Overpopulation one of the ten greatest threats to humanity

Peak growth rate (as percentage, not the absolute number of people per year) was half a century ago. We are now seeing the effects of a huge base value (i.e. size of the world population) while the actual growth rate is lower today, see graph [0] from the article on future population growth [1] in "Our World of Data". Overpopulation is a problem that is going to solve itself as people get older.

[0] https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2019/06/2019-Revision-%E2...

[1] https://ourworldindata.org/future-population-growth

Re: Overpopulation one of the ten greatest threats to humanity

#5

Post by garmaine » Sat, Oct 31, 2020, 9:19 AM UTC

The hell it is. Make any chart productive use of resources, and you’ll find it correlates perfectly with population. There is no such thing as natural resources—there are only raw materials. Which are transformed into productive applications by the creativity of people. More people means more efficient use of raw materials, and more available resources to extract from them.

The Malthusians predicted global collapse at 100M people. Then 250M people. Then 1bn, 2bn, 5bn, and 7bn. Yet somehow instead of famines we have an obesity epidemic.

Don’t believe Malthus, or the racially motivated social Darwinism that drives the horrendous “population control” human rights abuses still being perpetuated.

Re: Overpopulation one of the ten greatest threats to humanity

#6

Post by unclemase » Sat, Oct 31, 2020, 9:22 AM UTC

Good book on this by Dr. Christopher Tucker: A Planet of 3 Billion https://alumni.columbia.edu/content/planet-3-billion

Re: Overpopulation one of the ten greatest threats to humanity

#7

Post by thokalll » Sat, Oct 31, 2020, 9:43 AM UTC

I recommend reading “The prophet and the wizard” that among others things discuss overpopulation.

Many times have there been claims that the earth can not sustain a growing population, there must be an upper limit, but It is not easy to Know if we’re close to, already past, or at the limit right now

Re: Overpopulation one of the ten greatest threats to humanity

#8

Post by Rochus » Sat, Oct 31, 2020, 10:09 AM UTC

It's also interesting to note that education and government recommendations miss the most effective individual actions to contribute to environment protection; having one fewer child is by far more effective than anything else; here is a peer reviewed scientific publication: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aa7541

Re: Overpopulation one of the ten greatest threats to humanity

#9

Post by natmaka » Sat, Oct 31, 2020, 10:17 AM UTC

garmaine wrote: post #5

The hell it is. Make any chart productive use of resources, and you’ll find it correlates perfectly with population. There is no such thing as natural resources—there are only raw materials. Which are transformed into productive applications by the creativity of people. More people means more efficient use of raw materials, and more available resources to extract from them. The Malthusians predicted global collapse a…

There are many types of 'resources'. Aren't we exposed, for example, to some form of 'behavioral sink' ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_sink ), and if so isn't any practical way to tackle this some form of 'control'?

Re: Overpopulation one of the ten greatest threats to humanity

#10

Post by aaron695 » Sat, Oct 31, 2020, 11:30 AM UTC

The planet can support 100 Billion people, with current technology and keeping current ecosystems including repairing them.

Not sure why we are taking about a report with lines like these -

"Lowering the human birth rate voluntarily is surely better than the alternative of massive dieback or slaughter of billions of people in their prime."

Also not sure why we are worrying about a problem at best a 100 years in the future when fossil fuels will serve no purpose, computers will be all powerful, we will have mastered gene tech, might have space elevators etc etc