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The human species adds approximately 238,000 people per day (births minus deaths) to the planet. It took all of human history until the early 19th century to reach 1 billion people (http://www.prb.org/
Author, Daniel Quinn has addressed population growth in his work (https://m.youtube.com/watch?
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So what is the root of our enormous population growth? It seems to me, we simply have to look at our historical timeline. Since our population quickly accelerated in the early 1800s we would have to look at what changed with our living arrangement to see the cause of such overshoot. The advent of the Industrial Revolution coincides perfectly (or directly) with our massive jump in population. Fossil fuels not only allowed industrial advancement, they also drove human civilizations to expand on a massive, global scale. The Agricultural Revolution developed our civilizations while fossil fuels provided the previously unprecedented energy that permitted our numbers to exponentially rise. We now could create more food, stably feed more mouths and even create a food surplus for the future. Given this respite from our immediate survival struggle, we settled down to exploit every resource each ecosystem had to offer. This exploitation further increased our numbers. With the discovery and subsequent use of fossil fuels, our efficiency increased so enormously, we could now produce day and night. No longer were we solely dependent upon the sun for our energy needs; oil became our liquid sunlight. Food production was catapulted to an entirely different level once agriculture was introduced to petroleum. These new energy sources increased the work output of people and in many cases replaced people altogether. Efficiency became the name of the game. It will also be our end game.
Currently we have nearly seven and a half billion people on the planet. We have plenty of food but we have a hierarchical global system that is run by a relatively small group of powerful elite. Where there is power there is injustice. There cannot be wealth without poverty. If we continue to follow the civilized model of exporting and importing our goods (including food) through massive institutions and enormous systems, then we will continue to overshoot our numbers, have concentrated wealth and worldwide poverty. Eventually our global economy will collapse due to a number of factors that include (among other agents) climate change, resource depletion and of course, population overshoot.
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The incredible disparities between the privileged and those oppressed by such privilege, is staggering. Population growth exacerbates the gap between the haves and the have-nots. Currently 78% (http://apps.who.int/
Patriarchy also fuels population growth as a foundation of industrial civilization. Countless women around the world are being forced to have children. Religious extremism in many faiths contributes as well as cultural norms that are rarely questioned by men. Girls being married off at a young age, then having children themselves, is a continuing problem throughout the world.
One counter argument heard concerning the curbing of population is that people will starve if we produce less food. First, that’s already happening. Second, this will be a gradual process if we do it voluntarily because that’s the speed at which massive populations move. Finally, less food available means we will lack the personal energy source to produce. Yeast need to feed to produce and so do we.
Moving away from the fossil fuel game will help curb our numbers dramatically. Moving away from the civilized model of massive populated cities and concentrated wealth will help even more. Neither, of course, will happen voluntarily. We will continue to negotiate with the non-negotiable concept of infinite growth on a finite planet. We will continue to feel entitled to anything and everything this planet has to offer because that’s the only life that billions of us have ever known. We will continue to throw technological solutions at a predicament. We will continue to believe that civilization and therefore industrial civilization produces solutions when in fact they’ve taken us down a dead-end street. Civilization, in any form, is a predicament and our failure to realize it will be the reason our population and ultimately our species won’t continue.
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Photo Credit: Getty Images
No species, including humans, can control the size of its population. Neither compulsory nor voluntary controls work.
please correct exasperates to exacerbates for us OCD types
I just googled “curbing population growth” and got 334,000 results. I don’t see how discussing it is somehow “taboo”. There are plenty of institutes, think tanks and academics who discuss it all the time, as the first page of search results shows. What I do think is still taboo is simply admitting that it is an upstream problem to global climate change that cannot and will not be addressed – and that this problem has led us past the point of no return in terms of near term human extinction. Now, as this taboo subject becomes more widely discussed in… Read more »
Think tanks are not in the mainstream consciousness of most folks. Outside of my immediate doomer anti-civ groups I don’t hear the conversation. It’s certainly not on the news.
Only 20% of the adults in this country have a college education. Mostly, they’re thinking about much more short term issues, like having enough to cover the bills, raising the kids, etc. Since most people really can’t do a think about global population statistics, they leave the issue to others who they hope have more insight than they do. And – as much as you might not want to hear it – that’s a reasonable position to take. In no way does that make the discussion “TABOO”. What is penetrating the mainstream consciousness at this point is the issue of… Read more »
Please show me the mainstream headlines and broadcasts concerning population overshoot and I’ll concede to your point. It’s taboo because the consequences and alternatives are taboo. I hardly think the headline is National Enquirer caliber but that’s hardly worth a mention. Raising consciousness is all there is and all that matters. Why? Because only raised consciousness can bring about action. Not action that saves a species but action that considers the present moment. Population is part of the equation in our demise. It’s another piece of the puzzle when it comes to seeing the reality of our predicament. The more… Read more »
“Please show me the mainstream headlines and broadcasts concerning population overshoot and I’ll concede to your point. ”
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You didn’t understand what I wrote.
I said that the idea of climate change (not population growth) has penetrated the mainstream consciousness, and there are news articles every day. I know that, because I follow Google News.
We agree that the problem of population growth isn’t really in the mainstream news everyday. But (from what I can tell) we disagree about whether it really matters at this point.
And finally, we disagree about whether the population problem is “taboo” or not.
Mike Sliwa –
You’re Guy McPherson’s buddy – and co-host the doomer radio program. You are convinced that near term human extinction is inevitable – that we have passed a tipping point.
I don’t disagree with you.
So why this rant about a subject which is both unfixable and irrelevant at this point? What’s the purpose of your diatribe?
Because it seems to me that something as obvious as adding humans indefinitely is obliviously ignored and should at the very least…be mentioned.
OK, let’s mention it. First, let’s mention that China implemented its (in)famous 1 child policy – and they could do it because they are a totalitarian regime that can exert 100% control over its people. Second, let’s mention that this is not a viable solution in other parts of the world – even if you wish it was. Third, let’s mention that among western white first world populations, the birthrate is less than two – so these wealthy white populations are declining by themselves. Next, let’s mention that the great growth in population is happening in Africa, India and many… Read more »
Howard…not discussing, mentioning, acknowledging, dissecting something because it can’t be solved is about as egocentric as it gets. Go have a smoke…the kind that chills you out.
Hello! You are missing something here in all of this. We are not finished yet. If by some miracle of human awareness the human species as a whole reduced its population growth to 10% of what it is, we might be able to reduce the population within a few years. Add sustainable cultivation methods to the mix along with reducing total output via reduction of livestock based cultivation (feeding our meat). Look into alley cropping for a great start. We need to go back to pre-industrial revolution cultivation techniques. Add renewable energy to this formula. Also doable & within the… Read more »