toldailytopic: Overpopulation. Is the world really over populated as some assert?

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Nathon Detroit

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The TheologyOnline.com TOPIC OF THE DAY for November 17th, 2009 10:36 AM


toldailytopic: Overpopulation. Is the world really over populated as some assert? And if so, what steps should be taken to unpopulate it?






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DocJohnson

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No, it's not overpopulated... not by a longshot. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't invade other planets and colonize them. :D
 

MaryContrary

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No, it's not overpopulated... not by a longshot. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't invade other planets and colonize them. :D

Totally down with that.

Related question: Do you think God would approve if we started terraforming Mars?

To the OP: Heck, no. What a ridiculous myth. I can't believe anyone buys that. I've always assumed it must be the city folk for whom the wilderness is just something you very rarely are forced to drive through or fly over to get to the next city. It's just something surreal that scrolls by outside a window.

I can step outside my little "city" (which my hometown barely qualifies as), pick any three out of four directions and spend all day hoofing it before I saw any indication of human habitation again. And we ain't even all that rural out here.

We're nowhere near over-populating the earth. I'd say we barely qualify as "populated". I'd bet our planet barely recognizes we exist. :chuckle:
 

Choleric

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The TheologyOnline.com TOPIC OF THE DAY for November 17th, 2009 10:36 AM


toldailytopic: Overpopulation. Is the world really over populated as some assert? And if so, what steps should be taken to unpopulate it?






Take the topic above and run with it! Slice it, dice it, give us your general thoughts about it. Everyday there will be a new TOL Topic of the Day.
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No, it is not. But this is the intended conclusion by those people who absurdly believe in man-made global warming. Once they convince you we are bad for the planet, then they complain about too many of us, and next thing you know, they are telling us we can only have one kid, and that old people should die.

And all those christians out there who believe this crap are nailing their own coffin. It is absurd. There are people who would like to eliminate 3/4 of the worlds population and they are going to use global warming as the impetus to convince everyone else that is must happen, and sadly, many christians will be signing up....:rip:
 

Aimiel

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I live on a one-acre plot, which is way more than I'll ever tame. I have knocked down about 1/4th of the Japanese honeysuckle that blights our country and had taken over our back yard, but I still have a LOT more to cut down. If every soul in the world can fit into Texas, and each have 2.9 acres of land, we definitely aren't over-populated. We've developed way less of the ground than the media wants you to think. They want to scare you, so you buy more of their products and watch more of their news shows to become even more scared. Don't buy any of it.
 

Aimiel

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Right now, the Japanese are facing a population crisis, which has to do with a loss of fertility and declining population in projections.
 

Flipper

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Yeah, we're overpopulated, in that critical resources required to sustain the world's population increase are going into short supply.

It's kind of shortsighted to say "oh well I'm surrounded by empty land so there's plenty of room", as if we were all gophers and land is all it takes to sustain us, especially when more of us aspire to an industrialized standard of living.

I'm sure some of you have heard of Peak Oil. This isn't a scare tactic - there isn't an energy agency in the world who doesn't acknowledge that we're running out of produceable oil. The more optimistic estimates suggest we could be done in 50 years. Pessimists think we've already peaked. That's shipping and freight, fertilizers for our crops, and our pharmaceutical industries right there.

We're running our fish stocks into the ground. If you don't believe that, go to your local fish counter at the supermarket and see how many deepwater species are on the slab. They're there because our fleets now have to deepwater troll for slow-growing species because the shallow water species are tapping out. Ask yourself why wild salmon is so expensive when compared to farmed salmon. It wasn't always that way until recently when wild salmon stocks crashed.

We're even running out of clean water.

We're running out of Helium which potentially puts an end to our fusion reactor dreams before they even start, as well as to arc welding and MRIs.

At our current rate of consumption, Cliffside will likely be empty in 10 to 25 years, and the Earth will be virtually helium-free by the end of the 21st century.

This isn't anything like a full list of resources that we're facing shortages of as the world industrializes. It's just a few. I only found out about the Helium shortage because I visited my local welding gas shop where they had fliers about it on display. These guys aren't exactly your local eco-nuts.

What do we do about it? Apparently, nothing. Hell, it's happening already. The poorest people in the world are already getting it the hardest as the price of basic commodities slip out of reach. Food aid NGOs are already reporting signs of donor fatigue, so millions will just starve to death.

Probably, we'll accelerate the process by using up critical resources even faster in a race to stockpile and/or appease elements in our societies who don't feel like they're getting their fair share.

I predict starvation and some pretty ugly wars over resources but it would be nice to be persuaded otherwise, so let's hear it.
 

DocJohnson

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I predict starvation and some pretty ugly wars over resources but it would be nice to be persuaded otherwise, so let's hear it.

