I don’t think that overpopulation is necessarily the earth destroying monster that it’s made out to be Surfermom.
I agree that something needs to be done for future generations as climate change will probably reduce the area of habitable land available for humans, and indeed, there are places now that cannot sustain life, and throwing money and resources at the people living there is just counterproductive, and a tempting opportunity for corruption.
The Earth is 71% water, and 29% land, 27% is high mountains, forests, deserts or unsuitable terrain for human habitation; 1.8% is pasture or arable farm land; mankind occupies some of the remaining 0.2% The world is a far bigger place than most people can contemplate and as you can see, as far as being overpopulated, the world hardly notices we are here…And pre 20th century it didn’t until we started driving, flying and sailing big diesel engined or coal burning ships, and that’s when our problems began.
Yer average civilised bloke or woman these days wants a car each, complete with sat nav and all the latest gizmo’s. A house decorated every other year filled with labour saving devices such as dishwashers, microwaves, washing machines, fridges, freezers, TV’s, computers, smartphones, and then there is clothing (accounting for almost 30% of CO2 production and pollution) with fashions that change at the blink of an eye, so good clothes are binned off hardly worn. Food is not a problem, drive down to your local supermarket and purchase food from all over the world for less than the cost of smartphone contract…
We all earn too much money compared to our needs and it’s priced us out of the global market, obtaining most of our goods and food from somewhere else. Our priorities these days are listening to music, watching TV and box sets, playing computer games and spending time on facebook, twitter or forums…
Priorities in the fifties was putting food on the table and it was so expensive compared to wages, that most people I knew grew crops in their back gardens to save money. Nobody owned a car, they didn’t even own their own home, except the well to do…And things got repaired instead of binned…
Everyone on this forum has heard this all before and I’m not suggesting that we return to those good old days, but for the human race to continue we must reduce our demand on the Earth’s resources because in comparison to our 19th century predecessors we are far too expensive to keep. Even a population of 7.7 billion living by 1800’s standards would put no strain on the Earth at all.
. New one mutate like crazy so our immune systems have to remain vigilant. I do know that there was an outbreak of anthrax sometime back when it thawed out of permafrost. Immunologists are saying that the greater threat will probably come from tropical diseases like malaria and dengue fever as those pathogens have an expanded ecosystem.
! You touched on some very valid points regarding the livable parts of the earth and the lifestyles of previous generations. There is no doubt that our affluence has crept up on us, and I am old enough to suffer when something that can be repaired is tossed out because it’s either too hard to find someone willing to do the repairs or replacement cost is cheaper.
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