Room for one more? World population to reach 7 BILLION in next few days

Take a window seat flight across the USA from one coast to another. Look outside the window and come back and tell me we are over populated here. We are still a mole on this continent compared to India and China's population.
I don't understand why invisible border lines on the ground have to determine how people live and who has to die.

reply to post by blackhillsbrutality


I was listening to a report the other day about this..and they said that america (especially whites) are having less children. The white population is decreasing at an alarming rate..while the hispanic population is changing the face of america. I think they said americans have on average 2 children..while hispanics have 4..but I could have those numbers wrong. The radio program was talking about the rise of hispanics into govt. positions..

reply to post by steveknows


I do agree with everything you said, however there is one other minor problem to consider. We have had a dramatic increase in Corn, wheat, Bean, and other grains productions due to the fertilizers and insecticides spread across the lands. Without those chemicals production would drop considerably. If that happened you would indeed see a mass kill off of population. We may or may not be able to support 7 Billion mouths to feed, but clearly there is a limit to the amount of production that can come out of one acre, not to mention that with the chemicals flowing into the ocean, Sea life is diminishing at an alarming rate. That is a problem of concern. We would have to increase food production and further contaminate the environment to do so if it is even possible. But even in that there is a limit. I don't know what that limit might be, but just crunching the numbers is unsettling.

Originally posted by ashtonhz8907

Originally posted by steveknows
Did you know that humanty would not have this level of technology or lifestyle without there being the amount of people in the that there is today? Give or a take a million.

In order for us to do our day to day things and to have what we have it takes thousands of people working for you to do it. And those thousands need thousands.

One person puts a pc mouse together in a factory but it took thousands of people to get it there in the first place from hundreds of different industries.

If not for thousands of people working for you you would not have. A bed, bed clothes, clothes, a shower, a house, a car, a road, a shop, food on the shelves, a tv, a stereo, a microwave, a phone and everythign else you use and need.

If the population dropped to say a billion tomorrow so would the level of living and technology.

I understand but there has to be a point that we stop, we can't expand forever.

Oh I agree but there needs to some tough choices made.

We would have to accept that we wouldn't advance beyond where we are now if we stopped breeding.

Or the world governmnets would need to open more land and say bye bye to national parks.

Or we'd need to terraform areas that aren't hospitible to humans.

And the above are only short term solutions. Also taking away religion and philosophy. The sole purpose of life is reproduction.

I think the world governments need to get serious with space exploration and perhaps start with terraforming Mars.

reply to post by JibbyJedi


totally...where i live you could easily add 1 million or so people...actually..people come here please!!!

We need GOOD restaurants, shopping, jobs, etc. Come here we have 1000's upon 1000's of acres of corn..I would rather see people than corn Our town even has that TIFF thing...no taxes for opening a biz in certain areas..

reply to post by fixer1967


i read somewhere that algae produces most of the oxygen. most people think its tree's and whatnot.

even if that is wrong, theres lots of plants that have a decent oxygen output that can be grown in 2-3 months.

and theres plenty of space...and sunlight..................


................for now (dun dun duuuuuuuun)

Great news. I would personally find it more disturbing if the population growth was slowing!

Now if only we could stop fighting each other, and start the progress of spreading beyond this rock

Talk about space? Australia is the 6th largest country in the world.

7,686,850 square kilometres (2,967,909 square miles)

But only has a population of 22 milion people.

Mind you it's the dryest inhabited continent in the world so to fill it up with people would cause a real water problem.

Have you ever taken a trip across the United States? If so, have you notice there is so much land that is not occupied. You can drive forever and all you see is empty land. Over population is a lie. We are just crowded into cities and the world is very poorly managed.

Originally posted by JibbyJedi
Take a window seat flight across the USA from one coast to another. Look outside the window and come back and tell me we are over populated here. We are still a mole on this continent compared to India and China's population.
I don't understand why invisible border lines on the ground have to determine how people live and who has to die.

People can't live on the ground that's needed for crops and cattle. And without that we'd starve. So what looks like alot of space is alot of the time still actually part of the human clutter.

121 people per square mile of dry land on earth. 7 billion people is a very large number. Getting mobile phone service to all 7 billion is going to be a modern marvel.

