Is everyone blind to the fact we need to kill 90% of the human race to survive, this day and age?

Question

Everyday we grow in numbers, when will it end ?

Answer 1

Well, that is not necessarily so. We however, would need to seriously re-order our society. Since we are unwilling generally to re-order our personal lives for the betterment of society to any extent, there will be suffering and inequity , not just between humans and all other species on the Earth, but between humans.

Largely speaking, we can say that in the last 50 years or so, most wars have been sparked NOT necessarily as a result of ideology - but as a result of contraint upon resources.

Worse than that is that sometimes, the reasons in mind are simply the perceived reasons , so the Southern US ceceeded  from the United States, in support, of an industry (slavery) which was not generally profitable ironically enough.

Similarly today, we concern ourselves about oil but are perfectly content to spend trillions of dollars fighting to maintain our nations access to that resource, but many are unwilling to even consider that our money might be more well spent on creating renewable resources.

So it is , that anything that even hints of something that might be good for the "group" is decried as being unworkable, or socialist or whatever.

To that end, we can foresee certain events.

We can know that within 30 years, the disturbingly large and popular Objectivist  / conservative / cornucopian world view that says the world cannot run out of resources, will have to come to terms with limits upon food, oil and water.

In fact 2008, will be the first year in nearly 50 years, in which the planetary output of food, will not meet the needs of the population, in real terms.

While these limits are nearly universally due to population pressure, it is not to say that we could not re-order society to produce enough food, energy and provide decent living for every single person on the planet, we simply choose not to do so.

Likely , what will happen is the following.

It's fairly likely that we will experience limited or "low-scale" nuclear conflict sometime in the next 50 years.

Furthermore, crop failures, particularly any crop failures in the US or European marketplaces, will cause politicians to sit forward when considering more collective action.

As oil prices increase, a curious thing will start to happen, most people will be unable to afford it, this means that like whale oil beforehand, that prices will increase beyond most folks ability to pay, at which point, food production will start a spiral downward, to approximately 2/3rds of our present output.

How we all get fed with 1/3 less food on the plate is quite another matter.

Otherwise, the absence of any meaningfully functional  healthcare systems outside of the US/EU and some Asian countries, means that when health crisis (such as influenza or some virulent tropical disease) starts to spread, there will be large swaths of the population that simply die off.

What can be done, very simply, I don't know.

I'm increasingly concerned that business as usual is likely to get a great number of people killed. Having read widely on the subject there seems to be that same segment of the population simply not paying attention, another segment that sees the trouble but just watches , as if it won't affect them sooner or later, and very very few whom are actually doing something about it.

I'd like to say I'm with them, but I'm pretty firmly in camp #2, I see some of the issues and realize something should be done about them, but don't have the foggiest clue how we should go about doing them, since our government, sort of refuses to do anything about these problems.

I've done what seems practical, for instance, I purchased a hybrid car, I will likely be moving away from the larger cities of the Northeast, for a number of reasons.

Reading on the subject has been something of a lateral experience, in so far as I clearly feel/believe that I'm more well informed than I was previously, I found alot of stark pessimism, and frankly found that while the situation is critical, it does not have to be apocalyptic, and unfortunately , a large percentage of those folks whom acknowledge the issues at hand also seem to fetish the idea of apocalyptic downfall. In particular, I was fairly depressed by Howard Kunstler's "The Long Emergency", this is not to say I do or don't believe his central thesis, I simply find that the author seems to relish the oncoming emergency, and neglects the real purpose of discussing such a subject, which is to discuss alternatives, and realistic options which avoid such catastrophic economic disaster-ism.

Clearly without a willingness to consider action at a societal level, not much will get accomplished, but I am unsure when, or what form that action will take.

Is it the hard, long road to a sustainable society, in which our ecology and a semblance of our economic, industrial and scientific prowess is preserved.

Is it the escatological nightmare scenario that Mr. Kunstler and many religious radicals seem to so ardently desire.

Personally, I was always partial to the singularity event, as a solution to many of mankind's, problems.

I think this was best represented by the scenario envisioned in the movie "Colossus". While clearly dated, such a "benevolent" dictatorship over our species, might not only be necessary but actually could seem desirable to some post-war, post-scarcity remnant of humanity.

However, in the end, it will more likely be some gnarly combination of these events, there will be societies which are perhaps "run" by an AI or elected body assisted by AI.

There will be countries which function and in which people live like a bunch of extras from the movie Mad Max, and probably everything in between.

Answer 2

Recent statistics show, that if any more people are born, that the earth is due to tip over by the end of the year, and go hurtling into space!

Answer 3

Are you volunteering to become a Soylent Green cracker?

Just wondering....

~Garnet

Answer 4

The rate of the world's population is a big problem. The population is projected to almost double by year 2050. This rate of growth can only go on so far until humans reach earth's carrying capacity. When it happens there will be starvation due to lack of available food and a dramatic decrease in population. Personally I believe humans will not reach the carrying capacity but there will be a Pandemic sometime in the future, not sure when this will happen though. Something like the Bird Flu I guess will spread across the planet and will kill off majority of the population. I have heard that some scientists have the technology to create a new disease that have no simple cure and could be devastating...pretty scary to think about. But my Biology professor told me that there are always some members of every species that are genetically immune to certain diseases so there will always be some survivors, but not many.

Answer 5

What in the world is wrong with you?

How about we include you in the 90% =]

Silly question.

Answer 6

It will never end and  it doesn't have to as mother earth has the capacity to accommodate many times more people.By the way,if your theory is correct,would you like to be included in that 90%?

Answer 7

I know how you feel DB. I have been a voice crying in the wilderness for a long time. no one listens, it's a waste of time.

Answer 8

Are you related to John W.?

Answer 9

No! We don't need to KILL anyone...but we do need to recognize  the stupidity of the procreational levels of the past that were promoted by many religions that were started when there were few enough of us humans around...

Promoting or evenly ignoring those that over-procreate is really beyond belief! Twelve children? YAY!  Lets give a tax break to those that make $30,000 a year! Lets ooh and aah over their sheer gumption on trying to make it work1 WOW!

Unfortunately most of these people are religious types who need to get bailed out later. By their church or ??? who else  ...us.

Oh, we don't have to kill people to survive. We need to stop making them!

Answer 10

you may just get your wish. about 90% of the world suffers from some kind of sickness, and if we weren't so good with medicine those people wouldn't be living right now. AIDS may very well kill most people.

we don't need to kill 5.7 billion people, but we do need to watch how we spread our resources and our effects on the environment. if we can regulate oursleves, there is no reason for mass genocide like that.

i agree with Billy Joe Bob, stupid question