| Overpopulation
Posted: 4/27/2006 5:33:06 AM | I did a topic search on this and found nothing, which didn't suprise me. After 25 years in broadcast TV and seeing virtually nothing on it there, I begin to wonder if people are sort of in a denial mode that it might be up to them to save the planet. When you take all the environmental problems that we have, the root cause is basically too many people. Every person we introduce into the world adds a great quantity of pollutants into the environment. If I have 3 kids, and they have 4 kids, and they have 3 kids.... see where we are going here? We breed like rabbits, consume tons of resources during our lifetime, throw away tons of trash, cause factories to pollute our air and waters to provide the consumers with the toys they want. We are all part of it. When I was in high school, I thought there were too many people then, at 3 billion. They predicted that there would be 9 billion now. Oops. There are 12 billion. In 2050, I think they expect 20 billion. Poor planet. Can the quality of life in the future be expected to be good? I wonder. I chose to not have kids because of this. I wanted to be responsible. I think it was a good choice.
Any thoughts on this subject?  | |
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| Overpopulation
Posted: 4/27/2006 5:43:11 AM | LMAO!
Yes, overpopulation is a problem. But not having children at all is not the solution. Unless you think your genes have nothing to contribute in future aspects of "saving the world". I myself have chosen a different path.
Smarter kids and a smarter lifestyle.
consume less. WAY less.
I have an A/C. But only use it to lessen the humidity in my home and not to bring it down to 17C in the summer! I have a heater but I don’t heat my house to 25C in the winter! Walking, bussing. Separating garbage and recycling. Turning off lights. Turning off your computer! David Suzuki would be a happy man if everyone had their minor appliances on power bars and we turned off the power bars! most appliances still draw electricity even when turned off. eat less! People are eating more than they need to! WAY more! Obesity is a problem and it is an environmental problem when you think of the land growing crops and animals.
blah blah blah. this goes on and on. I don't think we should be having 3+ children! But not having children and still being an environmental fool is just as idiotic.
JMHO!
lol 
then again. some people IMHO shouldn't have children 
who ever said I was nice... | |
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| Overpopulation
Posted: 4/27/2006 6:41:02 AM | One of the reasons you don't hear about it and we here in Canada says allot.
This is the problem with the majority of you programming being commercial. We have weekly science shows in Canada. Americans don't.
We understand such issues as global warming and more of us understand such things as Kyoto. Americans get CNN's and Fox News point of view which is that of the multinationals that own them | |
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Cybury
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Joined: 12/13/2005
Msg: 4 | |
| Overpopulation
Posted: 4/27/2006 7:06:30 AM | what a joke, with populations dropping in the western countries... mostly due to the bad attitudes of our women towards family and men in general, people claim that the over population problem is due to the 1, 2 or three kids that we might have in the western world.
the real problem with global overpopulation is in the third world where the poorest of people are still pumping out 12 to 20 children to live in abject poverty. Of course this will never be an issue in the western world since the corporate giants have found this to be an inexaustable source of cheap slave labour.
some day we will pay for this short sighted thinking and global exploitation | |
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| Overpopulation
Posted: 4/27/2006 7:13:50 AM | Actually, just the opposite is happening. Many scholars are concerned that the world's popution will shrink due to the fact that so many of us (myself included) are not having children. I listened to Denis Prager on syndicated AM radio and he discusses this decline of population several times. The results of this condition will take a long time to realize, but we are not overpopulating the earth.
Many times we only look at crowded conditions like NY or LA or hong Kong, but now statistics even show a movement away from these poulous areas and a movement towards more rural areas. In Texas there are more and more rural farm lands being sold and developed into large 1-5 acre lots for housing away from the cities. I commute 2 hours oer day to Dallas from a small suburb in Ft. Worth in order to get away from the crowd, although I hate the commute. I, too, will move to a more rural area once I have made a little more money to invest in a more rural area. | |
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| Overpopulation
Posted: 4/27/2006 7:19:27 AM |
the real problem with global overpopulation is in the third world where the poorest of people are still pumping out 12 to 20 children to live in abject poverty. Of course this will never be an issue in the western world since the corporate giants have found this to be an inexaustable source of cheap slave labour.
I strongly agree with this. For this, life is definitely becoming "cheaper". When such a small group of people "own" (I use this word advisedly....not believing anyone can "own" anything past the ability they have to fight and keep it away from others) the planet's resources.
The more people in the world, the more difficult it will be for the majority of them to maintain a quality living standard. We're even seeing this now in the US, because jobs in our economy are being farmed out to the third world.
But for overpopulation, the wages in third world countries would be higher and this would happen less often...