Originally posted by DavidsHope
reply to post by steveknows

 

I do agree with everything you said, however there is one other minor problem to consider. We have had a dramatic increase in Corn, wheat, Bean, and other grains productions due to the fertilizers and insecticides spread across the lands. Without those chemicals production would drop considerably. If that happened you would indeed see a mass kill off of population. We may or may not be able to support 7 Billion mouths to feed, but clearly there is a limit to the amount of production that can come out of one acre, not to mention that with the chemicals flowing into the ocean, Sea life is diminishing at an alarming rate. That is a problem of concern. We would have to increase food production and further contaminate the environment to do so if it is even possible. But even in that there is a limit. I don't know what that limit might be, but just crunching the numbers is unsettling.

Hey I agree with you. I'm not against slowing the growth of population but the question is how will it be done?

I don't think with the current order of world governments and individual countries it can be done. I'm most likely opening myself up for abuse here but I think a point will come where we're going to be needing a world government and borders are going to have to go bye bye because there will need to be a unified solution and that will never happen under the current concept of nationality.

What I mean is if you have a country with low agriculture and it imports most of it's stock it doesn't care what's happening to the land outside of its own country and it won't want to hand over money to find a solution if you know what I mean.

reply to post by steveknows


we will be colonizing other planets long before that day ever comes.

Wouldn't make a big deal out of this population rise and compare it the the world death rates altho it's no surprise that asia leads the world's population increase which is why they are consuming more of their own natural resources which is why they are going around to the rest of the world buying up theirs.

However when it comes to china's population their birth rates may be high but their preference for boys over girls is why the china will experience a dramatic population decline with respect to that rise.

The west such as America thanks to epa regulations we aren't using all of our natural resources that we possibly can at the moment some could look at that as a silver lining and the other countries have used all theirs up.

whatever way you want to look at it 7 billion and 10 billion will put a dramatic strain on everyone.

Originally posted by Domo1
reply to post by steveknows

 

That's a very good point to consider. I certainly wouldn't be typing on this laptop if someone ( or thousands ) hadn't had a hand in it. Some people here would probably be all for that though

That's true and I admit myself that sometimes the idea of being a hunter gatherer is appealing when worne out from the rat race but the reality of it is that if we didn't keep up with our level of technology and food production billions would starve.

also folsk dont forget that when your factoring in all this resource stuff, there are animals and bugs that eat and breathe the same resources.

and then you have to factor in those same creatures acting as resources for humans. the lion king song comes to mind...

Originally posted by UnrelentingLurker
reply to post by steveknows

 

we will be colonizing other planets long before that day ever comes.

Actually I'd debate that we won't be colonising planets until that day has come.

Originally posted by UnrelentingLurker
reply to post by fixer1967

 

i read somewhere that algae produces most of the oxygen. most people think its tree's and whatnot.

even if that is wrong, theres lots of plants that have a decent oxygen output that can be grown in 2-3 months.

and theres plenty of space...and sunlight..................


................for now (dun dun duuuuuuuun)

Phytoplankton contributes to over 1/2 of the oxygen in our atmosphere...yet we still continue to treat the oceans like a disposal site.

Originally posted by neo96
Wouldn't make a big deal out of this population rise and compare it the the world death rates altho it's no surprise that asia leads the world's population increase which is why they are consuming more of their own natural resources which is why they are going around to the rest of the world buying up theirs.

However when it comes to china's population their birth rates may be high but their preference for boys over girls is why the china will experience a dramatic population decline with respect to that rise.

The west such as America thanks to epa regulations we aren't using all of our natural resources that we possibly can at the moment some could look at that as a silver lining and the other countries have used all theirs up.

whatever way you want to look at it 7 billion and 10 billion will put a dramatic strain on everyone.

edit on 15-10-2011 by neo96 because: (no reason given)

Not if the resources were used wisely...but we all know that isn't going to happen.

Obama and his crew better pick up the pace if they want to drop this number any significant amount. That was just my intro line into addressing population control. The fact that the number hit 7 billion is cool and all, but realistically, how many people can our world and its economies actually support?

There is no humane method of population control, and the fact that wars and conflicts are constant is the main reason that population hasn't become a huge issue. I suppose the most humane method of population control would be to force birth control, but there are some that would argue that is actually not humane.

Even if that were implemented, the population is something that increases exponentially, as someone has kids, and then their kids have kids, etc. Maybe not right now, but at some point in the future this is going to be a global crisis that surpasses any other crisis that is happening at the time.