if you are insane in the brain like myself,kids are not a good idea:thats why i dont have any.I am the type that lashes out at any one around me when angered:i dont want a child to have to go through what i went through
On some forums they have a ban on talk of politics and a ban on talk of religion, for some this topic is probably worse. Fortunately for me this is not one of those forums.
Anyway cracked had an article where one of its writers had apparently been called selfish for not having/wanting children. I have seen some people look people oddly for not wanting children (the favour is returned in kind) but that one was new to me. About the closest I ever got was my mum jokingly said I want grandchildren one day when we were in a restaurant, I retorted "you should have raised different kids then". I got the dirtiest look from the people on the table behind me.
Anyway thoughts, opinions and elaborations upon them if you like.
I always wonder by whose authority or arbitrary rules we've decided that the world is overpopulated. Western countries produce more food than their citizens are able to consume, a big portion of it is either burned on tips or subsidized. Here's a mind-bender for ya - wanna be scientists? Here we go! We only have one sample of humanity, we have nothing to compare it to. We don't know if our population is too large or not, we don't know if we're advanced for our time, we don't have anything to compare ourselves to.
Anyway, it is well known that the current production levels are insane and unsustainable in the long term, the world as we know it is doomed.
I always wonder by whose authority or arbitrary rules we've decided that the world is overpopulated. Western countries produce more food than their citizens are able to consume, a big portion of it is either burned on tips or subsidized. Here's a mind-bender for ya - wanna be scientists? Here we go! We only have one sample of humanity, we have nothing to compare it to. We don't know if our population is too large or not, we don't know if we're advanced for our time, we don't have anything to compare ourselves to.
"Interstellar .... Christ was that a boring movie!"
Agreed. It is not one I regret watching and some of the behind the scenes stuff was interesting but I feel no need to ever watch it again or suggest someone watch it.
That being said, we can all acknowledge that the Earth has a finite number of resources. To the best of our knowledge, the Earth can support around 10 billion people given the amount of resources we use and the amount of resources there are, and that's assuming people aren't living like Americans and other first-world countries. What's more alarming than our current population (about 7.2 billion people) is the rate of population growth. If one takes the average of many projections, we will reach a population of 10 billion by 2080, and that average assumes we slow down our rate of growth.
Ignoring concerns about Earth's resources, more people also means more electricity is needed. Unless something changes regarding the ways we use and/or generate power, more people will also mean a proportional increase in greenhouse gases and global warming.
Ignoring the minute fraction that gets shot into space then most resources are endlessly recycled, the recycling part just having to get less costly than digging up new stuff.
It very well could be. For all I know, nuclear power, other renewable energies like solar, or some combination could be what save us all. I said, "unless something changes."Nuclear not an option?
Entropy wants to talk with you.-
It very well could be. For all I know, nuclear power, other renewable energies like solar, or some combination could be what save us all. I said, "unless something changes."
Why does it matter if it's doomed anyways? And it is doomed, we've extablished that.You don't live on food, you only survive on food (given your air and water are still clean enough). Anyway, it is well known that the current production levels are insane and unsustainable in the long term, the world as we know it is doomed.
Is the Earth doomed? Sure, but we still have hundreds of millions of years, if not a billion years, before that happens, assuming we don't screw everything up. That's a pretty long time from now. Instead, we're focusing on problems tens or hundreds of years from now. Also, assuming we do get to a state of overpopulation, being a scarce renewable resource doesn't make it any less scarce. It might be true to say "we're fine" now, but if we don't change anything, that won't be true in the near-ish future.See, this is why I'm banking on technology and expansion, all in. We can put our reproduction to a grinding halt and that'll perhaps extend our stay on this planet, but it won't do much to fix the problems that bother it, not to mention that as I've said before, it's ultimately doomed. Everything we're so desperately trying to protect will ultimately be destroyed by the sun, so our efforts should be aimed at getting off this planet along with whatever we care for, not discussing petty matters like the supposed overpopulation and scarcity of entirely renewable resources. We have food, we burn it on tips because we can't handle our own overproduction - we're fine.
Can we make things more energy efficient? Sure, but that only goes so far before we run into barriers keeping us from making things more energy efficient (e.g. the laws of physics). In reality, despite our new technologies, energy consumption has increased per person over the years, and the population of people is increasing.As for the claim that "more people = more electricity required", that's not necessarily true. We're making strides in lowering our energy footprints with each passing decade - just compare computers of today to computers of yesterday if you need evidence. Mobile CPU's can work perfectly fine at no more than 15 Watts under stress, in the past they used to require ten, bah, twenty times more energy. One generation created a precipitous difference between energy use then and energy use now, who's to say that in 20 years from now we won't be using a fraction of that energy to power our machines? Slowing down expansion serves only slowing down progress and with no progress there can be no solutions.