I read an article on Yahoo! News today (link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110220/ts_afp/scienceuspopulationfood#mwpphu-container) I'm worried about this. The article is basically stating that we'll be screwed once 2050 comes because we'll have no food! Or at least.. that's how I'm interpreting it :( Is this bad? Or could something good come out of this? I'm pretty sure I'll be alive by then, just.. relatively old. Either way, it doesn't change the fact that this could potentially be horrible for humans?
Yeah I read that article a while ago. The thing is, it is a man caused problem. Therefore the solution to the problem will have to come from man. Fortunately a lot of people are getting into the "green scene". Companies are selling and advertising more environmentally friendly products etc. If that worries you then there are things you can do to help conserve food, energy, water etc.
“In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane.” - Oscar Wilde
I do, especially because like I said our society is steadily moving to greener technologies. A lot of people seem to be switching to greener things because it is the "cool" thing these days. Honestly though, I don't care whether they are doing it because it is a "cool" thing or not, they are still doing it and that is an improvement. I love diesel engines, as you can tell by my name. I love diesel trucks, have a Ford F-250 as a matter of fact. The engines burn cleaner than gasoline engines and have a lot of power and last a long time. As far as that goes, a lot of research is being done into biodiesel technology for the engines, and that is a great thing.
“In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane.” - Oscar Wilde
Hi Amanda,
It is quite true that the population is growing rapidly and is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050. That would mean more famine and shortage of resources than we have today.
Back in the 1970's, they expected that to be the situation today. The attempts to get people to limit the number of children they have, have been largely unsuccessful. Just look at that family that's been on the news for having 18 children and saying they plan to have more. That is completely irresponsible. The fastest poulation growth, though is in India, China, and Africa. The third world countries have such high infant mortality rates that they continue to have lots of children because many of them will die. If people in these areas could be provided birth control products and information and could be convinced to limit the size of their families, trhat would be a big step in the right direction. If you live in Europe, the Americas, or Australia, you aren't likely to suffer famine although you will certainly be paying a good deal more for food than today.
As Diesel said, you can do your part now by conserving resources. You can also limit the size of your family.
Thanks. I've heard about the family you're talking about, I too believe it's absolutely ridiculous - but apart of me also commends them for actually being able to take care of their children - probably only because of their TV show.. lose-lose situation honestly. I try to do my part in helping the planet, and things of the like. I definitely don't plan on having a big family when I get older. I thank you and Diesel for your kind words and help.
I find the needs of people wanting to have more than four children a bit rediculous myself. I would at least want two. But still, there are kids at my school talking about having babies and they aren't even 20.
I find it strange on why people so young are so desperate for kids when they aren't even ready.
Everything is proceeding as I have forseen. Wait… when did that happen?
I agree Palpatine and Amanda,
In college I joined a group called Zero Population Growth. The idea was that people would have only two children, thus replacing themselves, but not adding to the population overall. Many people did limit their family size for a while, but it seems that has gone out the window. So many teens can only think of having babies and it has somehow become a popular thing to have large families. I would prefer that those wanting lots of children adopt some. There are plenty of children in need of a family.
One thing that really baffles me is so many girls repeating that dumb line from Independence Day, "You don't want to die a virgin do you?" For crying out loud, that was a boy in a movie, trying to get the girl to have sex with him. Now the silly girls are parroting that as if it made some kind of sense.
Palpatine/Alene
I'm only 19, so of course the thought of children is definitely not in my mind. It amazes me how many young women (15-20) have kids already. The show '16 and Pregnant' just basically supports it - minus the tiny disclaimers during commercials. There's birth control for a reason, as well as free places to obtain it! (Womens Health-care Clinics) There really should be something done about people having TOO MANY kids. What amazes me even more so.. is that some of the people with a lot of children, cannot support them without government assistance (I emphasize on the 'some' so no one is to get offended) I hate to see this thread kind of get derailed by talking about people with too many children, but then again, it's a good subject I think. We need to organize something :(
Hi Amanda,
Yes, overpopulation will become a problem. If more people recognized that and limited their family size, it could at least slow population growth. I have been so tied up with fighting the 2012 hysteria that I haven't given any thought to another cause. What sort of organizing were you thinking of?
