The Biggest Problem We Face.

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This is a problem that dwarfs most other problems and adds considerably to the severity of other problems that get all the attention. A real disease causing the symptoms that we try to treat. In fact, if people were honest with themselves they would admit this is the most important long-term problem facing the human race. Global warming, pollution, wars, poverty, species extinction and energy scarcity will all be diminished or eliminated as problems if this handled correctly; and will undoubtedly increase as problems if this is ignored or handled incorrectly. Albeit, we will be trading one set of difficulties for another; but the replacement set will be easily managed compared to what is in store for us if we don’t get smart.

I’m talking about overpopulation. According to the UN, the world’s population will be approximately nine billion in about forty years. If that isn’t within your lifetime, it is within your children’s. The earth does not have the resources to support that many people, which means inevitably a larger division between the rich and poor, and a terrible quality of life for billions.

What I am hoping to accomplish is to get people talking about a worldwide program to bring down the population through birth control. To shoot for a world population of between two and three billion within this century. It needs to be worldwide, serious and soon.

There will be more posts in the future of course, because this too important to ignore.

http://www.un.org/esa/population/unpop.htm


http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/ageing/Graph.pdf

[DontTreadOnMe]

1. Are you sure?

Overpopulation!

I thought Gay Civil Rights was the biggest problem the earth is facing? :)

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2. Sorry,

[ColbertWatcher]

3. Rendering a group of people Constitutionally invisible is a pretty big problem.

All joking aside.

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5. I can't speak for anyone else, but Prop 8 pissed me off. But, I haven't seen anyone here that

supported it. People are arguing here about who to blame. (Kind of sucks when we're all on the same side.)

[ColbertWatcher]

6. It looked to me as though the disagreements were about how not to fault religion ...

... for yet another in a long list of divisions, created by religion.

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7. Touche! That was good.

[ColbertWatcher]

9. Thank you, but I wasn''t going for a "point" just speaking my piece. n/t

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11. I know. Meant: LOL

[ColbertWatcher]

12. : ) n/t

[readmoreoften]

4. Well if you kill all us gay folk, you can make the world 10% lighter and we won't spam your threads

with our grief and political disenfranchisement!

[ColbertWatcher]

8. "we won't spam your threads" LOL! n/t

[xochi]

10. Wow, 9 billion! This planet was already overpopulated 3 billion people ago!

Call me cynical and pessimistic, but I don't think we're gonna make it to 40 years from now, at least not without some major, man-made environmental catastrophe and unimaginable suffering. Not with a global economy based on greed, which is what our free-trade, free-market, consumer-based, capitalistic corporatism is. If suffering produces consciousness, then perhaps we'll wake up before it's too late, but already "one in four mammals, one in eight birds, a third of all amphibians and 70 percent of the world's assessed plants in the 2007 IUCN Red List are in jeopardy...."

http://www.iucn.org/

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13. Absolutely. And thanks for getting my thread back on track; where it should be.

[xochi]

17. Well, I, too, was devastated and angered by Prop 8, but

preaching to the choir or venting inappropriately isn't gonna change things and reflects political naivete, generates opposition to your cause, etc. Just causes have suffered political setbacks before--nothing new there--and we have to learn to fight effectively, where it counts. No sense kicking the dog.

[Sinti]

14. A somewhat Malthusian POV

The fact is, in much of the First World birth rates have fallen below replacement. This is largely due to the fact that people no longer need to have as many children, to ensure they have living offspring to take care of them in their old age. If we raise the standard of living in the most overpopulated regions, their birth rates will also go down, and you will achieve a better balance.

I'm firmly convinced that overpopulation doesn't cause the divide between rich and poor, the divide between rich and poor is causing overpopulation. The word "rich" in this statement should be taken to mean having more than an individual or family can reasonably use and enjoy. As Warren Buffet himself says, there are only so many nice suits you can wear, and only so many good meals you can eat.

That said, "two and three billion within this century" - never going to happen, short of a massive die off and/or forced sterilization of a large number of humans. Monsanto has created this corn that causes men to be sterile, so there's hope, I guess (yikes) :scared:

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18. I completely agree that lifting the standard of living for the third world

should be a large part of whatever program we come up with. But I won't argue about whether the divide is caused by overpopulation, or overpopulation is caused by the divide. Both the divide and overpopulation have always been with us; just more localized. But, with more people to share the same resources, there will be less to go around.

Also, if there is a political will, there will be a way.

[sutz12]

15. Well, maybe...

but it could be self-regulating.

One of the biggest brakes on population growth is wealth. Wealthier, better educated people seem to naturally have fewer children. That's why pop growth in developed countries tends to drop off, while it remains high in the 3rd world. Of course, the religious fundies also seem to have "Catholic fever" when it comes to breeding. But real education should solve that.

Raising the standard of living in the 3rd world would probably solve this problem automatically.

[Amonester]

16. We'll have to go "populate" Planet Mars, then (and beyond)...

It's either that or no more "economic growth" and all "selfish material comfort" (that is supposed to be) coming with it.

IMHO, as soon as there will be no more oil "easily" available, this whole "system" we live in will be gone (for good?).

Does that mean there won't be any computers, nor "Internets" anymore?

Damn!

[xochi]

19. This thread's getting interesting. There are enough resources

on this planet to sustain everyone comfortably, and we have the technology to create a sustainable (and peaceful) planet, but an ownership society based on free-market corporate capitalism produces neither social justice nor an equal distribution of those resources. As Mahatma Gandhi said, "the Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed." When our economic system is based on greed, disparities in wealth occur, and thus overpopulation, warfare, and starvation.

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20. There are many aspects of this that I hope people address and I'll

give more of my input in future posts. It's too big of a problem to cover everything in one. But it really does go to quality of life for billions.

[AwakeAtLast]

21. Send this post to the Duggars.

And to the channel that promoted them - is it Discovery or TLC? :shrug:

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22. Damn! I had to look them up.... Wow. 20

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23. World Population Clock

http://www.worldometers.info/population/

[xochi]

25. Yikes! I thought we were at 6 billion, but we're closer to 7!

Thanks for posting all this information!

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28. Welcome.

[sixmile]

24. Education and Jobs

How to educate and bring full employment to the masses? Therein lies the existential debate economists from the Friedman and Keynesian camps have every day.

[judasdisney]

26. $1.14 Quadrillion dollar bad-asset Derivatives Market timebomb

Not enough money in the world to save the U.S. from bankruptcy:

http://jutiagroup.com/2008/07/24/global-derivatives-market-now-valued-at-114-quadrillion/

http://baltimorechronicle.com/2008/101308Floyd.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative_(finance)

[sub.theory]

27. People aren't going to stop breeding

You are fighting against 4 billion years of evolution. Human beings, like all organism are hardwired to produce progeny. It is quite literally programmed into our genes.

The solution is start moving off world in a major way, and start creating new habitable worlds. If humans can alter the climate on Earth we can also alter the climate on Mars. If we all try to remain on Earth, you are right - we are doomed.