kittycat1

QUite an interesting thingame bob here on BBC

I am number 4,187,213,849th person alive.

What is astounding is the growth in population in the last 50 years- In 1950- just 2 and a half billion and we are now at 7 billion! Surely this isn't sustainable? an we actually sterilize chavs now? (joke)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-15391515

Oyibopeppeh

C'mon Norm....how many of them are illegals in the UK?

Bahtatboy

I don't see the joke.

Meow

Well there's nothing funny about over-population.

I am amazed that some idiots have even been offering congratulations for the high number. There are too many people and population is also growing fastest in many of the poorer countries.

Maybe breeding is a biological imperative, but a little common sense (a rare commodity) would be a good thing.

Norm_uk

The elephant in the room no one wants to talk about.

Sadly the trend in Europe is smarter people having fewer children (because they affect their quality of life, demand responsibility etc) and dumb people having loads of children. Exceptions occur of course but this is the trend.

7 billion is sustainable with new technology. The problem is resource distribution and idiots who lecture poor countries on nonsense like organic farming - as if 17th century farming technology will feed the world.

Of course the long term solution would be to either not share food and technology with developing nations and left them starve or start forcing education on family planning/emancipation of women on them...neither of which is going to happen I feel because one is attempted genocide and the other is probably quite "racist"...

N.

Norm_uk

I mentioned the elephant in the room in my last post - no one is saying the obvious: Certain countries and cultures, mostly developing, "poorer" groups are having far too many children - we even see this in some immigrant populations in our own countries. Often this is because their women are virtually oppressed and uneducated - yet I hear so little from Western feminists on the continued and often brutal cultural and religious persecution of their sisters in other lands - it seems most champions of women's rights in the Western/developed world are keener on blaming their own men for the actions of their grandfathers because to criticise other cultural practices and beliefs falls on the racism radar I think...

Until women are emancipated from the yoke of silly traditions and beliefs around the world we cannot hope to solve poverty, overpopulation or create a more stable world...in most cases smart, free women have as many children as they can afford to educate and raise properly - and they don't raise their boys to hate women and hide behind culture or religion as a means to treat them like chattel.

N.

Norm_uk

I'd say about half...and 50% of them are in Luton

N.

LaLaLayla

But you need to look at the reasons why this is so. For instance, infant mortality rates in the developing world are so high, that families have more children to compensate for possible losses. Also, as there is no Old Age Pension in these countries, these people need to have children so that they have somebody to look after them in their old age. Having a child in the developing world places a fraction of the burdon on the family compared to having a child in the developed world.

As for resources, there is plenty enough to go around. It is the unequal distribution of these recources that is the problem.

Meow

Many of us feminists are well aware that one of the answers would be the improved education of women. It's a fact that educated women tend to have less children, have more choices and are more aware of the implications of their actions.

Dare we mention the religious aspect? That people of a certain religion are often those with the largest number of children and women who are frequently subjugated. I suspect that even pointing this out will bring on an attack of 'racism' so many people keep quiet.

LaLaLayla

This is so true. In Kerala they managed to bring down birth rates and infant morbidity & mortality rates to a fraction of what they were after introducing free schooling for all girls.

Incidentally, Kerala is the only place on earth that has ever had a democratically-elected Communist government. Not saying there is a connection, of course.

Norm_uk

That's what it often comes down to - people are too scared to say anything when it comes to the religious aspect for fear of offending certain religions (who claim they are peaceful and will sue, denigrate, arrest, attack and kill anyone who challenges their belief) for fear of being called a racist by their peers (who clearly don't know what a race is and why beliefs, cultures and religions are not races...unless you are a Nazi or multic-ulturalist of course and believe people cannot transcend their parents culture and beliefs).

In order for evil to triumph all that is needed is for good men and women to say nothing...

N.

Bahtatboy

Water will be the problem.

Norm_uk

One of the annoyingly positive aspects of communism is that they tend to be quite secular - hence women's rights tend to be better (the downside is they often murder people just for being religious)

Germany had the only democratically elected Nazi government. Several Arab states have the only democratically elected theocracies - Democracy isn't always something to be proud of


N.

shiva

Clean water is a huge future issue
Don't forget the land grab currently happening in Africa, Australia and Pakistan. China, Russia, the UAE, Saudi and numerous hedge funds and other nefarious financial wmd's have all been buying up huge tracts of land in the above and other countries. There are quite simply not enough resources to go around and those that can afford it are already buying up all the arable land the can get their hands on.
Lets not forget india has no family planning strategy at all, the current 1.2billion population with 30% below the international poverty line is just the beginning. 11 children a minute are born in Uttar pradesh alone with almost no hope of earning more than 1$ a day in their lifetime. Mark my words in our lifetime we wil see some very ugly things happening because of food shortages

LaLaLayla

The thing is that any attempt to bring down birth rates in India is seen by the left as being 'coersive'. Does anyone remember the 'Free Radios for Vasectemies' scandal from a few years back?