Stats is not my strong point, but I just don’t see the huge spike in population. The type of spike in population growth that will cause a problem.
Media is full of myths and facts. Trying to ‘make heads or tails’ from what I read.
Is overpopulation a problem?
Exposing The Myths
Myth 1
People are hungry because of scarcity, both of food and land.
Scarcity cannot be considered the cause of hunger when even in the worst years of famine there is always plenty of food in the world - enough in grain alone to provide everyone in the world with 3000 to 4000 calories a day, not counting all the beans, root crops, fruits, nuts, vegetables and non grain-fed meat?
And what about land scarcity?
We looked at the most crowded countries in the world to see if we could find a correlation between population density and hunger. We could not. Bangladesh, for example has just half the people per cultivated hectare that Taiwan has. Yet Taiwan has no starvation while people in Bangladesh often experience food shortages. China has more than twice as many people for each cultivated hectare as many other countries. Yet in China people are not hungry.
Conversely, in Central America and in the Caribbean, where as much as 70% of the children are undernourished, at least half of the agricultural land (and the best land) grows crops for export - not food for the local people.
What, in your books, “will cause a problem”? Shoulder-to-shoulder humanity across the world’s landmasses, obviously. How about too many people living large: in largish homes, eating meat, eating foods produced globally, consuming large amounts of energy? Is the problem then too many people, or too many people living well? Is it a problem if we crowd out other species, or despoil their habitats on a large scale?
Overpopulation, being too much population for the arable land to support (given the farming technology and infrastructure available) is already a serious local problem in many parts of the world, mainly third world countries. There was a photo in the paper today (Taipei Times?) of a Nigerian woman holding out her emaciated starving child.
In the West we have enough land to feed ourselves, and to spare. But modern farming is almost totally dependent on technology and the fuel to drive it. If, for whatever reason, the gas stopped flowing, then there would be no way to drive the tractors and heavy machinery, no way to transport the pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers.
Overpopulation has already had a very severe impact on many countries , including Taiwan. I’m sure residents of this country a 100 years ago would be extremely shocked to see the cities that sprawl across almost the entire Western coast.
They would also be shocked to note the lack of almost all large mammals, wild river fish, most birds and sealife. They would note the acrid smell in the air from exhaust burning, the hazy skies, the smelly water, the lack of frost and mist in formerly forested areas.
My wife is from Miaoli. Recently we tried to ascertain whether there had been monkeys and what wildlife had existed there. It seems monkeys had been common in the surrounding hills until about 40 years ago according to her grandmother. Then most of the ground dwelling birds disappeared and small mammals. Places named after deer haven’t seen any deer for 60 years. Same with places named after clouded leopards. They concreted the rivers to control water flow and cut down the bamboo forests. Even when my wife was a child they still had freshwater crabs and shellfish there. It is now polluted from fertilizer and sewage runoff. There are also more dwellings being built all the time. There are Thailand snails everywhere, a pest that has no predators in Taiwan.
Now people go to Miaoli and say, ahh, what a lovely place. In fact it used to be so much better.
Because you were born and grew up in this depleted environment you don’t know the richness that previously existed. To any casual observer who was transported here from ancient times the first thing they would note is the massive number of people and their associated concrete structures, roads and farms. To them it would an absolute disaster environmentally wise, a country unrecognisable to what they grew up and loved. To you it is fine, even looks like it is progressing.
It depends on how you look at it I guess. Enough land/food/water/air etc exists to support the current human population, and I presume quite a bit more, so in that sense the planet isn’t overpopulated. However, obviously it isn’t evenly distributed, so certain localities are overpopulated. Also there’s the question of whether it’s wise to have a continually growing population, even if the resources are there to keep them from starving
[quote=“ice raven”]Overpopulation, being too much population for the arable land to support (given the farming technology and infrastructure available) is already a serious local problem in many parts of the world, mainly third world countries. There was a photo in the paper today (Taipei Times?) of a Nigerian woman holding out her emaciated starving child.
In the West we have enough land to feed ourselves, and to spare. But modern farming is almost totally dependent on technology and the fuel to drive it. If, for whatever reason, the gas stopped flowing, then there would be no way to drive the tractors and heavy machinery, no way to transport the pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers.[/quote]
+1
This is very true. Due to the fact that a large part of the world’s population just has enough calories to get by day by day, the current situation is not good as it depends on no big glitches in this complex global system. And as we have seen, problems do come out of nowhere, whether that is the ozone hole, climate change, credit crunches etc.
I’m just quoting this because it deserves to be quoted.
[quote=“headhonchoII”]Overpopulation has already had a very severe impact on many countries , including Taiwan. I’m sure residents of this country a 100 years ago would be extremely shocked to see the cities that sprawl across almost the entire Western coast.
They would also be shocked to note the lack of almost all large mammals, wild river fish, most birds and sealife. They would note the acrid smell in the air from exhaust burning, the hazy skies, the smelly water, the lack of frost and mist in formerly forested areas.
