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posted by martyb on Tuesday May 26 2015, @02:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the On-a-Pale-Horse-vs-Being-a-Green-Mother dept.

The world population is growing because the birth rate exceeds the death rate, so to stabilize the world population either the birth rate needs to drop, or the death rate needs to increase. The most cited reference for population studies is the projections of future population (PDF) made by the Population Division of the United Nations. The UN report projects the world population to eventually stabilize as a result of countries settling in to a birth rate that falls around the replacement level.

A commentary by Stephen Warren in the open access journal Earth's Future takes the UN report to task for focusing on birth rate. He notes that all species generate offspring in numbers well above the replacement level of two, but you don't see historically the kind of population growth like you do with humans. He argues that despite all the negative feedback mechanisms on population (such as war and pestilence), it seems that Malthus (PDF) was correct that food supply is the driving factor, and wonders whether it is even possible to stabilize the world population until food production levels off.


[Editor's Comment: Original Submission]

 
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  • (Score: 2) by RamiK on Tuesday May 26 2015, @04:10PM

    by RamiK (1813) on Tuesday May 26 2015, @04:10PM (#188094)

    Food shortages and warfare are irrelevant since there are no eugenics against diseases. Breeding for intellect, physical strength, beauty or sociability just means limiting long term genetic diversity on the expense of a better quality of life in whatever society you're living in that happens to encourage those traits as vestiges of defending against predators that are no longer around.

    You could argue targeting health for eugenics, but that's a shifting socio-political term as any. e.g. current life expectancy ratings in 1st world countries only reflect externally uninhibited health (no wars, predators or pandemics) and relies completely on access to food and medicine which are no guarantee in the long run.

    Eventually, you'll be faced with the fact that the only thing you can do is breed young and for numbers with multiple partner as genetically distant from you as you can in hopes whatever kills everyone else won't get to your offspring.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @12:34AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @12:34AM (#189416)

    Louis C.K. is that you ?