Overpopulation. Resources running out. What do we do about these things?

[funguy2121]

Today, mortality rates have gone down, medicine is becoming more advanced and effective than it used to be, and less people are dying overall. But now we have the issue of housing and sustaining more and more people everyday, and our Earth might not last forever. Do we have any solutions to these very troubling problems?

At first I thought this was a sci-fi scenario. Mortality rates are going down in some developed countries, and this won't last forever. More people are dying worldwide, not less. But to say overpopulation is a huge issue would be an understatement.

If there were a way to police breeding, not fucking/lovemaking but actual breeding, in spite of my ideology, I'd consider it. I'm talking intelligence test/history of responsible decision making and integrity.

That of course isn't feasible, however.

The only real solution as I see it is terraforming. Mars, here we come!

...if we live long enough and properly fund NASA, that is...

 

[BabyRaptor]

Stop the bullshit known as abstinence-only education. Make birth control more accessible, and make sure people know how to use it. Stop demonizing abortion and the morning after pill. Stop forcing the belief that a fetus is a life and ostracizing people who disagree.

 

[Namewithheld]

Resources don't actually 'go away'. This isn't minecraft, where an iron pick just vanishes into the aether after 100+ swings. They transition from one state to another.

Iron ore is smelted into iron, which is used, until it rusts into scrap metal. Plants grow, germinate, spread to more plants, are harvested, eaten and dumped back into the soil (you can use your imagination as to how) and so on.

The question isn't running out of resources, it's about how well can we recycle and sustain the 'life support' of our planet.

As we have rudimentary nanotechnology, it's going to be 10-20 years before we get industrial nanofabrication, which will make recycling and manufacture not only decentralized and environmentally friendly, but also incredibly cheap (energy wise).

I'm not worried about overpopulation or resource "depletion", or any of the traditional bogey men that our race has cooked up to scare ourselves with. Big government? Big corporations? They can't survive in a world of rapid information flow (Just look at what the Middle East is going through from just smartphones and twitter. Imagine that, but a thousand times faster and a billion times more prolific). Overpopulation is solved by nigh limitless material wealth and the subsequent ease of contraception.

No, the things we really have to be worried about are...

Uncontrolled singularity events controlled by an unfriendly AI.
Out of control nanotech weapons (though even that is a bit iffy, as nano-weapons are theoretically quite easily destroyed by a simple thing called 'fire')
Other extinction events (asteroids, pandemics, nuclear wars, ext).

 

[crystalsnow]

Anthrax.



What?

 

[funguy2121]

uhm.. One child per family?

actually, I hear that this^ is what the government of China is doing in order to reduce their population: they give financial benefits to couples who have one and ONLY one child, but take them away if they have another...

They don't do coerced abortions anymore?

 

[DanielBrown]

We need another world war or an awful disease to thin the numbers out a bit.
Time to attack USA!

 

[funguy2121]

we will run out of resources and civilised countiries will be invaded by swarms of refugees from 3rd world countries. We will need to find alternate energy or there will be more and more wars.
if you want an example of this look at the middle east. there few resources in the desert, not much food to grow around so people will find ways explain their crap lives; religion. people will then find ways to make people do what they want due to this faith; current day Islam.

That's not a very informed view of the Middle East/North Africa or of Islam. They have what's still considered the world's most precious resource, Texas T. And they don't get any of the money for it because the western nations' murderous oil companies give it all to the royals.

I live in Texas, where we have deserts and F'd up religion aplenty, so your logic doesn't follow.

 

[KarlMonster]

I think we all need to calm down here. ...
[Snipped out some very poorly chosen links] ... Please do not take it as given that overpopulation even exists. To consider such drastic measures as have been listed such as depopulation/extermination or outright war chills me to the bone.

Your very gullible bones. Ioxles, I strongly urge you to be more critical in your reading. The various links that you have provided are fraught with political attacks, speculative nonsense, and a lot of dreamy dreams. All are warning signs against using them as information sources. They prove nothing beyond your willingness to accept rosy ideas as established processes. I strongly suggest you do some research on vetting sources of information.

For example; It's true that rainwater generally starts out as drinkable water. However, there are also industrial emissions, and shoddily constructed ponds of fracking fluid (containing diesel fuel, radium, and some other interesting things) that are going into our air and water. This is being done "legally", right now, in the United States. Bioaccumulation - its so much fun that you are doing it right now.

Another example: I'm sure you could fit 6 billion people into an area the size of Texas. But why would you want to? Texas can be an inhospitable place. The people there are generally friendly, but I attribute that to sunstroke. Who's going to pay airfare for the 4 billion asian people to get there? I think the people who live in Myanmar would like to relocate to Texas right now, so long as you're buying?

No? Well, would you mind sending about 500,000 hamburgers to them instead? Yes, sure, there is plenty of WAFLE for everyone, but the people who are starving right now don't particularly care what you call it. They'd like to eat.

Here's a fun fact; the Native Americans thought that the Pilgrims were nuts. The Pilgrims were sick a lot. They didn't seem to know that the local rivers flowed inland from the ocean. So when they dug their wells, they kept getting brackish water.