Who needs a political slavery system when simply not hiring someone can cause them to die of starvation? | |
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Cybury
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Joined: 12/13/2005
Msg: 7 | |
| Overpopulation
Posted: 4/27/2006 7:20:06 AM | ^^^(msg 5) ok what are the stats on the population growth of India, China or Bangladesh?
at least China is trying to curb it... in the western world we have "Sex in the city" to keep the population down but in the third world where this is no TV all they have is "sex in the mud hut" and with women having no rights there, birth control is non-existant | |
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Cybury
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Joined: 12/13/2005
Msg: 8 | |
| Overpopulation
Posted: 4/27/2006 7:22:23 AM |
Who needs a political slavery system when simply not hiring someone can cause them to die of starvation?
if you starve a man long enough you will get a full days work for a bowel of rice! | |
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| Overpopulation
Posted: 4/27/2006 7:30:35 AM | "This is the problem with the majority of you programming being commercial. We have weekly science shows in Canada. Americans don't."
Not true. | |
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| Overpopulation
Posted: 4/27/2006 7:54:09 AM |
"This is the problem with the majority of you programming being commercial. We have weekly science shows in Canada. Americans don't."
Not true.
ok.. we have weekly science shows in canada that are being watched... Americans do not ..
j/k | |
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| Overpopulation
Posted: 4/27/2006 8:08:08 AM | Overpopulation...?
I would suggest that this is a smoke screen to scare us into a New World Order. What they really mean is that there are too many people for them to control!
As has been stated, the brith rate in western countries (US, UK, Etc.) has been dropping. We in Canada have been betting on New Commers to keep our numbers up. | |
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Cybury
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Joined: 12/13/2005
Msg: 12 | |
| Overpopulation
Posted: 4/27/2006 8:26:43 AM |
We in Canada have been betting on New Commers to keep our numbers up.
Yes... the importation of cheap third world labour in order to make us fear loosing our jobs thus accepting low wages, stripped or non existant benefits and lack of labour standards
the enslavement of western society in order to create a new world order of wealthy executives, lawyers and doctors being waited on by scummy working class surfs.
and whatever you do don't speak up or you too will be replaced by one of these third world immigrants
looming labour shortage.... urban myth and a crock of $hit! | |
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| Overpopulation
Posted: 4/27/2006 8:40:25 AM |
looming labour shortage.... urban myth and a crock of $hit!
jeez.... you are SO right... | |
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| Overpopulation
Posted: 4/27/2006 9:01:44 AM | The birth rate in Canada, and all of the Western countries is lower than the death rate, yes. Population continues to grow due to immigration. Given that we are a post-industrial society, this makes sense. Basically, in hunter-gatherer societies, there is a low birth rate due to low fertility, and because you cannot afford to have many dependent kids when you are moving five or more times per year. It becomes too much of a hassle. Once agriculture develops, however, then you need to have lots of kids since you aren't constantly moving, and since children are a relatively cheap labour force that can either help you farm your farm, or help you farm the farm that you work on, and thus get you more money (particularly if you are paid by how many seeds you can plant, how much you can harvest, etc.) In early industry, having kids helps because they can also work and bring in revenue, but once society gets to an advanced industrial stage, or a post-industrial stage, then kids probably aren't allowed to work, but wages are high enough that you can make enough to afford a decent living. But kids are expensive, and you want the best for your kids, so you don't have very many kids. Then you save money, and the kids that you do have can have a better standard of living.
Many "developing" countries are still largely agricultural, or it has only been in the last few years (30-40ish at most) that they have developed a strong industrial sector. Thus the mindset to have many kids still exists, even if there is general famine and your kids keep dying. You still want a large number of kids so that you can hopefully provide a decent living for all, as if you only had a few kids, you likely couldn't. It takes several generations for this idea to change. For instance, my father's family are largely farmers in the Ottawa Valley area. My dad's great-grandparents had lots of children. I don't even know how many. My dad's dad's grandparents had 10 children. My dad's parents moved to the city, and stopped farming. They still had five kids. My parents had three.
So basically, what I am getting at, is that industry creates a lower birth rate, and so when everyone is industrialized, the population should start to go down. Which is an even scarier thought than overpopulation (which I do agree is a problem, but I have hopefully explained it in such a way that you don't think that people who have lots of kids are crazy). If everyone consumed like we do in Canada and the U.S., the ozone would disappear in ten seconds, the layer of carbon monoxide would be fifteen kilometers thick, and the temperatures would skyrocket to the point where the oceans boiled! We would turn into Venus. Okay, some hyperbole there, but basically it would be an environmental nightmare, since 6% of the world consumes 40% of the world's resources. What will happen if that 6% who consumes as we do jumps to 12%? Will there be anything left for the other 88%?
If I have 3 kids, and they have 4 kids, and they have 3 kids
You are forgetting about death. Chances are decent that you will be dead by the time your children's children (your grandchildren) are of child-bearing age, and almost certainly you will be dead by the time your great-grandchildren are of child-bearing age. Sure, there is still a net increase (assuming that all the kids live, but in the West the child death rate is comparatively low), but generally there are not more than three generations living at the same time, so death cannot be left out. | |
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| Overpopulation
Posted: 4/27/2006 9:03:35 AM | First, you should get your facts right.
