The Population Bomb Has Been Defused. - Sensationalist Headlines

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-03-16/decline-in-world-fertility-rates-lowers-risks-of-mass-starvation Some of the most spectacularly wrong predictions in history have been made by those who claim that overpopulation is going to swamp the planet. Thomas Malthus, a British economist writing in the late 1700s, is the most famous of these. Extrapolating past trends into the future, he predicted that population growth would inevitably swamp available food resources, leading to mass starvation. That didn’t happen -- we continued to develop new technologies that let us stay ahead of the reaper. In 1968, Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich wrote “The Population Bomb,” warning that unchecked population growth would lead to mass starvation in the 1970s. He was just as wrong as Malthus. Global population did surge, but food production managed to keep up. So far, the prophets of overpopulation have been defeated by technology. But human ingenuity alone can never deliver a final victory in the battle to feed the world -- eventually, population growth will overwhelm the Earth’s ability to provide calories. That’s why in order to put Malthus and Ehrlich finally to rest, a second component is needed -- lower fertility rates. To save both the environment and themselves, humans must have fewer kids. Fortunately, this is happening. During the lifetimes of Malthus and Ehrlich, humans still tended to have large families, with each woman bearing an average of five children over her lifetime. But shortly after Ehrlich’s book, that began to change: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Some really neat trends showcased in the article. Can't embed the charts here unfortunately, so go to the article and see for yourself. This is happening all over the world, even in areas that attempt to force traditional gender roles and norms.

I remember going over something like this is a human geography course. it's nice that we're overcoming such incredible odds.

There's a really good Kurzgesagt video about overpopulation as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsBT5EQt348

Hans Rosling spoke a lot about this subject. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LyzBoHo5EI

The problem now becomes handling the reduction in "working population" brought on by the reduced number of young people in the next generation. Luckily I think this problem is much less dangerous than overpopulation and it actually could be a benefit for those entering the job market in a 30-40 years: Since there are so few young people there is going to be a worker shortage when filling mid/high tier positions that are left open after this generation goes into retirement/dies. This will hopefully mean a much friendlier job market and higher wages in mid/high tier positions. That is given nothing unexpectedly bad happening to the economy.

Well as that happens we should technically be going into automation, fitting well with the population decrease as less jobs will be available.

I remember reading something like this in National Geographic, I think. They called it "the final buildup of human history," in that we would reach a point at which urban sprawl was bound to decline and stagnate as population growth does the same. It was interesting to think that the world would reach a point where it would stop getting more crowded.

That's all well and good. But It's the West that isn't reproducing at a rapid pace... It's also the west that doesn't already have a population problem. It's like none of these highly educated dolts ever figure that fact in. Even with higher energy and resource consumption, It's the west that is aware of the problem and it's paradoxically enough also not the west that needs to act on the issue. India, China and Africa are the regions that either suffer or are on the brink of suffering from massive overpopulation due to not changing reproductive habits to suit the (albeit not quickly enough) rising level of healthcare in their regions. It's baffling to hear a Babyboomer or Gen X'er lecture the youth on this subject as if it's even relevant to even one western country. It's not.

Well, the point is that population trends flatline when the standards of living in a country go up enough. Just have to make sure the west stops exploiting the third world for cheap labour and bribing governments to keep workers rights in limbo, and you won't have to fear overpopulation.

Did you even read the article? It literally has graphs of India and China that show a downwards trend in fertility rates.

did you even read the article the trends of development that induced these changes in the west are..... gradually applying elsewhere too woah. that's why the claim is that the population won't reach 11 billion, not that it'll just stick at 7 billion. It also actually still our problem when it comes to the earth, because human numbers don't really matter, resource consumption is.

Yes, i read the article. Did you read my post? I was talking about how it usually goes when this discussion is raised. It usually ends up in a consensus that WE have to adjust, when it's not us that are the cause of the issue to begin with. China has been adjusting for 40 years now, India is getting there and Africa... Just get rid of their mad tribalistic religious tendencies and they might have a chance... I never argued that it's not turning around. All i mean is that the west can do fuck-all but educate and enlighten as well as shame idiotic state and religious leaders on the other continents for idiotic policies and ideas.

Condescending AF my man. African countries will see a similar downward trend in fertility as prosperity and quality of life improve, just like it has in the rest of the world.

You've completely ignored the resource aspect. One American emits way more than a single African family alone. And that's not going to last as these places develop, so you can still say it's the west's responsibility to assist them with clean development (given that we didnt give a damn about it ourselves.)

I'm sorry. I guess i should be more aware of how i'm communicating....