*controversy

Adding video to channels (Controversy) - requested by MrFisk.

This has nothing to do with overpopulation... move along.

Thanks! I'll show this in my environmental science class.

The carrying capacity for Earth is at least 10 billion humans.

We just broke 7 billion and only 1 billion of us are starving.
And that's only cause greedy wasteful societies like The United States.

Add to that the knowledge that as a country develops, its birth rate tends to level off or decline even.

Human population will level off as well. 12 billion maybe?

Add to that, sustainable technologies and philosophies like vertical indoor farms, thorium reactors and permaculture.

7 billion+ humans really doesn't seem that dangerous for Earth or ourselves.

>> ^Ryjkyj:

This has nothing to do with overpopulation... move along.

>> ^GenjiKilpatrick:

The carrying capacity for Earth is at least 10 billion humans.
We just broke 7 billion and only 1 billion of us are starving.
And that's only cause greedy wasteful societies like The United States.
Add to that the knowledge that as a country develops, its birth rate tends to level off or decline even.
Human population will level off as well. 12 billion maybe?
Add to that, sustainable technologies and philosophies like vertical indoor farms, thorium reactors and permaculture.
7 billion+ humans really doesn't seems that dangerous for Earth or ourselves.
>> ^Ryjkyj:
This has nothing to do with overpopulation... move along.



That's exactly my point. Why are people so goddamn defensive about overpopulation? What use could we possibly have for filling the earth to "carrying capacity?"

Fuck, as a matter of fact Genji, you're right. We could probably get that number up to a hundred-billion if we just covered the entire surface of the Earth with vertical farms and thorium reactors.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

Great animation.

China's selective pregnancy policy and the Holocaust are why people tend to want to dispel hype about overpopulation.

You either have to force 7 billion people to stop fucking.. [good luck]
Or murder like 6 billion people.. every 300 years.

Notice how I said carrying capacity is "at least" 10 billion.
Its maximum is probably closer to 16-20 billion. Maybe even 40 billion.

This last billion took a year long to reach than the billion before which means population is leveling off as we discuss this. It may even decline below 7 billion in another 300 - 600 years.

TL;DR

Overpopulation hype = Dec 21 2012 hype. Humans well within carrying capacity.

Stop driving Hummers, watering golf courses, and eating fast food and everyone will be healthy and happy.

>> ^Ryjkyj:

Fuck, as a matter of fact Genji, you're right. We could probably get that number up to a hundred-billion if we just covered the entire surface of the Earth with vertical farms and thorium reactors.

I would argue that China's "one child" policy might have something to do with the negative effects of overpopulation, but that's a different conversation.

I really am curious as to the answer to the question: What use could we possibly have for filling the earth to carrying capacity? Not to mention the effects that reaching human capacity might have on... all the other life on earth.

It wouldn't actually take that much to accomplish something. Free access to birth control for everyone and a little bit of education could go a really long way. Even if only one in a thousand people listened or used contraception because of it, population rates would decrease dramatically.

You keep saying we're well within capacity, but problems like overfishing, the depleting oil/energy supply, the food supply, the need for arable land... these problems actually exist right now. Even with advancements, capacity is a problem right now. All the energy that we put into trying to implement the solutions to these problems could already be getting applied to making them better. Instead of trying to fix problems as they arise, we could avoid them completely and spend our time on other things.

Maybe you're right, maybe it is just hype, but I just can't help but think that the energy spent on reducing the world's population would solve many more problems, way more efficiently than just eliminating Hummers, golf courses and fast food, and then waiting three-hundred years to see if the numbers drop.

*eco

Adding video to channels (Eco) - requested by fissionchips.

I hope they do eliminate overfishing, but considering the EU is run by unelected bureaucrats, the people can't put much pressure on them for change. The EU is essentially a dictatorship at this point.