So I am in the minus 2 growth group. LOL
I never had the father gene and I never will.
But Amanda, one of the things humans are very well in is survive. Maybe not as an individual but as a group.
The shortage of oil and food will be replaced by other ways of producing foods and energy when the time is right. The only thing that needs to be done is making the scientists have enough money to develop the new technology. Currently we are in a transition phase.
Of course sitting at home, giving up school or work because you live in fear that the world will end is not going to help our survival. You need to take action, and one such action could be to start studying a science degree to develop the technology that not only will give enough energy and food, but also cleans up the atmosphere and clean up the polluted rivers and soil. Nanotechnology could be a great tool in this. Can you imagine inventing a paint that actually scrubs the pollutant from the air when it touches it?
Good for you obaeyens. That's 2 down, only a few billion to go. You have some good ideas there. New technologies will certainly help with shortages caused by overpopulation. It won't be the entire solution because we will still eventually reach the limt of people that our planet can support. Not by 2050, but sometime. I'd just like to see the current notion that having lots of children is a good thing turned around.
Well, I can't say I'm lacking a "mother" gene, but I can say I won't be having more than 2 children (by choice, triplets is out of my control hahahaha) Haha, Obae I don't sit at home and give up school because of my irrational fears - that's definitely not the case for others though, I'm sure! It would be great if I could come up with some sort of organization to help solve our problems, but honestly, I'm clueless? Population control would be fabulous, but that's obviously not working in other countries, so why would it work in America? >_> Sometimes I just feel like I was born into a horrible era, we're dealing with too much :'(
Anyways.. /dramaqueen
Hi Amanda,
I don't think you will ever see any kind of mandatory population control in European nations, the UK, the Americas, or Australia. I don't really know about other nations, except that China has had mandatory population control since 1979. India has some form of population control that doesn't appear to be mandatory and Iran has mandatory contraception courses for both males and females. This has been largely successful.
I hate to see you getting the idea that you have been born into a "horrible era." Quality of life has improved dramatically over the last century. If you had been born about 1850 or before, you would have had about a 60-70% chance of surviving to age 19 (I'm estimating, since I can't find any total mortality rate). You would have been taken out of school and put to work around age 12. You would have married and had about 8-14 children, if you survived all their births. Many men had 3 or 4 wives (not at the same time). Each time his wife died, he would be left with small children, quite often a newborn infant, so he had to immediately remarry in order to have someone to care for the children. If you survived long enough, you would see about 1/3 or more of your children die during childhood.
You would have had few other options. You might have remained single and gone to work as a servant or perhaps become a seamstress. There were no cures for infections or illnesses. Smallpox and Spanish flu killed large portions of the population. If you got tuberculosis (then known as consumption) it was a death sentence. You also wouldn't have been allowed to vote.
As late as the 1950's, there were limited career opportunities for women and you wouldn't be paid what a man would be for the same job. Keep in mind that there were wars going on throughout history too. Does this start to make our current era sound not quite so bad?
Of course we have problems today and everything might not go the way we want, but it isn't a constant struggle for survival. The overpopulation issue is something that needs to be solved, but it isn't currently a severe problem in developed countries. Many countries are trying to control it wth information and contraception help.
Don't be offended. I didn't mean this as a lecture. I guess what I want to say is, overpopulation isn't likely to be a survival issue for you during your lifetime, and your life is better than it would have been at any other time in history.
Goodness! You are in fact right, Alene. I didn't really look at things from that perspective. I don't take for granted the quality of life we have now, but sometimes I feel like eventually.. it's going to get us in trouble. I'm not worried about overpopulation like I was before, I figure there will definitely be some sort of 'fixing' so to speak.
I'm just thinking about how the world/economy is NOW, and realizing how horrible it could be when I get older. I believe that was more of my 'point' when stating 'I feel like I was born into a horrible era' - I'm scared there's going to be struggle tenfold when I'm older compared to now.. It scares me to death.
Hi Amanda,
Although the economy hasn't recovered yet, it is considerably better than it was 2 years ago. It had really bombed due to massive outsourcing of jobs to other countries and the deregulation of banks and the stock market. I'm hoping to see it continue improving to a not too distant recovery. This has been the worst recession in a number of years, but they do come and go. It takes some time for it to recover, but I'm optimistic about it.