Is the Earth overpopulated? - and if so - how could we reduce the population to a more sustainable level?

Question

What do you think about providing whatever food-aid third world countries need, but including contraceptive drugs within the food supplies in some way?.....Controversial I know, but why do we only seem to see footage of malnourished children and not malnourished mothers?....Is this a cultural thing?

Answer 1

Well, it is quite obvious that the educational system has had it's way with you.  It concerns me, as it should every carbon dioxide and nitrogen emitting individual on the face of the earth, that so many are so easily led to believe the sustainable growth doctrine.  This is driven by an apolitical agenda that supports the idea of mass collectivisim,  social structuring, and the end of human liberty.  By apolitical, I stress it is neither left or right wing, as both apparent enemys work to engage the same end.  It is merely an illusion needed to support the appearence of choice.

We, as responsible humans, must not entertain the notion that the earth is overpopulated.  We must not decieve ourselves either or be so vain as to believe that our exisitance on earth is anything but natural and "organic TM"

The earth and the life support system that sustains us,  what we understand as nature,  has also encompassed us in her grand design.  Nature is the all giver and also the all taker, but Man is nothing beyond the scope of her.  Do not buy the lie force fed in the education centers.  Sustainable growth at it's best completely  severs man from nature, and at the worst turns man into a genocidal reaper.

Overpopulation, is not the reality, in North America alone human beings only inhabit  roughly 3% of the total land mass.  Those who live in urban areas may feel like they are overpopulated, but no one is forcing them to stay.  The same demographic relationships exist  in Europe as well.  When we reach the point that population control and global tax is  unleashed upon  the world, it will be a severe blow to an ideal that has been the inspiration  and hope of all. Freedom.

I would also add, "sustainable"  levels of population imply and dangerously  support the notion that genocide is not only necessary but also benieficial.  This is a serious mistake, mankind would do well to live within the law of nature and not against it.

Answer 2

No the earth is not over populated.

There is 2,323,456,321,467 Km2 not being used.

Probably more.

Answer 3

yess

earth is over populated and there will never be a way of stoping the population growing without having to shed blood

we as humans can only inhabit 7% of the planet we live on becoause as you know the rest is to wet, dry, cold etc.

Answer 4

In the discipline of population dynamics, there are three recognised density dependant factors that control populations.

Starvation

Disease

Predation (war and crime for humans)

Our population  has been increasing exponentially since the beginning of the 20th century

1900 - 1.5Bn

1960 - 3.0Bn

2000 - 6.0Bn

and 2006 - 6.8Bn

The idea that this exploding population can all be housed clothed and fed, and provided with power ,water, transport and employment, and at the same time reduce our effects on the environment is simply ludicrous.

Answer 5

The world is not over populated! There's plenty of empty land out there. If it's crowded where you live, move!

And it looks like the Earth is warming up naturally , and that is  not only caused by pollution, it's natural as well.

If so, in a century or so,  vast lands in Siberia and elsewhere in continental Asia, North Europe and Canada  would become more habitable for humans, agriculture, forests, and animals. And there's plenty of space in Africa too, plenty! If they would care for its soil to protect it from desertification.

But I have a feeling that sooner or later somebody will push the button on  those nukes....

God help us!

Answer 6

oh nature will take care of that is some way

Answer 7

limit the amount of kids a person can have.  like China did.  It would also cut benefit claims by millions

Answer 8

Mass slaughter.

Unless we restrict how many children people can have, i think we've already past the point of no return - the planet will just kill us off eventually one way or another.

Answer 9

put all those that are or want to be politicians in a barrel and shoot them

Answer 10

I agree with Jennings...............nature will, one way or another.

Answer 11

The earth is not overpopulated with humans. The planet is a big place, full of food. As long as people are willing not to be greedy and only take what they need I see no reason the earth couldn't support 20 billion or more humans. Not that we should start breeding like Catholics, er... rabbits, but there's plenty or room and food for everyone.

Answer 12

Global Warming is caused by too many people in the world.

Ever heard that before?  NO    That's because its not popular with the Christian Church or the Muslem world.

Time to admit it.  We need a politician who preaches birth control and not the nonsense about carbon dioxide reduction into the atmosphere by a technical solution.

Answer 13

Who says the Earth is overpopulated?  Wasn't this the scare before the ozone hole?  I seem to remember fear mongering that once the Earth hit 4 billion people there would be mass starvation.  Well, since then the only mass starvation the world has seen was due to political problems not a food shortage.

Much of Europe has a negative population increase.  The US has a very low increase currently.

Answer 14

Population is distributed unevenly across the globe.

Calcutta: high density

Mali: low density.

The population reduces itself: once the country hits stage 5 (senile stage) of the population cycle that is. (no countries as of now)

Answer 15

Yes, however as luck would have it we are only one person over the quota.  If we could just get that person to leave everything will be fine.  

Since you brought up the subject....

Answer 16

if you think it is do us a favour and start with your self

Answer 17

Yes, starvation is a sign that a region is overpopulated compared to the mumber of people that the area can aupport.  Unfortunately many resources such as fisheries are being depleted on a global scale, indicating global overpopulation.

Resource depletion could triple the price of basic food staples such as wheat, and the majority of the inhabitants of the planet who can't afford food would riot, engage in wars over resources, and many would ultimately starve.

In fact, that's already starting to happen:

http://www.climatechangenews.org/nFood.h...

The World's Growing Food-Price Crisis - TIME

Soaring prices of staples — which have risen about 75% since 2005, driven by growing demand, rising oil prices and the effects of global warming — have sparked riots in several countries, as people reel from sticker shock and governments scramble to feed their people.

