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The Global Population Crisis That Never Was

rogerpielkejr.substack.com

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Re: The Global Population Crisis That Never Was

#71

Post by jonnycomputer »

rayiner wrote: post #46
captain_price7 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with your broader point- one shouldn't tell others that their life isn't worth living. But I'm afraid maybe you're downplaying the struggles a poor Bangladeshi have to go through. I currently live in Bangladesh. And my father made a off-handed comment few days ago about how there isn't many "thin" people in our village anymore. When he grew up in 60s, a big chunk of our village people didn't have two meals re…

My dad works in public health, including in Bangladesh, I’m well aware of the issues. (That said, I think the anti-natalism of the international development field is under appreciated as a double-edged sword, as countries like South Korea and Singapore are beginning to find out.) My point isn’t in disagreement with yours. Of course being poor is worse than being richer. My point is that even in Bangladesh, the level…

Thank you both for expanding my perspective.

Re: The Global Population Crisis That Never Was

#72

Post by BurningFrog »

namdnay wrote: post #65
BurningFrog wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We should always value humans over other species, and if you disagree you're an enemy of our species.

You can value humans over other species without assigning a nil value to the latter

What does that mean concretely?

Would you have something like an exchange rate where 2000 chicken lives = 1 human life?

Re: The Global Population Crisis That Never Was

#73

Post by eeZah7Ux »

jcelerier wrote: post #54
simonh wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The top 7 regions creating refugees are Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar, Somalia or Democratic Republic of Congo. None of them do so due to overpopulation, or even environmental or ecological crisis. They're all political issues.

> They're all political issues. ... where do you think these political issues come from ?

Inequality mostly. Which is due to the economical system, and wealthy countries are largely responsible for this.

Re: The Global Population Crisis That Never Was

#74

Post by i_haz_rabies »

lupire wrote: post #70
Synaesthesia wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bangladesh has some struggles. It is the most densely populated (large) country on earth. They have major floods often which cause big problems. But they manage to survive. Thus there isn't really a threat to anyone else. There's enough food to feed everyone, and the only problem remaining is political and with distribution. It would not be difficult or expensive to end world hunger, cents a person.

This is silly. If it only cost cents to feed a person, food wouldn't cost dollars.

A cup of rice and dry chickpeas will feed a person for cents.

Re: The Global Population Crisis That Never Was

#75

Post by saddlerustle »

74B5 wrote: post #48

Poluation x Goods/Services x Energy/Resource demand x Waste production = Human impact on earth It seems fairly common to picture the earth heading to an unstable overpopulation but imo this is only a comfortably narrowed down perspective on large scale problems. Especially for western countries, it is tempting to focus on the global population issue because this is primarily a phenomenon of rural, poor regions, so no…

It's possible to generate energy, harvest resources and store waste with minimal impact to other life on earth.

Re: The Global Population Crisis That Never Was

#76

Post by i_haz_rabies »

throwaway3699 wrote: post #36
jojobas wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One may be happy in a mud hut eating nothing but corn, but generally not after getting used to proper construction, sanitation, food etc. Recent history shows that there's no holding previously backwards countries from advancing their consumption. As Russians joke, the global famine will come when the Chinese start using forks. China, India and SE Asia are quickly upping their per-capita production and consumption of…

> We have no moral right to say "Nonono, you can't do what we did in the 20th century and live like us!". Yes, we do. Now that we know what the effects of climate change could be. That being said, we do have a moral duty to help out. Populations tend to grow slower when they become "more advanced", so it might not be the end of the world.

We would have a moral right if we repented and retrofitted our society to be sustainable. We're not doing that.

Re: The Global Population Crisis That Never Was

#77

Post by saddlerustle »

m0llusk wrote: post #58

This is interesting political analysis, but the fact remains that the global population is topping out at several billion with almost all arable land already being farmed and ecological impacts accumulating. All these related problems may have solutions, but reframing the situation doesn't really address potential for improvement.

If we were running low on resources for food production you'd expect to see food prices increasing. But broadly, food is cheaper than ever.

Re: The Global Population Crisis That Never Was

#78

Post by riffraff »

m0llusk wrote: post #58

This is interesting political analysis, but the fact remains that the global population is topping out at several billion with almost all arable land already being farmed and ecological impacts accumulating. All these related problems may have solutions, but reframing the situation doesn't really address potential for improvement.

Isn't a lot of land in the developing world still producing far less then it could?

Re: The Global Population Crisis That Never Was

#79

Post by slothtrop »

saddlerustle wrote: post #77
m0llusk wrote: post #58

This is interesting political analysis, but the fact remains that the global population is topping out at several billion with almost all arable land already being farmed and ecological impacts accumulating. All these related problems may have solutions, but reframing the situation doesn't really address potential for improvement.

If we were running low on resources for food production you'd expect to see food prices increasing. But broadly, food is cheaper than ever.

Ecological damage and collapses occur well before we'd run out of resources. Just because we can encroach on more and more land, at the expense of the environment, doesn't mean there isn't a problem.

Re: The Global Population Crisis That Never Was

#80

Post by yellowstuff »

BurningFrog wrote: post #63

As I've gotten older and seen predicted doomsdays come and go, I've started to think that expecting armageddon is an innate part of human psychology. I'm not aware of any era or place where many people have not expected the world to meet disaster soon. It's a part of all major religions.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you. It could be that worrying about doomsday is an innate human trait, and that as the article asserts, certain types of worries are motivated by racism.

I still think it's a good idea to allocate some resources towards mitigating low probability, high impact events.

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