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Stabilization of Human Population

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

hubie writes:

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: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 26 2015, @03:08PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 26 2015, @03:08PM (#188047)

    Population reduction seems like this theme is super popular right in entertainment right now.

    Just off the top of my head (spoilers, duh):

    Orphan Black
    Utopia
    Person of Interest
    Helix
    Kingsman

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  • (Score: 2) by Bot on Tuesday May 26 2015, @04:18PM

    by Bot (3902) on Tuesday May 26 2015, @04:18PM (#188104) Journal

    While topics like mind control are still taboo.

    --
    Account abandoned.

  • (Score: 2) by Daiv on Tuesday May 26 2015, @08:25PM

    by Daiv (3940) on Tuesday May 26 2015, @08:25PM (#188252)

    Utopia (UK, not the crap FOX reality-TV show) was fantastic! Excellent approach to the topic at hand. Check it out if you haven't already!