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

[soulfire130]

Kill all the pirson population, extrely wealthy, and homeless? Alternate demensional travel?

Just guessing.

 

[Grand_Arcana]

We should go into space, find a nice moon that is teeming with life, meet the natives, realize that they have a huge amount of ore that would be worth billions underneath their sacred tree. Then we'll wipe them out.

Hmm, that would make for a great movie. . .

I'm worried about raw materials than paper pushing banks; metals and lumber to be precise.

In the case of most metals they have a nearly 100% recycling turn around. Create trash systems that filter out most (if not all) of the metal and you net yourself all your precious metals back.

Alternatively in the future just collect them from nearby planets or passing meteors but that's a bit scifi at this point.

Lumber on the first hand can be fully sustained with tree farms at current requirements, the tree farms now might not be big enough but they could be grown to demand. Alternatively finding new things that can replace lumber, perhaps bamboo or a plant that grows rather pandemically. Just be careful not to recreate the corn problem in the US (this really, of modern world problems, is the biggest on plaguing the US).

Basically all the world's ills come down to a very small population abusing mechanics in order to profit more than necessary.

Well alright...not ALL the world's ills. Problems like cancer and aids are multifaceted and terrible, though of those two aids could probably be wiped out with more advanced forms of screening and proper drug education and decriminalization.

I'm not saying we don't have problems, but almost none of our problems are unsolvable and I'd be willing to bet that basically none of them is a direct result of population and that the population at its current levels is overwhelming and impossible to manage.

Basically it's population x problem = end of the world. If you can divide the problem by a large enough amount you will effectively wipe out your issue.

And again I don't see the population continuing to grow once synthetic nitrogen dies out, heck I will be shocked if in my own lifetime we don't see it Plateau or even begin to free fall naturally.

Warning: Not an expert, just read enough to be very skeptical about doomsaying.

It's recyclable yes, but there's only so much metal on the earth. If demand exceeds the planet's supply, recycling wouldn't work because no one would want to risk losing their metals for good. I'm not just talking about jewelry, all of our technology revolves around these minerals. Metals are literally the pillars of our civilization. We'd have to mine asteroids eventually.

 

[Samurai Goomba]

Dunno.

Welp, I'm off to go read some cyberpunk novels. There's a reason I like it and find the genre especially relevant.

 

[lacktheknack]

Outlaw organized religion?

Who knows, it just might help - it certainly hasn't been tried, yet.

Yeah it has. It just hasn't been tried in western countries (due the absolute shit that went down in countries that have tried it).

And actually, the most powerful and effective churches are the underground ones - see: THE FIRST ONE. So if you really want to help cement religious fervor and unchecked growth of religion, ban it.

OT: Restricting children would cut the population in half in one generation, easy. If you don't want to do that, we could always eat less. (Seriously, we do not need to eat and consume resources at the current rate. We could easily get by on 10% of current consumption. Nice? No. Effective? Yes.)

 

[lacktheknack]

For those wanting to apply a 1 child rule, see what happens when you are old and you want to retire but there are too few workers to support you.

Robot apocalypse.

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.

I (very briefly) suffered some major Poe's Law. Well done, that gave me a laugh.

 

[S3Cs4uN 8]

Further separate sex and procreation. We need to make birth control more obtainable for people in third world countries. Safe sex drops the birth rate a ton, the death rate remains largely the same, and there's far fewer children whose parents cannot support them.

FTW!

Also the more liberated women are, the more choices they have, the lower the birthrate. It's almost like when we women actually have choices, we reject the notion that motherhood alone makes you a worthy person. and then we do cool things like get educated... join the workforce... gasp.

So yeah: if you are worried about the world going down the drain: become a feminist. Support women's rights.

and late 18th century warfare

 

[AdamRBi]

Legal Abortions.
Better education involving Safe Sex.
Ritualistic Human Sacrifice
Less money spent on the old, more spent on the youth.The more educated the youth, the more career minded and less likely to have large families they'll be.
Underwater Utopias.
Residential Space Stations.

 

[Irridium]

A genophage-like creation that regulates population. They could release it secretly and act like its a "new virus of evil!" and whatnot.

Honestly, I think it'll be disease that culls the population. Viruses and whatnot are becoming increasingly resistant to medicine, since these days if someone feels slightly uncomfortable they take craploads of anti-biotic. This'll cause diseases getting more resistant, and will probably be our undoing.

Though when it'll happen, I can't say. Chances are we'll all kill ourselves in a war before it happens, but you never know.

 

[Saelune]

Get rid of the idea that blood relations are so important. Adopt. Cant reproduce normally? Adopt. Screw invitro. Save a life, dont make one.
Small, but still.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Scrooge commented on the surplus population. When exactly did old Dickens write that book? I don't really think this is the most pressing issue in today's world. Its an issue but there are other things to worry about.

 

[eternal-chaplain]

In The Zeitgeist Movement, there is one computer-database (not a mind or sentient being, but a database) that keeps a running tally of the Earth's resources and plans their use by using the scientific method to make sure every resource can regenerate and not be used in excess to adjust society to the real issue of a massive population. This, of course, requires people to come together as we cannot solve these problems by ignoring the billions of people that live half a world away from us.

 

[Rex Fallout]

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?

1. morality is an ambiguous term; the moral code of one might not be that of another so i assume you mean crime has gone up; when in accordance to a boom in population the rate would stay the same; save for an increase number due to a large population. But to be fair crime rates are supposedly down.
2. Won't last forever but why should we care? the people that CAN do somethign about it won't because there is no direct money in it. Why colonize space when you can have a brand new Yacht now.
3. In general we tend to have a rousing good World War; kill off all the excess males we have lying around, boost the economies with the war productions, leave some spare jobs for the remaining survivors, same old thing.
4. Birth rates are lower; fewer people WANT to have kids. Economy the way it is, not wanting the responsibility, lack of caring; odds are population will stay about the same or slowly rise but won't get to the point where we are living in Imperial Hiveworlds(coruscant for example for non 40k fans)

Morality and mortality are two different things. And there is money in space no one takes I seriously though.

 

[Canid117]

Encourage a continent wide war in Europe. Another WWI would be good for those guys.





^joke

 

[Rex Fallout]

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?

1. morality is an ambiguous term; the moral code of one might not be that of another so i assume you mean crime has gone up; when in accordance to a boom in population the rate would stay the same; save for an increase number due to a large population. But to be fair crime rates are supposedly down.
2. Won't last forever but why should we care? the people that CAN do somethign about it won't because there is no direct money in it. Why colonize space when you can have a brand new Yacht now.
3. In general we tend to have a rousing good World War; kill off all the excess males we have lying around, boost the economies with the war productions, leave some spare jobs for the remaining survivors, same old thing.
4. Birth rates are lower; fewer people WANT to have kids. Economy the way it is, not wanting the responsibility, lack of caring; odds are population will stay about the same or slowly rise but won't get to the point where we are living in Imperial Hiveworlds(coruscant for example for non 40k fans)

Morality and mortality are two different things. And there is money in space no one takes I seriously though.

Oh damn; lets call that a Freudian slip.

Other than that your post made a lot of sense. Still disagree with the space part though.

 

[mcnally86]

The world has been ending since it began.

 

[deserteagleeye]

Sterilize yourself after having a child and consider adopting if you want "another" child. I can understand wanting to give life to a child of your own genes, but having any more is really pushing it. Especially if you live in China.
Oh yeah, and anyone who is against abortions, stop being an such a prick.