it?

[Ocram's Razr 963]

My neighbor has all her gutters feed rainwater into a big container which her gardening hose is attached to. No one needs to water their plants around here from October to May. Everyone who does not water their lawns in July and August must cope with brown, dry, scratchy lawns (or brown-green if the grass is in the shade).