Here's some persuasion for ya... you're actually agreeing with the end times predictions of the Book of Revelations. :D
 

nicholsmom

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toldailytopic: Overpopulation. Is the world really over populated as some assert? And if so, what steps should be taken to unpopulate it?



Gee, I just googled overpopulation statistics and got zip. There are apparently no statistics online about overpopulation - plenty of propaganda, no real data that I can find. Maybe someone else can find it - someone who's better at surfing :surf: the net.

My observations have been like Mary's - there's lots of unpopulated land around here. We have about half a dozen un-populated, multi-acre lots within a couple of miles of our home - that's only counting the ones that are for sale. There are plenty of unoccupied, and fallow fields as well. It must be the big-city dwellers, living cheek to jowl, who have this bizarre notion of overpopulation. If they would move out of the city and breathe some fresh air their brains would soon be capable of mathematics again :thumb:

I think that the burden of proof will have to be on those making the absurd claim of global overpopulation. Good luck with that.

Meanwhile, I'll be raising my modestly-sized family :wave2:
 

Flipper

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Stuffed and Starved: As Food Riots Break Out Across the Globe, Raj Patel Details “The Hidden Battle for the World Food System”

Global food prices have risen dramatically, adding a new level of danger to the crisis of world hunger. In Africa, food riots have swept across the continent, with recent protests in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Mauritania and Senegal. In most of West Africa, the price of food has risen by 50 percent—in Sierra Leone, 300 percent. In the United States there has been a 41 percent surge in prices for wheat, corn, rice and other cereals over the past six months.

No, everything's great.
 

Flipper

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Here's some persuasion for ya... you're actually agreeing with the end times predictions of the Book of Revelations. :D

Except that Christians only recently seem to be coming around to accepting that we might ever run out of anything. If I recall, you guys have been some of the biggest opposition to sustainable initiatives.

Rest assured, if anyone gets raptured I'll become a Christian right away.
 

Granite

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The TheologyOnline.com TOPIC OF THE DAY for November 17th, 2009 10:36 AM


toldailytopic: Overpopulation. Is the world really over populated as some assert? And if so, what steps should be taken to unpopulate it?






Take the topic above and run with it! Slice it, dice it, give us your general thoughts about it. Everyday there will be a new TOL Topic of the Day.
If you want to make suggestions for the Topic of the Day send a Tweet to @toldailytopic or @theologyonline or send it to us via Facebook.

Probably, yeah.

I'd suggest greater access to birth control and better sex education in third world countries as an outstanding place to start, but I'm not terribly optimistic about such things becoming a reality any time soon.
 

Flipper

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toldailytopic: Overpopulation. Is the world really over populated as some assert? And if so, what steps should be taken to unpopulate it?



Gee, I just googled overpopulation statistics and got zip. There are apparently no statistics online about overpopulation - plenty of propaganda, no real data that I can find. Maybe someone else can find it - someone who's better at surfing :surf: the net.

Well, what sort of statistics are you looking for? I think evidence that we're running out of various critical and so-far irreplaceable resources implies something.

My observations have been like Mary's - there's lots of unpopulated land around here. We have about half a dozen un-populated, multi-acre lots within a couple of miles of our home - that's only counting the ones that are for sale. There are plenty of unoccupied, and fallow fields as well. It must be the big-city dwellers, living cheek to jowl, who have this bizarre notion of overpopulation. If they would move out of the city and breathe some fresh air their brains would soon be capable of mathematics again :thumb:

I think that the burden of proof will have to be on those making the absurd claim of global overpopulation. Good luck with that.

Meanwhile, I'll be raising my modestly-sized family :wave2:

There's more to population than space to live. You're aware of this at some level, or do you grow all your own food and walk everywhere?
 

Flipper

New member
Perhaps if those countries adopted a policy of liberty and justice, they would have the freedom to prosper.

Like China, amirite?

Hopefully when the poor of the world have loaded their plates with freedom and justice, they'll have room in their groaning stomachs to go back to the liberty buffet for a second round.
 

The Berean

Well-known member
No, I don't think we are "overpopulated". Though as Flipper pointed out we do have some resource shortage issues to deal with in the near future. However, new technologies are constantly being developed that will address these issues. Access to food and water will be primary concerns.
 

DocJohnson

New member
Except that Christians only recently seem to be coming around to accepting that we might ever run out of anything. If I recall, you guys have been some of the biggest opposition to sustainable initiatives.

The Book of Revelations talks about the earth being zapped... a third of the forests destroyed and a third of the oceans and fresh water turning to blood... but that doesn't happen until the end times. The events that lead up to that are more political than economic.

Rest assured, if anyone gets raptured I'll become a Christian right away.

Hopefully you'll see the signs a lot sooner than that.
 
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