Is the country full up

[*_ash_*]

I'm not sure what your personal opinion is on these matters, but:

When a species is doing well, exponential population growth is to be expected. If the various doom sayers of the past century had been in any way accurate, population would have flattened out (limited by disease and/or food supply) and then you'd have a genuine crisis on your hands.

 

I've posted many threads about the subject, but only can find one now from 4 years ago, which was a bit tongue in cheek, as I was resting whilst studying.

 

I think as humans, and without the intervention of people who give a toss (for personal or political reasons), we would probably have wiped out every animal [larger than a fox for example] on the planet by now. The only things that have a chance are small creatures. Given the second graph I posted, it seems to me that the links to our intelligence [creating our numbers with medical advancements etc.] our numbers/and the question of over-population are quite obvious.

[skinz]

A country is full up when it reaches the limit of the number of people it can feed from within it's own shores. We passed that point long ago.

 

What? Turnip soup and lard butties? Speak for yourself..keep importing the stuff.

[*_ash_*]

What? Turnip soup lard bit Speak for yourself..keep importing the stuff.

 

... and the people who dig up the turnips

 

-

 

A country is full up when it reaches the limit of the number of people it can feed from within it's own shores. We passed that point long ago.

 

If HHazz premise was correct (see bold), then he/she is probably right with the unbold conclusion.

 

However, the question should first be, 'what constitutes being full-up?', and I don't think HHazz premise is necessarily correct (in fact, I'd go as far as saying it is most probably wrong).

[unbeliever]

A country is full up when it reaches the limit of the number of people it can feed from within it's own shores. We passed that point long ago.

 

This was perhaps true hundreds of years ago before we had routine international trade. Unless you're proposing full de-industrialisation we're never going to get back to producing all our own food.

 

I like people.

Eventually as living standards continue to increase and the entire world becomes the first world, population growth will gradually fall off and level out at I'd guess about 10^10, where it will stay for an extended period. Eventually new frontiers will be forged and population will grow to expand into them.

More people is nice. There's no need for anybody to manufacture a crisis when food production is growing faster than population. At any rate, attempting to control these things is counter-productive. None of the catastrophes predicted from population growth over the last century or so have actually happened and I see no reason to believe the latest round of predictions either.

[Marx]

We are a virus that has the potential to kill most life on the planet. Look at our track record to date. Want to guess how many atomic bombs have been tested by nations looking to strut their stuff?

 

We consume fresh vegetables flown in from Africa while Africans starve. The media reflects our narcissism because the truth might influence our spending and their advertising revenue. We are trained to consume from birth, to buy stuff we don't need so capitalism can continue to keep the 1% wealthy. Wealth is seen as a virtue, profit is everything. The greedy bankers screw the economy and are rewarded for it. The disabled and poor are demonised.

 

Where did this concept of countries originate from? How can we be content while eight million children die every year, mainly from preventable diseases? The wealth is with the corporations that can exploit any situation and make war profitable. Our own government is little more than a franchise.

 

Our children will not be able to forgive us. Immigration isn't the problem. We are the problem.

[skinz]

This was perhaps true hundreds of years ago before we had routine international trade. Unless you're proposing full de-industrialisation we're never going to get back to producing all our own food.

 

I like people.

Eventually as living standards continue to increase and the entire world becomes the first world, population growth will gradually fall off and level out at I'd guess about 10^10, where it will stay for an extended period. Eventually new frontiers will be forged and population will grow to expand into them.

More people is nice. There's no need for anybody to manufacture a crisis when food production is growing faster than population. At any rate, attempting to control these things is counter-productive. None of the catastrophes predicted from population growth over the last century or so have actually happened and I see no reason to believe the latest round of predictions either.

 

Yes, but you seem to live in happy land. There are those that live with sinister thoughts of doom, gloom and pessimism, with a bogey man in every dark corner. It's almost their recurrent signature.

 

Even when we have it bad, we've never had it so good.

[sh3rb3t]

How can we be content while eight million children die every year, mainly from preventable diseases?

 

So how are you proposing to over-rule the influence of the church in this matter? I believe you are referring to third world countries, where they observe the incredibly fallous claims that condoms do not prevent fatal STD transmission (fatal since these countries do not have the medical capacity to deal with the issue), or else they have sinned.

 

Apologies for my bluntness, but WE can be perfectly content, since we have access to education, and we are not blinded by the Catholic church, or in fact any religious indoctrination (thus far....).

[unbeliever]

We are a virus that has the potential to kill most life on the planet. Look at our track record to date. Want to guess how many atomic bombs have been tested by nations looking to strut their stuff?

 

We consume fresh vegetables flown in from Africa while Africans starve. The media reflects our narcissism because the truth might influence our spending and their advertising revenue. We are trained to consume from birth, to buy stuff we don't need so capitalism can continue to keep the 1% wealthy. Wealth is seen as a virtue, profit is everything. The greedy bankers screw the economy and are rewarded for it. The disabled and poor are demonised.

 

Where did this concept of countries originate from? How can we be content while eight million children die every year, mainly from preventable diseases? The wealth is with the corporations that can exploit any situation and make war profitable. Our own government is little more than a franchise.

 

Our children will not be able to forgive us. Immigration isn't the problem. We are the problem.

 

I tend to agree with the sentiment that a poor person in a foreign country is equally deserving of our help as a poor person down the street.

The fact is that world food production, even African food production, is growing faster than the respective populations so population growth is not the real problem.

Africa is crippled primarily by poor government and poor infrastructure and offering them money in exchange for their food surplus is a critical component in addressing these issues.

There will remain for some time at least some African countries which are in a mess. That's probably out of our control. But as the continent is made gradually richer by trade with the first world they have the opportunity to better their lot.

[Happ Hazzard]

What? Turnip soup and lard butties? Speak for yourself..keep importing the stuff.

What about when we can't import stuff?

[El Cid]

 

The loss of species from the planet is sad and should be discouraged, but does not threaten the future of humanity.

 

 

The stored energy below our feet is being used at an unsustainable rate. The biodiversity and ecosystem is a complex thing that could crash in years to come. Our large population of bees pollinates many plants, bees are under threat at the moment, with their numbers on the decline. The fish in our oceans is on the decline, on a global scale.

 

Some species of animal limit their population when over population occurs, us humans are not that clever.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Surexploitation_morue_surp%C3%AAcheEn.jpg