RE: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Unfolding Universe (discovery channel)

[Michael <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

> I'm going off mainly the fact that estimates say we were at 3 billion in
> 1920, and are at 6 billion now.  On the other hand, keep in mind that while
> our birth rate declines, our death rate also declines.  Also, the most
> populous places on earth (china, for example) have population controls in
> place, and they simply don't work.  As their overflow fills the rest of the
> world, general wealth will decrease, and we'll be more..fruitfull.

The death rate is unlikely to decline as quickly as the birth rate simply
cus a rubber will slow the birthrate but it takes decent nutrition,
healthcare, etc to slow the deathrate.

There really is no reason for the general wealth to decrease unless the
world is truely short on resources and that'd take one hell of a jump in
the population. The problem is more that to much of the wealth tends to be
held by to few. It's mostly a problem of culture, law, and economics.
There might be a short period of adjustment after any major population
changes but things should normalize and even improve after each influx.

> > We're overpopulated in some places on Earth and
> > underpopulated in other
> > places.  We can certainly 'support' billions more diseased, starving
> > people.  If we could agree on how to manage things, we could probably
> > support many more people at a higher level of subsistence,
> > but we can't
> > get along that well yet.
>
> Eventually, no matter how you look at it, there is a breaking point.  I
> don't know if its when we run out of elbow room, or when we run out of
> carbon atoms though.

I've always heard that the real problem is air. As the population grows
more toxins (both natural and manmade) enter the air and we destroy the
plant life which recycles our air for us. After a certain point we'll
suffocate ourselves without proper management of plants and air. Think
Spaceballs.

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