Is overpopulation of the planet a problem?

[Coloradomtnman]

From my point of view, there can be no doubt: overpopulation of the planet is the biggest problem we, and all life on the planet, face. It might be the root source of increased wars over resources, the destruction of the rain forests, the over harvestation of the oceans, water and food shortages, accelerated global warming, increased crime rates, extinction of animal species, the spread of HIV/AIDS, and perhaps much more stife than listed here.

Yet, some people don't think so. My girlfriend's 30 year old cousin just had his 5th child. I know plenty of young people who have had three children. The birthrate among hispanics is far higher than it is among any other US ethnicity. The birthrate among the lower income classes is higher than the middle or higher classes. The global birthrate scale is tipped heavily toward South America, Africa, China, India, and Southeast Asia, the developing world and third world countries where resources are rare, education is either poor or uncommon, and the governments corrupt or powerless to do much to address the problems the nations face.

Do you think overpopulation is a problem? Vote!

If yes, what do you think could be done to slow or reverse it?

If no, why?

 

[Meister]

Pyramid effect...I would have to say yes.

 

[raceright]

Pyramid effect...I would have to say yes.

Cities are over populated not the world still plenty of open space out there,maybe a limit on city populations is in order LOLOLOLO

 

[Missourian]

Pyramid effect...I would have to say yes.

Cities are over populated not the world still plenty of open space out there,maybe a limit on city populations is in order LOLOLOLO

WHAT!!! And turn those city slickers loose out here???

Well, come to think of it, that could cause significant depopulation.

 

[xsited1]

Interesting timing. On another message board, there were actually people who looked forward to the next pandemic. (As long as it didn't affect them!)

 

[dilloduck]

Pyramid effect...I would have to say yes.

Cities are over populated not the world still plenty of open space out there,maybe a limit on city populations is in order LOLOLOLO

I like it----a cap on population per square mile. Spread out everyone--I was here before you.

 

[KittenKoder]

Pyramid effect...I would have to say yes.

Cities are over populated not the world still plenty of open space out there,maybe a limit on city populations is in order LOLOLOLO

Really ... this is just so logical my brain hurts ... well, not really.

Our food has to be farmed now, they have to regulate hunting and fishing now, because our resources also take up space. The resources required to sustain our population take up so much space now they are running out of untouched wildlife and increasing the total amount of pollution we put out as a species to unmanageable levels, giving the environazis the ability to push their crap into law since their scientists know that no matter what we do it won't help. Do you think all the food we enjoy just appears out of thin air?

 

[raceright]

Pyramid effect...I would have to say yes.

Cities are over populated not the world still plenty of open space out there,maybe a limit on city populations is in order LOLOLOLO

Really ... this is just so logical my brain hurts ... well, not really.

Our food has to be farmed now, they have to regulate hunting and fishing now, because our resources also take up space. The resources required to sustain our population take up so much space now they are running out of untouched wildlife and increasing the total amount of pollution we put out as a species to unmanageable levels, giving the environazis the ability to push their crap into law since their scientists know that no matter what we do it won't help. Do you think all the food we enjoy just appears out of thin air?

You must live in a city

 

[KittenKoder]

Cities are over populated not the world still plenty of open space out there,maybe a limit on city populations is in order LOLOLOLO

Really ... this is just so logical my brain hurts ... well, not really.

Our food has to be farmed now, they have to regulate hunting and fishing now, because our resources also take up space. The resources required to sustain our population take up so much space now they are running out of untouched wildlife and increasing the total amount of pollution we put out as a species to unmanageable levels, giving the environazis the ability to push their crap into law since their scientists know that no matter what we do it won't help. Do you think all the food we enjoy just appears out of thin air?

You must live in a city

I live in reality. So ... where are you going to get land for more farming without completely wiping out the ecosystems when our population gains another billion?

 

[strollingbones]

it has been said there are more people alive on earth now....


than all the people who have lived and died before us....

i would say yes

 

[KittenKoder]

it has been said there are more people alive on earth now....


than all the people who have lived and died before us....

i would say yes

I would agree with that as well. Think about all the people stacked in high rises and underground (in a few areas). Each person takes at least 2 acres of land for food each year (can't remember where I heard that estimate) ... so that's 16 billion acres of land for food as it is. I also don't think that estimate accounted for grazing animals we consume as well. Then add in the land we need for other resources each person. There's no room left unless we just completely wipe out the ecosystem, which would just make life no longer worth the effort at that point.

 

[Seraega]

Child cap and trade! Each couple gets 2 child credits they can use to procreate or sell. Sounds good to me

Really though, this is a problem. Population grows exponentially where as resources grow linearly. We've compensated for this by using chemical fertilizers and hormones to grow meat faster, but there's only so much that can expand our production, and we're already seeing the enormous negative effects of these practices.

 

[Toro]

No. We are not even close to any sort of critical tipping point. There are still an abundance of resources, and human ingenuity is making those resources either less relevant or more efficient. There are still vast expanses of this country which are virtually empty.

 

[KittenKoder]

No. We are not even close to any sort of critical tipping point. There are still an abundance of resources, and human ingenuity is making those resources either less relevant or more efficient. There are still vast expanses of this country which are virtually empty.

Farmland is not empty, and we need at least a functional ecosystem to survive, so technically that's not empty either. Don't think the deserts count either, if we covered most of them with cities (what few areas can actually have permanent structures) then we are not only still destroying an ecosystem we are also upsetting the natural environment. It's short sighted to think that just because there are still areas without big cities that there is a "lot of empty space".