According to US Census Bureau, the world pop. is about 6.5 billion. They project that in 2050, the world pop. will be about 9.5 billion. The annual increase in pop. peaked in 1971 at 2%. Presently it is at 1.14%. 2050 is estimated to be 0.46%.
Your "root cause" is too simplistic. It's not so much the number of people, it's the amount of resources we use. To use your "drinking smiley", It's not the number of beer in your fridge, it's how much you drink.
Try "googling" carbon footprint, calculate how large yours is, then find ways to reduce it! | |
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| Overpopulation
Posted: 4/27/2006 11:00:28 AM | what's the name of that science show that you watch on commercial TV?
Nova? that's on PBS. | |
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| Overpopulation
Posted: 4/27/2006 12:24:04 PM | In response to this, "what a joke, with populations dropping in the western countries... mostly due to the bad attitudes of our women towards family and men in general, people claim that the over population problem is due to the 1, 2 or three kids that we might have in the western world."
EXCUSE me? Any other women pick up on this? "bad attitudes of our women" because some of us choose not to have kids? WTF is that? This winner needs to crawl back under his rock.... | |
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| Overpopulation
Posted: 4/27/2006 12:46:57 PM | | ^^^ I caught the line 2. After your post, I looked at the profile of the poster...he's looking for a baby machine....go figure..... | |
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| Overpopulation
Posted: 4/27/2006 1:00:12 PM | | mmmm, or perhaps a mail-order bride. "bad attitudes of women". Unbelievable. | |
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| Overpopulation
Posted: 4/27/2006 1:01:44 PM |
If everyone consumed like we do in Canada and the U.S., the ozone would disappear in ten seconds, the layer of carbon monoxide would be fifteen kilometers thick, and the temperatures would skyrocket to the point where the oceans boiled! We would turn into Venus. Okay, some hyperbole there, but basically it would be an environmental nightmare, since 6% of the world consumes 40% of the world's resources. What will happen if that 6% who consumes as we do jumps to 12%? Will there be anything left for the other 88%?
thank god 94% of the world population live in poverty. if only 88% of the population lived in poverty, life on earth as we know it will not be as enjoyable as it is today. | |
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Cybury
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Joined: 12/13/2005
Msg: 21 | |
| Overpopulation
Posted: 4/27/2006 1:20:22 PM |
he's looking for a baby machine
thats total bullshit
a family maybe but not a baby machine... but when women toss men away like yesterdays garbage... once again, men are not allowed to voice an opinion | |
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Hezron
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Joined: 12/15/2005
Msg: 22 | |
| Overpopulation
Posted: 4/27/2006 1:57:26 PM | | Overpopulation will take care of itself. Since humans will not do any type of long range planning and people will not have limits placed on their repoructive habits...nature will solvethe problem. Unfortunately for those who live in the times when the readjutment occurs...life may for a whilke look like an apocolypse. But before nature balances it back out...man may through a global culling induced by manufactured disease. Man isa like virus..it does not find balnce within a system...it depletes all resource and eventually kills the host...killing itself in the process. | |
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| Overpopulation
Posted: 4/27/2006 2:50:00 PM | I think it may have been a Nova that was on the tube. As i was in a discussion with some other guys, I was only catching pieces of the program, so I may have gotten some of the figures in error. This is insignifigant, however. The world population is burgeoning, it doesn't matter who is doing it, idustrialized countries or the third world. It's a global problem. I'd point out that while industrialized countries produce less people, they also produce much more pollution per capita. Witness the U.S.. And as the third world industrializes, they will add to that pollution.
While I wasn't paying close attention to the program, the figures they quoted didn't come near the figures from the U.S. census. Personally, I don't put much stock in what my government says anyway. | |
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jane48
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Joined: 4/23/2006
Msg: 24 | |
| Overpopulation
Posted: 4/27/2006 10:48:53 PM | I see from your profile that your profession is "saving the world" and that you do drugs three or more times a week. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you aren't really as stupid as you sound, it's just the drugs talking.
First of all, the US has national public programming on radio and television, Canada does not. Perhaps you are thinking of the lame 'community access' programs that broadcasters are obliged to carry as part of the deal they make with the CRTC to get government approval? Even the People's Network, CBC, is a commercial broadcaster and is so biased to the left of centre that it can't be taken seriously on any major issues.
Secondly, most of the good science programs available here in Canada are imports from the US. Let me guess, you are a big fan of David "every dire prediction he ever made has been proven wrong" Suzuki ?
The countries with the lowest population growth and the greatest improvements in environmental standards have three things in common: capitalist economic systems, democratically elected governments, and high levels of education and literacy for women.
Before you think about saving the world, I would suggest you just try to think. | |
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jane48
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Joined: 4/23/2006
Msg: 25 | |
| Overpopulation
Posted: 4/27/2006 10:51:25 PM | | Just to clarify, my previous post is in reply to Backworduck, not the orginal post! | |
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