28th February 2008

Fresh records for price of wheat- BBC News

Wheat prices have hit record levels as supplies dwindle, raising concerns about growing food inflation. Reports of a drought in Northern China, where most of the country's wheat is grown, also pushed prices higher. Extreme weather has already damaged crops in other parts of the world and US wheat inventories are expected to fall to their lowest level for 60 years.

Warnings over future food crisis - BBC News

A world food crisis can be expected in the coming decades as our demand for food outstrips our ability to produce it, a UK government adviser has warned. Climate change is expected to worsen the food shortage

China successfully slowed population growth with its "one child" policy.  Countries facing serious poverty, starvation and even drought should be encouraged to adopt similar measures.  Every successive generation has twice the assets and available resources of the prior one (even if it's just livestock and land to raise them on, crops and land to grow them on).  The standard of living increases dramatically within a generation or two.

Answer 18

The malnourished mother's are dead. Then war and disease will take care of the excess, no doubt (about it).

Thus, the natural clever /stupid balance of the planet is restored ?

Or voluntary euthenasia ?

10 -1 Ladbookes say:-"..........."

Answer 19

Every thing is made by the wrong policies taken by the governments; please I won't learn you about the causes of overpopulate Earth by now! But for sure we can not kill an all population! It is not a way to reduce population; we are not living under the jungle rules! We have to think about good policies after having kind of assessment considering the mutual reasons of the overpopulation.

My dear, undernourished populations are mostly victim of bad policies. Feed them might be an emergency call but also we must work together somehow in a good manner so we reduce their number by teach them how to nourish themselves..., and if undernourished people were the reason of overpopulated earth! I think all the governments all over the word are not undernourished let them put the right rules to their populations.

Don't panicked about this issue, but think about those little undernourished angels who don't have even a piece of brad to eat!. You will change your viewpoint!. They don't need a contraceptive drugs to die they die suffering from hunger.

As I thing you was searching the easiest way bout the must difficult results on human beings rights!

Answer 20

OK, I'll do it.  Make me supreme ruler of the world and I'll deal with the problem that's the only way its ever going to get done.  We simply can't afford to have people running around everywhere doing what ever they want.  It could be dangerous giving me all that power but its a risk I'm willing to take.

Answer 21

But for the grace of God go you or I.

Are you volunteering to be culled?

Are you volunteering to be childless?

Thank God I am alive and willing to help others.

Some people should be allowed and honoured to be celibate and not stigmatised into being abnormal.

Answer 22

By limiting each couple to only one child each - it would never work.

(They did that in China)

Answer 23

The planet is underpopulated.Australia is empty.The US is empty in the middle,south america,90% of countries empty,kashestan is larger than all of europe and has 10 million people,russia is under populated canada??? Too many people live in certain countries and within those countries they mainly live in urban areas.We need a wider distribution of folks across the globe

Answer 24

we should make it totally unacceptable for teenage girls to get pregnant and live off the state.  Why oh why should the tax payer keep supporting these people who are not prepared to take responsibility for their own lives.

we need to sort the problem out at home before we have the cheek to tell other countries about over population

Answer 25

Yes.

Cull the stupid ones.  They are easy to spot - they're the ones who do want fries with that.

Answer 26

yes, the Earth is very overpopulated. THERE IS NO WAY TO REDUCE THE POPULATION.

-Brian

Answer 27

yes but no problem. We could start using mars

Answer 28

The earth is vastly overpopulated.  We do not need to do anything as looking at population demographics there is always a way that populations are balanced out.

The black death

smallpox

influenza

world war one

flu pandemic

HIV/Aids

Famine.

Thomas Malfus argued that the world will always balance out overpopulation with the occurance of disease disasters and famine.

It is true that there are only a finite amount of resources available so people will lose out making it more likely that famines will reduce the population of the world.

Answer 29

No, it's not. As other commentators have said, this was an old scare, and has long ago been overtaken by facts.

The critical flaw in the theory is to see people as consumers. Yes, we are consumers, but we are also capable of much more production than we are consumption. For example, a farmer can produce many, many times more food than he will ever consume in his lifetime. To put it simply - people think more than they eat.

Neither are we running of out land to produce that food. Zimbabwe used to be the breadbasket of Africa, same thing in Russia -a small area of land used to produce enough food for the entire country. The issue in both places was bad management - specifically government interference.

In fact, not so long ago it was announced that obese people outnumbered the hungry! Clearly, even with massive population increases the world over we are producing more food than ever, even on a per-head population.

Third issue is pollution - are we going to run out of clean water and air? Of course not! You can actually clean both if you care to. Rain cleans air naturally, and as civilization progresses less pollution will be created in the first place. Have a look around, new innovations for cleaning up pollution are being though up every day.

Yes there are problems, but we have only to find the solutions through man's intelligence. Yes, war and pestilence do get in the way - usually those wars start with the sort of thinking displayed in this thread. Ethiopia was staved through socialism more than through drought.

There is no reason to believe that the world cannot survive with several billion more people on it.

Answer 30

Clearly we are within sustainable levels.  The "earth is running out of resources" montra has been hummed by the alarmist since Babalonia and they have always been wrong.  There is clearly finite resources but we have barely scratched the surface.  There may be people that feel guilty that humans are so successful.  They may feel crowded in their urban environments.  This doesn't mean that the earth has reached a point where we are in trouble.  There is always trouble and occassion droughts and famine but we have a pretty good growth potential.  Frankly though, I hope that it doesn't grow too much because I love the wilderness too much but that is another question.

Answer 31

Nuclear weapons