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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]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by WillAdams on Tuesday May 26 2015, @06:35PM
Well, there was Gandhi's quote,
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed”
http://thinkexist.com/quotation/earth_provides_enough_to_satisfy_every_man-s_need/181709.html [thinkexist.com]
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Tuesday May 26 2015, @07:36PM
Well, there was Gandhi's quote, “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed”
He said that getting on for a century ago and no doubt it was true then. But we are talking here about centuries to come.
Despite being in the West, and probably among the better-off half of it, I am already noticing shortages of things. Small signs, that do not matter very much at the moment, but worrying for the longer term. Like modern furniture being made out of compressed chippings of crappy timber; OTOH I have some old kitchen cupboards in my shed to store tools, nothing special in their day, but nevertheless made of quality wood back then. There is certainly not enough wood in the world now to make quality furniture, and one day soon I expect it will not even be made of wood chips - probably dried shit or laminated recycled human skin, those being things of which there will no doubt be plenty in the future.
(Score: 1) by WillAdams on Tuesday May 26 2015, @08:21PM
You can still get solid wood furniture, you just have to be willing to pay for it, or make it yourself (in which case you either need to buy the wood, or mill it yourself).
I live in Pennsylvania, in the middle of Penn's Woods, and there's an almost unbelievable amount of timber --- it's still getting cut, and it's still growing, and new trees are still being planted.
Even w/ SCITES, exotic woods continue to be available, and there's been some effort to make species such as Lignum Vitae commercially available and grown sustainably.
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Wednesday May 27 2015, @10:16AM
I also live in a forest, in South Wales, and some of my garden looks like part of it. I had two big hardwood trees blow down two years ago and I am still burning them for heating. But in the UK that is very exceptional. I have old maps (like 50 years old) and comparing them with new maps it is frightening how much less woodland there now is (and how much more area has been built on) in just a generation or two. My bit of forest is curently protected, but I can see that being overruled by politicians in another generation to make room for more housing.
Despite making a lot of noise about eg wind generation, supposedly to save global warming to save trees and wildlife, politicians actually don't give a shit about trees and wildlife directly and will readily sign off square miles of green countryside for new development, and with little opposition either. The "Green Movement" is really more paranoia about poisons (supposed or real) than caring about the natural world.
Ironic that no-one (yet) in this discussion had mentioned what inspired the name of this website.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 27 2015, @02:12AM