The Population Bomb: How We Survived It

[DixieGal]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Ice Tea, that sounds good, it's already over 70 out there today! Hottest day of the year so far!

I had to move to the shady side of the porch, because it was getting hot watching Tim sweating out there.

Hey Bilbo, this first mowing of the year is more of a drive-by shooting. Stray pecans are hidi g everywhere, and the mower launches them like bullets! And then he bogs down in the creek/ditch and stalls the motor. I can laugh, because he didn't help me with the bathroom remodel. It is a good partnership based on amusement at each other's pain and struggles.

[DixieGal]

Teehee ... He is running water into the new tub to take a bath ... I have my camera ready for when he gets settled in ...

EDIT: There is just no way to embarrass that man. He posed for the camera!

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

Teehee ... He is running water into the new tub to take a bath ... I have my camera ready for when he gets settled in ...

EDIT: There is just no way to embarrass that man. He posed for the camera!

[The Terminator]

I'll take some ice tea please, But if dixiegal made the pecan pie I think I'll pass (some strange oil like stains in the mangled pecans )

[DixieGal]

Originally Posted by THE TERMINATOR

I'll take some ice tea please, But if dixiegal made the pecan pie I think I'll pass (some strange oil like stains in the mangled pecans )

See here https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...ostcount=29287

[wannabee]

Oh boy. That reminds me of when Tracey's grandmother (RIP) gave us some biscuits (cookies). When I got them home the use by date had expired by a number of years.

[RainingLemur]

Just wait for the zombies to come. They'll thin the population out a bit.

[Enkidu of Abydos]

Originally Posted by kennyc

The Population Bomb: How We Survived I

How we survived it ? As in past tense ?
Completely ridiculous !
The population is growing better than ever ! The Indians are are still reproducing like mice and with medicine improving and the use of contraceptives not improving the rate of growth can only grow. In China population growth is back up after the removal of the strict reproductive limitations they used to have in communist times (real communist times). Only starvation, AIDS and constant wars are keeping Africa from a huge population explosion (and still look at Nigeria and it's capital !).
Only the most developed countries have their population growth rates under control. In fact in many of them the population is stagnating or even decreasing, while the populations of Africa and Asia keep increasing. In the long term it looks like many old cultures in European countries and other parts of the world may dissapear under the endless tide of Africans and Asians. Now don't get me wrong, I'm against quasi-faschist anti-immigration policies people like Sarkozy and the Republicans in America are promoting, and I'm definitely not a racist, but in the long term the white race may be endangered, along with the native cultures of well developed countries, unless all the poor underdeveloped countries of the world become developed (unlikely) and / or institute strict reproductive control (unlikely).
And as for "sustainable development" ? Absolutely ridiculous !
There is no such thing as sustainable development, that's just a political propaganda tool to keep the people happy and the capitalists earning money ! How can you indefinitely develop on a finite-sized planet ? Increasing technology can decrease the necessary surface for feeding the population (per person) for example but it can't decrease the living space people need.
Not even the current population is sustainable in the long term ! Look at the population numbers of other wide-spread large mammals in the wild !The real sustainable population this planet can support biologically is maybe 100 million or less, so in it's rational longterm interests the goal of mankind should be to reduce the global population to under 100 million (with strict population control) and keep it there, and then invent a completely new model of economy (to replace today's capitalist model) that functions and thrives in an indefinitely stagnating enviroment (today's capitalism needs constant growth to survive, just like the Roman empire needed to expand to survive, until it died that is).
Then humanity could survive on this planet for a long time to come, until the reserves of unrenewable resources (and most inorganic minerals people use are unrenewable) were all spent (in maybe many thousands of years).
The only way the for "sustainable growth" of both the population and the economy to continue undefinitely is to expand to other planets, and the technology for that may not come soon enough as this planet is already bursting with people and their pollution...
This book should have been called :
"The population bomb - how we won't survive it, at least easily"

[Enkidu of Abydos]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

So I see restrictions on numbers of children per family as barbaric.

I don't think barbaric is the right word, barbaric means primitive, something born out of intelligent planning and foresight isn't primitive.
But you could call it a faschist act. As in imposing on personal rights in the name of the good of the whole.
And I, who am otherwise a complete liberal, would support this faschist act which limits human rights, the ONLY such exception I would ever accept.
Because democracy means that anyone can do anything they want unless it hurts someone else's rights (like shooting someone in the head hurts their right to live), and having 10 children hurts the rights of everyone on the planet to a decent life (including the children themselves and their parents). So the logical thing to do would be to restrict the number of children to a reasonable number (like 3, taking into account the people who don't want to or can't have kids or die young that would keep the population at a constant level).
So why isn't this rational logical policy already implemented around the world ? Simply because people think human reproduction is something utterly personal and out of the reach of the state, which has the right only to proscribe the proper behaviour in society, not in personal life. But that attitude needs to change.
But then again you don't need population control in most developed countries because it's not growing (very fast).
The best short-term step would probably be to organize a massive pro-contraception campaign in India and Africa. And screw the pope's preachings !

[Enkidu of Abydos]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Ice Tea, that sounds good, it's already over 70 out there today! Hottest day of the year so far!

70 !? Yikes that's almost hot enough to fry eggs !
It's around 25 here... Standard normal scientific degrees of temperature that is...

Originally Posted by wannabee

I vote a different method please.

Some would like to evolve into smarter life-forms and astral travel to other planes of existence.

I reckon we should just meet at the pub on the corner and talk it out and if we can't work out an agreement then come back and do it every week until we do.

I'm all for it. As long as you pay for the airplane ticket.
But what do you people down under drink ? I mean everybody knows you only eat roast kangaroos and koalas and drive mean-looking Interceptors but I have no idea what you drink...

[GeoffC]

I thought the population growth was slowing so, although numbers continue to rise, there will come a time when the plateau is reached; that or all the Chinese menfolk run out of partners ...

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by Enkidu of Abydos

70 !? Yikes that's almost hot enough to fry eggs !
It's around 25 here... Standard normal scientific degrees of temperature that is...


I'm all for it. As long as you pay for the airplane ticket.
But what do you people down under drink ? I mean everybody knows you only eat roast kangaroos and koalas and drive mean-looking Interceptors but I have no idea what you drink...

http://www.virgingalactic.com/booking/

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

I thought the population growth was slowing so, although numbers continue to rise, there will come a time when the plateau is reached; that or all the Chinese menfolk run out of partners ...

In India it's now.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

http://www.virgingalactic.com/booking/

You on that flight too??

[DixieGal]

Enkido, I'm glad you are not in charge of decision-making. I said barbaric because I meant it. Please do not presume to translate my words to fit your own little manifesto.

One of my best friends is child 15 of 16. He is a teacher, coach, community leader, and active leader in his church. If his parents had agreed with you, the world would have been deprived of him.

I could not disagree with you more.