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SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Tuesday February 05 2019, @12:39AM   Printer-friendly
from the Betteridge-says-maybe dept.

By 2050 there will be 9 billion carbon-burning, plastic-polluting, calorie-consuming people on the planet. By 2100, that number will balloon to 11 billion, pushing society into a Soylent Green scenario. Such dire population predictions aren't the stuff of sci-fi; those numbers come from one of the most trusted world authorities, the United Nations.

But what if they're wrong? Not like, off by a rounding error, but like totally, completely goofed?

That's the conclusion Canadian journalist John Ibbitson and political scientist Darrel Bricker come to in their newest book, Empty Planet, due out February 5th. After painstakingly breaking down the numbers for themselves, the pair arrived at a drastically different prediction for the future of the human species. "In roughly three decades, the global population will begin to decline," they write. "Once that decline begins, it will never end."

The World Might Actually Run Out of People (archive)

Empty Planet

Who do you think is right ? The United Nations or Darrel Bricker/John Ibbitson ?


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by FatPhil on Tuesday February 05 2019, @01:58AM (5 children)

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Tuesday February 05 2019, @01:58AM (#796433) Homepage
    Pretty sure I know that one (on my phone right now, can't check the content), but I seem to remember it assumes all societies will naturally advance at the same rate, just with different starting points. That's clearly false, as there are about a billion people who clearly have no intention of advancing, lest it contradict the scribblings of their sky murderer friend.
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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 05 2019, @02:16AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 05 2019, @02:16AM (#796439)

    That just takes a generation or two with access to better information. In the US there is a "problem" for Christian Churches, their congregations are shrinking and getting older because with access to information their children are able to see the bullshit.

    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday February 05 2019, @09:25AM

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Tuesday February 05 2019, @09:25AM (#796563) Homepage
      Their pulling in of new members is falling, but both the richer and the poorer members are quite good at breeding, so numbers aren't declining as quickly as they might do.

      However, it wasn't Christians in the US I was referring to - they do indeed have good access to information that adequately counters their iron-age worldview. The billion I was referring to *deliberately* try to restrict access to information that might be contradictory to their 700-years-younger-yet-mysteriously-more-bronze-age-than-iron-age worldview.
      --
      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
  • (Score: 1) by beernutz on Friday February 08 2019, @07:58PM

    by beernutz (4365) on Friday February 08 2019, @07:58PM (#798513)

    That seems like a valid point to me yes. I do wonder though it it is offset by the declining numbers of those joining religions. I don't have hard numbers to back that up, but i have a strong feeling that it is a valid trend.

  • (Score: 1) by beernutz on Friday February 08 2019, @08:06PM (1 child)

    by beernutz (4365) on Friday February 08 2019, @08:06PM (#798517)

    Btw, i absolutely LOVE your sig!

    If vaccination works, then why doesn't Eucharist protect kids against Christianity?

    Classic!

    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday February 10 2019, @11:20AM

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Sunday February 10 2019, @11:20AM (#799062) Homepage
      Thanks. It's supposed to invoke reactions of "but...." or "whaaaaat?!?!?". Sounds of springs popping out of heads are imagined.
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      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves