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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: 4, Insightful) by physicsmajor on Tuesday May 26 2015, @04:04PM

    by physicsmajor (1471) on Tuesday May 26 2015, @04:04PM (#188090)

    Instead of this type of link prominently displayed, can we not hyperlink the word(s) after the submitter's ID?

    [submitter name](link to their name) [writes/tips us about/suggested we cover/etc.](link to original submission)

    This is where I'd look for the story attached to the submitter, and it would look much cleaner.

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  • (Score: 2) by CoolHand on Tuesday May 26 2015, @05:30PM

    by CoolHand (438) on Tuesday May 26 2015, @05:30PM (#188152) Journal
    I've posted this into our #editorial irc channel so we can discuss if this is better... Thanks for the suggestion.
    --
    Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job-Douglas Adams

    • (Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday May 26 2015, @08:41PM

      by looorg (578) on Tuesday May 26 2015, @08:41PM (#188264)

      Instead of the big text line just add like a little icon (or single work text) in a corner somewhere. It's nice that it's there, I even suggested it a few days ago (not sure if others did to) and then it became a reality. I just didn't envision it being this large and obvious.