Radical Depopulation Of The Earth - The Solution To Mankind's Problems?

[forfismum]

done Spadlet

[forfismum]

I am grateful to Wolranes,the Right Honorable Member for New York for posting a review of the book mention on slab one of this thread.It is posted down in the library section.

[GreenGoblin]

What solutions do we have other than killing people?

Killing people is a really bad idea.

[wmiddlemas]

Who is talking about killing people ? I am talking about decreasing the birthrate through contraception - that is a long way from "killing" people !

[forfismum]

Thats how it always started in the past too."This is for your own good,try this Dalkon Shield"

[wmiddlemas]

I am very familiar with the Dalkon Shield episod, but this has nothing to do with what I am proposing. Millions of women (and men) practice contraception in numerous safe ways. All I am proposing is that contraception be adopted as policy by the countries of the world as a means to reduce global population over time. As I have said before, this would be a good thing: from raising the standard of living through greater access to fundamental resources such as clean water, land, energy, etc., to a cleaner,greener envionment, with less stress on existing plant and animal species because there would be less competition from humans, etc. Again, the current growth rate in the global population is just not sustainable and will result in mass migrations of millions from climate change, lack of water, food and just the basic necessities of life, and greater tension amoung the develop nations competing for reduced resources especially oil. This will result in greater world wide tensions and conflicts.

[imp]

Originally Posted by wmiddlemas

I am very familiar with the Dalkon Shield episod, but this has nothing to do with what I am proposing. Millions of women (and men) practice contraception in numerous safe ways. All I am proposing is that contraception be adopted as policy by the countries of the world as a means to reduce global population over time. As I have said before, this would be a good thing: from raising the standard of living through greater access to fundamental resources such as clean water, land, energy, etc., to a cleaner,greener envionment, with less stress on existing plant and animal species because there would be less competition from humans, etc. Again, the current growth rate in the global population is just not sustainable and will result in mass migrations of millions from climate change, lack of water, food and just the basic necessities of life, and greater tension amoung the develop nations competing for reduced resources especially oil. This will result in greater world wide tensions and conflicts.

Yet quality of life around the globe has climbed with the rise in populations. Malthusians like yourself have been saying the sky is falling for nearly 300 years. Claims of resource shortages threatening the human race have existed for even longer.

[wmiddlemas]

Not exactly... It is true, there has been a rise in the middle class in China and India but very little if any in most parts of Africa. In fact, in all probability living standards in Africa have decreased ! Increases in living standards in other developing countries have be obtained at great costs: China is literally choking itself to death. Air pollution accounts for almost a million deaths per year there - hardly an improvement in the standard of living. In India, the Middle Class amounts to about 300 million people but again at great cost. First most of the other 900 million people still live in staggering poverty made worse by deterioration in the enviroment. Indian cities are beginning to resemble deserts. The statistics are really frightning: of Delhi's 12 million population, about 30% get less than 25 litres of water per person per day; water demand in Mumbai is 3200 million litres a day while supply is only 2700 million litres per day. Other cities in India are not faring any better, in fact water shortage is being experianced throughout the world, including the USA, Canada and Africa.

Because of an exponential growth in population, the need to build roads, houses and factories has stripped off vast amount of land from forests. Deforestation continues unabated in different parts of the world. According to teh World Resource Institue based at Washington DC the rates of rainfaorest destruction are 2.4 acres per second, 149 acres per minute, 214000 acres per day and 78 million acres per year ! Europe has less than half of its forests remaining, the United States have only 1-2% of their original forest cover.

The point is that there are many, many unseen impacts that the human need for food is having on the world’s natural resources but primarily they are on the need for addional arable land, water and energy.
I won't address energy here, the energy crisis we are experiancing today is direct result of increased demand from an ever growing population and demand for better living conditions. Obviously, solutions to the energy crisis will become more elusive in the future without some revolutionary new energy source and distribution system. Finally, global water use has increased six-fold over the last century, twice the rate of population growth, and that agriculture represents 70% of this consumption. This is probably the most serious impact of population growth and the hardest resource deficit to solve.

In summary, the expansion population and demand for food is the cause of almost all global deforestation and the single greatest threat to biodiversity and ecosystems.

[imp]

Originally Posted by wmiddlemas

Not exactly... It is true, there has been a rise in the middle class in China and India but very little if any in most parts of Africa. In fact, in all probability living standards in Africa have decreased ! Increases in living standards in other developing countries have be obtained at great costs: China is literally choking itself to death. Air pollution accounts for almost a million deaths per year there - hardly an improvement in the standard of living. In India, the Middle Class amounts to about 300 million people but again at great cost. First most of the other 900 million people still live in staggering poverty made worse by deterioration in the enviroment. Indian cities are beginning to resemble deserts. The statistics are really frightning: of Delhi's 12 million population, about 30% get less than 25 litres of water per person per day; water demand in Mumbai is 3200 million litres a day while supply is only 2700 million litres per day. Other cities in India are not faring any better, in fact water shortage is being experianced throughout the world, including the USA, Canada and Africa.

Because of an exponential growth in population, the need to build roads, houses and factories has stripped off vast amount of land from forests. Deforestation continues unabated in different parts of the world. According to teh World Resource Institue based at Washington DC the rates of rainfaorest destruction are 2.4 acres per second, 149 acres per minute, 214000 acres per day and 78 million acres per year ! Europe has less than half of its forests remaining, the United States have only 1-2% of their original forest cover.

The point is that there are many, many unseen impacts that the human need for food is having on the world’s natural resources but primarily they are on the need for addional arable land, water and energy.
I won't address energy here, the energy crisis we are experiancing today is direct result of increased demand from an ever growing population and demand for better living conditions. Obviously, solutions to the energy crisis will become more elusive in the future without some revolutionary new energy source and distribution system. Finally, global water use has increased six-fold over the last century, twice the rate of population growth, and that agriculture represents 70% of this consumption. This is probably the most serious impact of population growth and the hardest resource deficit to solve.

In summary, the expansion population and demand for food is the cause of almost all global deforestation and the single greatest threat to biodiversity and ecosystems.

EH.Net Encyclopedia: A History of the Standard of Living in the United States

No area of the planet has seen a bigger jump in its quality of life and living standards than AFRICA. Do you do any research?

[wmiddlemas]

Other than South Africa where else ?