Technology is a great thing - if anyone actually APPLIES it. Application requires that someone takes the initiative. For companies, that means that there should be a profit involved somewhere. The video of getting oil from plastic is pretty neat - but it takes energy to melt those plastics. A lot more energy than you can recover in the resultant hydrocarbons. [And that 'oil' is very different from Brent crude oil.] Governments could force these applications of technology - but they'd rather get the easy money from oil and mining industries, and then squander that. So the number of entities willing and able to apply any of these population-preserving technologies is going to be vanishingly small. Like right now.

What would I do about overpopulation? Not much I can do. I can't even prevent my own government from doing 'damn fool' things. But I'll keep trying.

 

[Zarthek]

Space colonization, World War 3, Zombie outbreak... Just a few thoughts.

 

[icyneesan]

Government bans sex, Everyone starts to kill each other for resources, or The World Governments decide to kill 'inferior' people to help save resource. Or at least thats what I think will happen.

Best case scenario, we move out into space and and the world becomes Gundam 0079.

 

[funguy2121]

Mandatory birth control and have licensed pregnancy. If you're not mentally or financially stable enough to support a child, that's too bad. The USA can also get rid of their welfare program while we're at it. If not get rid of it, make it a lot harder to get. I have to pass a piss test for my job, people being lazy and not working should pass one too. Not to mention if they already had one child and no job, get a mandatory vasectomy/hystorectomy.

For the resources, restart the space program and let's go live on other planets.

First of all, how are we going to enforce this? Abortion was illegal and they used coat hangers; the same applies for the opposite.

Also, I spent 2 years in college after leaving a job where I made nearly $16 an hour. I've been told time and time again that without experience prospective employers won't hire me. Now I'm being told that the period of time since I graduated is an issue. The longer it takes me to get my career started, the harder it becomes. And I can't walk into a Chili's or a Starbucks and get a job, since I'm overqualified at this point. I don't know if you got through school on your parents' dime or were just more fortunate than people in my position, but you should keep your ignorant, hateful comments about people in my situation to yourself.

I totally agree about the piss test, though. No weed for you, no weed for me.

 

[Iron Lightning]

Nothing, we just hit the carrying capacity of the Earth and ride that sine wave into the future.

 

[Nabirius]

Mandatory gun lessons in school.

 

[Uncle_Brainhorn]

I would say a combination of global reproduction restrictions and eugenics.

 

[Timi Pungracic]

Invent time travel, go back in time and steal their resources. It's not like they're using it, they died a long time ago.

and if you take resources from the past, they won't exist in the future. Good thinking.

 

[Secret world leader (shhh)]

Bubonic plague 2.0 anyone?

 

[funguy2121]

Mandatory birth control and have licensed pregnancy. If you're not mentally or financially stable enough to support a child, that's too bad. The USA can also get rid of their welfare program while we're at it. If not get rid of it, make it a lot harder to get. I have to pass a piss test for my job, people being lazy and not working should pass one too. Not to mention if they already had one child and no job, get a mandatory vasectomy/hystorectomy.

For the resources, restart the space program and let's go live on other planets.

First of all, how are we going to enforce this? Abortion was illegal and they used coat hangers; the same applies for the opposite.

Also, I spent 2 years in college after leaving a job where I made nearly $16 an hour. I've been told time and time again that without experience prospective employers won't hire me. Now I'm being told that the period of time since I graduated is an issue. The longer it takes me to get my career started, the harder it becomes. And I can't walk into a Chili's or a Starbucks and get a job, since I'm overqualified at this point. I don't know if you got through school on your parents' dime or were just more fortunate than people in my position, but you should keep your ignorant, hateful comments about people in my situation to yourself.

I totally agree about the piss test, though. No weed for you, no weed for me.

I raised my hand and swore to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America from all enemies foreign and domestic. Everyone's feeling the crunch even government employees and the military. I'm probably going to get out next March and I know how bad it is on the outside. I'm not entirely sure what part of my type was ignorant or hateful. I grew up in a small town with a lot of drug use and welfare recipients and most of them did nothing to try and get on their own feet, all they need to do is have another kid and get that pretty check at the beginning of each month.

If you're having such a hard time, then maybe you'd understand I'm saying get rid of the leeches. Someone like you in your position needs some assistance until you can get on your feet... unless you're out impregnating women for a check. Maybe if people weren't taking advantage of the welfare system, the government could be more lenient with people filing unemployment.

Or maybe you're a fool for giving up a job that paid well.

I bolded the parts that I thought were hateful. And, as I said regarding the piss test, I'm all for getting rid of the leeches.

I would literally want to kill myself if I thought I'd spend the rest of my life working at a Walmart warehouse. Once I get a year or 2 under my belt as a Surgical Tech, I know I won't regret the decision. I wouldn't call it foolish at all.

 

[Scout Tactical]

We could just kill everyone without a job (not at a university or under 18). It wouldn't be immoral, though. We'd use every part of the humans we kill. Useful to have a lot of fresh corpses on hand to teach art, research medicine, transplant to more valuable people, etc.

If people start getting motivated to get jobs, we might need to think up other methods of deciding who to kill, though.

 

[SamuelT]

Nuclear power and Space colonisation.

It's been way too long already. Make it happen!