 

[Seraega]

No. We are not even close to any sort of critical tipping point. There are still an abundance of resources, and human ingenuity is making those resources either less relevant or more efficient. There are still vast expanses of this country which are virtually empty.

Do you realize that most of those empty spaces are such because they cannot support life? Water is going to be the next resource for which wars are fought. We're already desalinizing our oceans because too many idiots want have a lawn in the desert! Burying our head in the sand and pretending not to see the coming shortage of resources is not smart.

 

[editec]

Pyramid effect...I would have to say yes.

Cities are over populated not the world still plenty of open space out there,maybe a limit on city populations is in order LOLOLOLO

ACtually we'd be better served if we limited urban sprawl.

Sure there's plenty of land, but that land actually serves ecoglogical purposes that are important.

Buckminster Fuller got it right.

What we need if we're going to have billions inhabiting the planet is a mixture of very urban places where the majority of people live and wide open spaces where nature can do its thing.

People like me, people who want to live in less densely populated areas eat up millions of acres of land which would be better off if we didn't live here.

Now I could live in an urban area again if the quality of life wasn't such shit.

But the only way that the quality of life in most urban areas isn't crap is if you have so much money that you can insolate yourself from the problems of urban life.

 

[Care4all]

No, we are not over populated or at the brink of such..... it is just another propaganda campaign to control us.

The usa feeds more than a third of the under developed world with food......there is enough farm land here....we ARE the bread basket of the world....but if things got tight, we could feed our own countrymen first, before shipping our food overseas....not so good for those overseas though....

We, as a country are no where near the tipping point....and won't ever be if we have a sensible immigration plan, or while we now have less than 2 children per family on average...it has been reducing for decades now.....if anything, we in the USA are UNDERPOPULATED, we can not even replace the population of the baby boom workers when they retire....and die off...

However, there are regions of our world who are OVERPOPULATED and do not grow or have enough food and water resourses to feed themselves...

Cutting back on births in the USA is not going to be enough to compensate for these other regions....

 

[KittenKoder]

No, we are not over populated or at the brink of such..... it is just another propaganda campaign to control us.

The usa feeds more than a third of the under developed world with food......there is enough farm land here....we ARE the bread basket of the world....but if things got tight, we could feed our own countrymen first, before shipping our food overseas....not so good for those overseas though....

We, as a country are no where near the tipping point....and won't ever be if we have a sensible immigration plan, or while we now have less than 2 children per family on average...it has been reducing for decades now.....if anything, we in the USA are UNDERPOPULATED, we can not even replace the population of the baby boom workers when they retire....and die off...

However, there are regions of our world who are OVERPOPULATED and do not grow or have enough food and water resourses to feed themselves...

Cutting back on births in the USA is not going to be enough to compensate for these other regions....

Ever stop to think that it may be because the other countries have less land they can grow food on because they all live on that useful land and their populations are in excess?

 

[Care4all]

No, we are not over populated or at the brink of such..... it is just another propaganda campaign to control us.

The usa feeds more than a third of the under developed world with food......there is enough farm land here....we ARE the bread basket of the world....but if things got tight, we could feed our own countrymen first, before shipping our food overseas....not so good for those overseas though....

We, as a country are no where near the tipping point....and won't ever be if we have a sensible immigration plan, or while we now have less than 2 children per family on average...it has been reducing for decades now.....if anything, we in the USA are UNDERPOPULATED, we can not even replace the population of the baby boom workers when they retire....and die off...

However, there are regions of our world who are OVERPOPULATED and do not grow or have enough food and water resourses to feed themselves...

Cutting back on births in the USA is not going to be enough to compensate for these other regions....

Ever stop to think that it may be because the other countries have less land they can grow food on because they all live on that useful land and their populations are in excess?

Nope....I think there is plenty of land in China and in Africa and in South America etc to farm in a wise manner...i think the conspiracy is that we, (the usa) just give them a fish, instead of teaching them to fish....keeping dependency on us and keeping our food prices high, making those who sell them the food, more profitable....just think about it!

world wide events, or rather nature itself always has unexpected disasters that can wipe out 265,000 people IN ONE DAY such as in the 2004 Tsunami....

Care

 

[Coloradomtnman]

Nope....I think there is plenty of land in China and in Africa and in South America etc to farm in a wise manner...i think the conspiracy is that we, (the usa) just give them a fish, instead of teaching them to fish....keeping dependency on us and keeping our food prices high, making those who sell them the food, more profitable....just think about it!

world wide events, or rather nature itself always has unexpected disasters that can wipe out 265,000 people IN ONE DAY such as in the 2004 Tsunami....

Care

Actually, China is leasing land from Kazahkstan and Russia to farm. That doesn't strike you as desperate? Actually leasing land from another country to farm? Western China is mostly desert. 9/10s of China's population lives along the Yangtze and the coasts because most of China is a huge desert: the Gobi. And Tibet is a high altitude desert that has never been able to significantly produce food (despite Chairman Mao attempting to do just that which resulted in the death of millions of people from starvation).

And haven't you noticed that water resources are becoming more and more scarce? In Colorado; or I should say, underneath Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Northern Texas; there used to be a giant aquifer. The land above, in just the last 50 years, has fallen over 18 feet because of water being drained from the aquifer. In India there has been the same sort of situation only where, in this one region which I can't remember the name, there was surface water, they now have to dig wells 200 meters just to get to water. And those are only two examples of growing water scarcity out of thousands. The mighty Colorado River, the river which carved the Grand Canyon, doesn't even reach the ocean anymore. Its used up before it can get there.

I think that water scarcity might become a major and immediate issue in the next twenty years if we don't start taking preventative measures now. But, of course, we stupid primates will wait until it is already an issue before doing something about it.