Population growth… climate change elephant in the room?

[carreauchompeur]

Folks,

I’m trying not to be too naive or simplistic about this but it occurs to me that the vast majority of the worlds problems would be greatly alleviated if we didn’t keep growing the population quite as much…

…less competition for resources, fewer mouths to feed, hey-even less CO2 being breathed out?

Why is this never a factor or really discussed or really managed anywhere? Is it not completely unrealistic to expect the world population to keep increasing?

There seems to be one of the things that cannot be discussed or tackled and I’m sure there are demographic reasons why, but it surely is unsustainable for families to keep having five kids, their children to have five kids each and so on and so on…

[trickywoo]

I find it as bizarre as you do.

It’s almost as if those in power want / need a growing population.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

My brother in law got a wigging from some random woman because he bought a plastic carrier bag. He asked her if she had children. She said yes, and he pointed out that her bringing extra people into the world was far worse for the climate than his bag. She genuinely hadn't ever had that thought apparently.

[Dr Jekyll]

carreauchompeur said:

Folks,

I’m trying not to be too naive or simplistic about this but it occurs to me that the vast majority of the worlds problems would be greatly alleviated if we didn’t keep growing the population quite as much…

Some of those new members of the population may be good at working out how to alleviate problems.

carreauchompeur said:

…less competition for resources, fewer mouths to feed, hey-even less CO2 being breathed out?

Fewer people locating resources, working out how to use them efficiently, making previously useless or unobtainable stuff into resources.

carreauchompeur said:

Why is this never a factor or really discussed or really managed anywhere? Is it not completely unrealistic to expect the world population to keep increasing?

It's continually discussed and has been for centuries. EG Malthus, Erhlich, now Attenborough. All convinced that exponential population growth is some kind of natural law, all convinced that standards of living are about to plummet. All wrong.

carreauchompeur said:

There seems to be one of the things that cannot be discussed or tackled and I’m sure there are demographic reasons why, but it surely is unsustainable for families to keep having five kids, their children to have five kids each and so on and so on…

If it's unsustainable it can't be sustained. In fact it hasn't been, not sure families ever averaged 5 surviving kids but the average now is below the replacement level in developed countries and dropping rapidly worldwide.

[InformationSuperHighway]

What do you suggest to fix the problem?

China style 1 kid per family with punishment if you have more?

I don't want to live in that world, thanks.

[cavey76]

How do you suggest it's tackled? where are all the five kid families? England & Wales total fertility rate was 1.65 last time i looked. Thats shrinkage over the long haul.

There is a lot of carp talked about population which bleeds into accepted wisdom eventually.

[HughiusMaximus]

You arent wrong... but the population growth is likely to come in developing countries, a lot of developed countries have declining birth rates.


It would be a brave politician who told African countries to stop having children!



https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/02/europe-agei...

[Dr Jekyll]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTznEIZRkLg

[cavey76]

Dr Jekyll said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTznEIZRkLg

which spawned, or is a summary of his book




Well worth a read/listen to the TED talk Dr Jekyll posted

[GMT13]

Don't worry, Bill Gates has it sussed.

[Drawweight]

Population growth rates are falling and is forecast to stabilise by mid century.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/2007...

So maybe all is not lost yet although I certainly won’t be around to see it.

[Evoluzione]

They shouldn't have let Medical Science intervene in the first place. Frozen embryos, sperm, artificial insemination whatever etc should not have happened or be available.

They should cut that off straight away and start putting something in the water.

[gt_12345]

trickywoo said:

I find it as bizarre as you do.

It’s almost as if those in power want / need a growing population.

They do- lower wages and higher demand for property.

[cavey76]

Evoluzione said:

They shouldn't have let Medical Science intervene in the first place. Frozen embryos, sperm, artificial insemination whatever etc should not have happened or be available.

They should cut that off straight away and start putting something in the water.

If you use "They" in a sentence like that you truly do sound naive

[p4cks]

Who's dialled 999 if we're in the centre of a climate emergency?

I'm sorry, it's bks.

[finlo]

gt_12345 said:

trickywoo said:

I find it as bizarre as you do.

It’s almost as if those in power want / need a growing population.

They do- lower wages and higher demand for property.

+1 also more people = more tax money.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

finlo said:

+1 also more people = more tax money.

Or, if the same pie is shared between more people less tax money

[Crackie]

Discussed by Chris Packham here..........very good programme imho.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7rn5jf

[Dr Jekyll]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

Or, if the same pie is shared between more people less tax money

It's the people who produce the pie.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

Dr Jekyll said:

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

Or, if the same pie is shared between more people less tax money

It's the people who produce the pie.

...but not necessarily at the same rate