Population

[Simpo Two]

Yes there is (of course)

Martin Keene said:

And worryingly I have a feeling it is less than we have now...

That can't be true - by definition it is sustaining them - but what you mean is 'can it sustain them indefinitely?'

Nature's way of controlling population is by famine, disease or war. At the moment, when a sector of humanity is starving or diseased, pop singers and idealists in the other part send them food and medicine. This enables them to survive and breed.

[Dakkon]

There is a school of thought that wants humans to consume all of Earth's resources as this is the only way we will invest in star ships properly when we have to find somewhere else to live in the universe.

[ProfessorPeach]

Dakkon said:

There is a school of thought that wants humans to consume all of Earth's resources as this is the only way we will invest in star ships properly when we have to find somewhere else to live in the universe.

Rock on!

[GilbertGrape]

ProfessorPeach said:

sneijder said:

That is just fantastic, although you had me at 'What would happen'. Please draw a picture of what you just described, I suspect they only let you have one crayon.

I laughed

[grumbledoak]

Dakkon said:

There is a school of thought that wants humans to consume all of Earth's resources as this is the only way we will invest in star ships properly when we have to find somewhere else to live in the universe.

That is a fairly dumb school, TBH. We are a long, long way from the ability to live on Venus or Mars, and travel to another Solar System is beyond all but our imaginations.

[ProfessorPeach]

grumbledoak said:

Dakkon said:

There is a school of thought that wants humans to consume all of Earth's resources as this is the only way we will invest in star ships properly when we have to find somewhere else to live in the universe.

That is a fairly dumb school, TBH. We are a long, long way from the ability to live on Venus or Mars, and travel to another Solar System is beyond all but our imaginations.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

If we all try really hard to screw the planet up as quickly as possible, we can all live in "Star Wars".

I want to drive an ATAT.

[Mars]

grumbledoak said:

Dakkon said:

There is a school of thought that wants humans to consume all of Earth's resources as this is the only way we will invest in star ships properly when we have to find somewhere else to live in the universe.

That is a fairly dumb school, TBH. We are a long, long way from the ability to live on Venus or Mars, and travel to another Solar System is beyond all but our imaginations.

Venus is uninhabitable - too hot. Mars is too cold and has no atmosphere. To colonise anywhere else, we'd need to travel for more time than men have been men, which means we'd need to design and build spaceships which are life-sustaining for many generations, be absolutely certain that the planet we shoot those spaceships at is hospitable, and engineer a way of decelerating our spaceship even though the engines will have not fired for many many many years/centuries with a fuel source which hasn't gone off.

You're right... anywhere else is beyond all but our imagination.

[grumbledoak]

ProfessorPeach said:

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Not really working for the Ethiopeans, is it. A really quite large amount of 'needing food' has not resulted in them 'inventing food'...

[ProfessorPeach]

grumbledoak said:

ProfessorPeach said:

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Not really working for the Ethiopeans, is it. A really quite large amount of 'needing food' has not resulted in them 'inventing food'...

Agreed, but rather a lot of people failed to go to the moon before someone went to the moon.

Also.

[JacksHereR]

perfect picture, just as I pictured your description. Have you read Brave New World? please draw a picture of that in action

[WorAl]

Simpo Two said:

Nature's way of controlling population is by famine, disease or war. At the moment, when a sector of humanity is starving or diseased, pop singers and idealists in the other part send them food and medicine. This enables them to survive and breed.

The only problem being, modern medicine/machinery is stopping natures way of controlling the human population. Only thing left on your list, War, and its going to be a big one.

[dirty boy]

If I filled my back garden with tomatoes, spuds and carrots, I suspect I could 'live'.

We're just incredibly lazy at the moment, many thousands of us are in a position to produce some of what we eat, it's just more important to have somewhere to play footy when you get home

[soad]

dirty boy said:

If I filled my back garden with tomatoes, spuds and carrots, I suspect I could 'live'.

We're just incredibly lazy at the moment, many thousands of us are in a position to produce some of what we eat, it's just more important to have somewhere to play footy when you get home

Damn right, my grandparents always grew their produce too. Me - i'm just too lazy.

Loving your chart, ProfessorPeach. Nice work

[dirty boy]

soad said:

dirty boy said:

If I filled my back garden with tomatoes, spuds and carrots, I suspect I could 'live'.

We're just incredibly lazy at the moment, many thousands of us are in a position to produce some of what we eat, it's just more important to have somewhere to play footy when you get home

Damn right, my grandparents always grew their produce too. Me - i'm just too lazy.

Just had a look, 1m2 of land can produce 6kg of spuds or 15kg of carrots! My garden is about 300m2 so if I split that 50/50 I could 'possibly' produce 900kgs of spuds and 2.25t of carrots! incredible really.

soad said:

Loving your chart, ProfessorPeach. Nice work

[sneijder]

ProfessorPeach said:

sneijder said:

That is just fantastic, although you had me at 'What would happen'. Please draw a picture of what you just described, I suspect they only let you have one crayon.

In all seriousness, that is epic. Post of the month.

[klimakool]

if china went democratic and stopped its population having to apply for permission to have children, the earth would not sustain life after 18 months

[Martin Keene]

Simpo Two said:

Yes there is (of course)

Martin Keene said:

And worryingly I have a feeling it is less than we have now...

That can't be true - by definition it is sustaining them - but what you mean is 'can it sustain them indefinitely?'

Nature's way of controlling population is by famine, disease or war. At the moment, when a sector of humanity is starving or diseased, pop singers and idealists in the other part send them food and medicine. This enables them to survive and breed.

Indeed. I guess I did mean sustain them indefinitely, which we do struggle to do, despite the 'helpfulness' of various parties.

[JamesM]

Stevenj214 said:

Is there a maximum human population number the earth can sustain?

ETA: -e

Edited by Stevenj214 on Monday 15th March 20:25

Yes, and we've far exceeded it.

[gamefreaks]

sneijder said:

ProfessorPeach said:

sneijder said:

That is just fantastic, although you had me at 'What would happen'. Please draw a picture of what you just described, I suspect they only let you have one crayon.

In all seriousness, that is epic. Post of the month.

It's not his. He found it on the Green Parties web site. It's their flagship policy. I would have thought you would have guessed since it has 1 wind turbine to provide power for the whole world!

[LukeBird]

ProfessorPeach said:

Superb!