How far are we from a world like that in Soylent Green?

Question

It seems to me that we get a little closer everyday to much of it.

Answer 1

The world of Soylent Green, over-polution and over-population has a few major flaws and is slowly becoming out-dated.

First off, Soylent Green missed an important fact about population characteristics, the over-population displayed in the movie is very unlikely for a simple reason. As the world becomes more industrialized birth rates have fallen dramatically, many industrialized nations are in fact having shrinking populations.

Second, the over-pollution nightmare in Soylent Green seems very unlikely also, it does not factor in the emerging field of applied genetics, which allows for us to modify plants and foods to grow in much less favorable conditions than they normally could.

It is best to treat Soylent Green as what it is, a post-apocalyptic movie not as a prediction of the future.

Don't lose sleep over it, it is extremely unlikely it could ever happen.

Answer 2

I think it's not that far at all. It was not about all the polution and overpopulation, which is happening despite what the guy above thinks. The idea of that film was how cheap human life will become. We're almost there.