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Overpopulation
Its a tough issue this one and I feel I may be in trouble for expressing this viewpoint.
I think that we need to seriously consider what we're going to do with the population of Earth. We live on a planet with limited resources.
More people = More consumption = More pollution = More suffering
In the next 15 years, the world population will increase by 2 billion, thats 30% of what we already have (according to Wikipedia anyway). In the next 100 years the population will have exploded. By the next millenium what is the world going to look like? My guess, if things carry on as they are, bleak. I'd assume that the ruling classes would be keeping their wealth, power and belongings very close while billions of others suffer and starve in poverty - like today - except perhaps with an even more desperate atmosphere in the air for those unfortunate enough to be born into suffering.
Ecologically speaking, the world can't cope either, the advance of green technology can't keep up with the figure I just mentioned above, so it sounds like perhaps Overpopulation might be curbed purely by the planet punishing us with even more diminishing resources as we lose access to clean water, clean air and access to food.
It may sound cruel but perhaps we should start thinking about the Chinese '1 child' policy. The only thing is that in a free world, its impossible to enforce and seems so very against nature. But if we're going to survive, we need to slow down on the shagging front.
I read that male fertility is going down and nobody is sure why, we might be facing the opposite problem - extinction!
This may sound dumb but perhaps in the next 100-300 years colonisation of the moon may help slightly but thats a long long way away, probably too late and really, only delays the problem.
I didn't say I had a solution to the problem, this page is just to say there is a problem, one that unless someone in power has the guts to talk about, is only going to get worse. Unfortunately as there is plenty of space for this issue to provoke anger and calls for whoever mentioned it to be hanged and whatnot by idiots, no politician is ever going to bring it up until way beyond the point where the majority of the world's population are screwed anyway.
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Posts: 33
One of the most reactionary plans conceived (pun) calls for universal sterilization of the entire human population, or at least one of the sexes. The governments of the world would then select individuals, based on their own criteria, for in vitro fertilization. This method is politely called "Eugenics".
Designer viruses are also possible. Create a virus which targets individuals with specific genetic markers. Hell of a mess to clean up though, and no telling how it may mutate outside a laboratory.
A slower method might include comprehensive education programs (classroom, television, movies, games) to direct the attitudes of youth. This could be combined with government incentives for young adults to consider not having children.
This is a bit more out there, but building floating archologies might help. Kelp is nutritious and plentiful, as are many sea-faring organisms. Can we expand into the ocean without upsetting even more of the environment though? (This idea isn't bad idea from the perspective of climate change either; melting glaciers and so on. I'd rather be living on a floating island.:P)
In the mean-time, the best thing we can do is attempt to decrease overall comsumption of resources and halt the destruction of our biosphere.