overpopulation

do you think that there is or soon will be a problem with overpopulation? i think we are getting more crowed, but we really cant do much about it. we cant tell people not to have kids or just start killing people because theres too many. in the future even if we do have a better environment, people would still need a place to live. any ideas or comments?

 

There are huge tracts of unused land in Russia, Canada, and the United States. We're not going to run out of land for people to live on any time soon...you could fit the entire world's population in Texas and the population density wouldn't be any more than New York City.

 

The problem is endemic rather than pandemic. In some parts of the world, it is a problem. There have been famines because the population has outstripped the resources or ability to use the resources.

In the Third World, it's a problem. In Europe, the birth-rate is too low: populations are expected to contract because the birth-rate is below replacement levels.

So the answer is yes and no.

What the European nations might want to do is provide more incentives for having larger families. In industrialized nations raising a family has become too expensive. This implies state intervention, which can be a problem from a libertarian perspective, but I don't think a hands-off policy has done Europe good over the last couple of decades. The populations in Europe are aging and there will soon be a working class too small to support them.

 

We may have the space for the people to live, but the support systems (farms, water supplies, transportation, waste disposal, etc.) that people need are being overloaded.

 

We are definitely running out of arable land. It seems everything in the Northeast US at least is being flattened and nothing but housing developments are being constructed. I'd say at the very least, out country is going to have a big problem when we run out of room to grow food.

 

Our government here in OZ wants people to have more kids and even provides incentives. I hate that. "People go out and have lot of babies" Don't think so.

For our country, most of our population lives on the coasts and the only free land is the centre of the continent. That's pure desert, no way you'd get a good water source in there easily. Even if there is the space in some countries, why fill it and overpopulate. There is enough people and i for one like having only 20 million people here.

 

run out of room to grow food, like all those empty fucking lawns are good for nothing but that horrid cut grass people keep and water and cherish so much...

people are not even looking at this big picture, of course theres too many fucking humans and were growing at an insane rate if you ask me, it disgusts me to see certain people raising up to 5 children to grow up to be just like them, which is a very scary thought. and dont forget all of the poor people who 'accidently' have babies and dont have fathers to support them, our situation in america is fucked, we could send you some of us to europe but youd probably get sick of us and slice our heads off eventually or something, which i would totally be in favor of..

and why is it humans need to populate the entire earth? do you think humans are the reason the earth was created, and evolution has completley stopped, ?like humans have been a huge help to the world, pashaww... shouldnt we leave SOME natural world alone, and not take over every flipping piece of land like we have, why does no one come to this simple simple realization!?am i the only one looking forward to us running out of oil and the mindless masses be mindless masses and die off, survival of the fittest you know, lol....

 

Humans can be too arrogant for their own good

 

yea... theres a problem with over population... but we as humans dont realize what the rest of living creatures on this earth realize..... only the strong survive... if we werent tryin to save every human that was dying... then maybe we would have some more room on this planet.... sorry if im sounding "heartless" but its true... people have to die... why cant people realize this??? no instead we're keeping people on life support and pumping people with drugs so that they can live longer... damn it... all other creatures dont do this.... another thing is that most animals either kill their young or leave their young to die if there is something wrong with the young.... this is one other thing that we dont realize... war is good in the fact that it helps with this overpopulation thing.... people get killed the population goes down.. sorry to any of you i have offend but its the truth... and well you seem to want answers to over population... i hope some plague comes along to help even things out a bit.... if i die.... i guess i die... thats life

 

America the land of never enough? Nah never

 

It can & will be a problem as long as governments keep fighting over resources. There is enough to go around for all. As long as there are governments & countries that say "This is ours & no we won't share or we have to have more", then thre will always be people left out in the cold. But in the end it dosen't matter because we can't tell people not to have children or kill us all off once we reach a certain age. This is an issue that needs to be addressed by the world as a whole or we are all in trouble.

 

You don't think we're already in trouble? In general or individually with less rights etc

 

We've had many discussions on our forum about population and how many people the earth can sustain and I think that it is something that really needs to be addressed. We cannot expect to maintain our current standard of living and that of the environment whilst increasing the population at the current rate.

 

Anyone remember the lyric "Been around the world and found that only stupid people are breeding"? I amend that lyric by adding Catholics. Uneducated people breed at a fast rate than the educated... they breed earlier, faster and more often. Catholics, or even more to the point, the Catholics of the third world breed just as fast.

In Europe, the US, Canada and other "1st" world countries, families of 6 kids aren't common any more. But they sure were when our Great Grandparents were poppin'em out, eh? In countries like Brazil, and the Philippines, families of 6 kids is very, very common. Filipinos have become the Irish... no room on the island, must go elsewhere. Why? Religion... can't use BirthControl and still worship the Pope. What is the moral? Lose religion. Use your brain instead of your penis... and we will all have room to lay down when we sleep for years to come.

There is available land. Saskatchewan is full of open land. But where do you think the wheat is grown? The wheat that makes the flour that is imported to Brazil to make the bread that feeds the 6 kids that the Pope made??

 

yeap, as we are killing our earth..

 

What makes you think only Americans do this? The nations which have the least ability to support and provide food, water and other neccesities for their people have the largest population growths. The pop growth in American is negligible, and America is one of the MOST able to provide. More arable land than most other nations. more drinkable water, more resources, more space.


There is more than enough food in the world to provide for everyone. Politics prevents people who need it from getting it. Look at countries like the Sudan and Sierra Leone. Politics from insane miliitary governments prevent food and water from getting to all but those who the government want to have it. The resources, like food, are THERE, but Military Dictators stop the food from getting to the people who need it. THAT is the problem.

 

One of the most mistaken and rudest, stereotypical things I have read in a LONG time. Most Catholics in the first world can FEED their kids. I don't see it as a problem. (I have 4 kids, and was raised RC and have two Master's degrees. So what?)

 

I never said Catholics of the "1st" world can't feed their kids. I said the 3rd world can't feed their kids. I spent a great deal of time in a catholic section of the 3rd world. I saw horrible things there...

People starving a stones throw from a gold enameled church. Women living in shacks beside a polluted river, with 6 kids and pregnant again because she isn't allowed to use birth control. I was kicked out my catholic school for giving condoms to a friend! Condoms that I had mailed to me from Canada because you couldn't buy condoms in the country because it is against their religion. (BTW, the prostitutes in the area had a HIV positive rate of nearly 90%... and since condoms were basically illegal, imagine all the wives, mothers and children being infected.)

It may be the same in other 3rd world countries that aren't Catholic. I don't know, because I never lived there.

I don't think what I said was mistaken. I have seen the studies done both in my home province and in other countries. I was basically paraphrasing those studies, and suplementing it with my own experiance. Sorry if I offended you.. it was not my intention.

 

it's not an issue about how many people can fit. It is about resounces such as oil and food.

 

"Only this time [when we get to a different planet] we'll show Love, Tolerance and Compassion"

Another planet is the only place where you'll find this. It certainly won't exist here in our lifetime. People are too different, countries have different codes to live by. Even if those things you mentioned should be universal beliefs, it doesn't matter. Some don't want to agree with the enemy even for the basis of peace. It's seen as giving in to the enemy not working with them.