My wife is from Miaoli. Recently we tried to ascertain whether there had been monkeys and what wildlife had existed there. It seems monkeys had been common in the surrounding hills until about 40 years ago according to her grandmother. Then most of the ground dwelling birds disappeared and small mammals. Places named after deer haven’t seen any deer for 60 years. Same with places named after clouded leopards. They concreted the rivers to control water flow and cut down the bamboo forests. Even when my wife was a child they still had freshwater crabs and shellfish there. It is now polluted from fertilizer and sewage runoff. There are also more dwellings being built all the time. There are Thailand snails everywhere, a pest that has no predators in Taiwan.
Now people go to Miaoli and say, ahh, what a lovely place. In fact it used to be so much better.
Because you were born and grew up in this depleted environment you don’t know the richness that previously existed. To any casual observer who was transported here from ancient times the first thing they would note is the massive number of people and their associated concrete structures, roads and farms. To them it would an absolute disaster environmentally wise, a country unrecognisable to what they grew up and loved. To you it is fine, even looks like it is progressing.[/quote]
Excellent read. Bookmarked the article as there is too much info for one intake.
“The United States is third among countries in the total growth of its population every year, after India and China. Despite near replacement level fertility, immigration is driving growth that could cause the U.S. population to grow to 1 billion by the end of this century. U.S. population growth is a subject of great concern on two levels: global and domestic. On the global level, growth in the number of U.S. residents, who consume and pollute at a rate roughly ten times the per capita rates in developing countries, leads to a greater environmental burden by the U.S. on the rest of the world. Adding to the numbers of such mega-consumers is not in the world’s interest.”
On a domestic level, U.S. population growth is leading to loss of open space, added air pollution, water depletion, increased dependence on foreign oil, and a lowering in the quality of life. In 1973, the U.S. had to import 38% of its oil. The figure now is 66%. Because of population growth, the projection is that by 2025, the U.S. will be dependent on foreign oil for 78% of its supply needs. The Census Department projects a 40% increase in U.S. population in the next 43 years, growing from 300 million now to 438 million in 2050."
Sorry for the cut and paste method, but sharing what I’m learning.
Will make more of an educated comment in due course.
Many people are not aware that world population growth continues at a rate of 80 million persons per year globally. That’s the equivalent of adding a new United States every four years – or, more accurately in terms of poverty levels, a new Ethiopia every year.
Nor do they perceive the impact of such growth on the global environment, including threats to climate stability, ocean fisheries, wilderness areas, biodiversity, energy supplies, fresh water supplies, and forests, along with the poverty, ill health and human suffering that result from unplanned childbearing.
Population growth also has disastrous consequences in terms of soil erosion, paving of prime farmland, increased flooding, overgrazing of grasslands, salination of soil through irrigation, exhaustion of underground aquifers (used for irrigation), destruction of coral reefs, siltation of dam backwaters, and species extinction. In addition, many of the world’s fisheries face collapse – in large part because the world’s fishing fleet has a fishing capacity twice that of the sustainable yield of the world’s wild fisheries.
To ignore these issues and declare the problem over is a calamitous mistake.
I highly recommend watching this video (playlist) explaining the consequences of steady growth (be sure to make it to part 3 with the “bacteria in the bottle”).
[quote=“GRC22”]Stats is not my strong point, but I just don’t see the huge spike in population. The type of spike in population growth that will cause a problem.
It’s the media stats that cause these problems in my understanding of overpopulation.
arithmetics done by wiser people than me and explained in simple terms has helped to understand overpopulation problems.
Solutions: well as one individual out of 6820800000, I can only hope the powers that be are thinking, connecting, communicating, collaborating, pleading…with other powers that be
Overpopulation Summit Meeting:
Which 3 wise people would you put in charge of coming up with positive solutions?
Bwahaha… i’m having a flashback: this video is 11 years old, man!
And we are still here, and we got Obama the Charming, Our Prince Changing, he who taught us that change is where it’s at and that WE… CAN… DO… IT, yeah, man. And all those smart economists guiding him, the president, our leader of the 1-million-year Reich, the everlasting superpower with the world’s strongest military and nuclear weapons coming out of our ears. WE… WILL… DO… IT - and if it takes us to armageddon! Growth is it, man, there is no alternative. Like, what? Living with less? That’s not the American Way, man.
Let’s face it, that video is FROM a loser FOR losers! Physics and Math is for nerds - nerds like that prof from Colorado (Colorado, for crying out load!) - who does he think he is to question the wisdom of the supreme changemaster and his east coast elite? Facts? Who needs FACTS, man - we’ve got CONVICTION! That’s where it’s at, man - has anybody ever won a war with FACTS? And this is a war - mind my words - a war of the nerds, the brainies, against us, the common people. Spreading fear and uncertainty, wanting us to doubt our Prince Changing and our experts. But, you don’t fool me! “In Gold we Trust”, as our founders used to say, i mean, it’s written on every greenback, is it not? There is no problem money won’t solve, so… get lost, man… we’ll have that oil shortage figured out in a whiffy - just look at how much of that gunk is coming up out of the ground off the coast of New Orleans right now! Yippee - we’ve got oil coming at us faster than we can use it… we’ve got more than we can use, so we just burn it. Oil running out? Running out, Sir, you’re so right. It’s running out and running out and running out…
