Is forced population control the solution to climate change?

Actually, the reverse is probably true. Renewable energy is a bandaid, any climate change must inevitably be combatted with population control, since humans will replicate at an exponential rate versus development of alternative energy sources.

 

I mean look at these fucking charts, the growth and population is out of control. Getting solar energy isn't going to do jack shit, its a problem of scale.

If you don't start population control now, the only solution will eventually be a culling.

 

We won't let anybody die so that's part of the problem..we can keep motherfuckers alive forever these days

 

You can't go off killing old people, so right now the smart solution is to limit new births. Could you imagine if half the population disappeared, the global warming epidemic would probably be done and over with just by sheer scale of less consumption and use. Now think about the opposite, what if the population were doubled. How fucked would the world be?

No amount of carpooling or windmill bullshit is going to counteract a doubling of the population.

 

I'm not arguing that....I think all you young guys should get snipped

 

actually the more time spent in a car, the more chance of decreasing the population..windmills won't have any effect at all on population

 

Seriously, I completely agree that population control is an issue to be dealt with....I think it should be as hard as a college entrance exam to qualify to even consider becoming a parent and like starting a business....you should be bonded...insured and have proof you can handle the biz ...should be harder to qualify to make a child than to buy a house or start a small business. Life skills need to be taught from k-college level on and they're not

 

Yeah, people treat having kids like getting a new pair of shoes or a car. "HEY LOOK AT THIS EVERYONE!"

:MARIS61:

 

George Carlin had a great bit about that...I think in one of his books I read

 

As someone who made the decision a long time ago to not have kids, thats just not the fix globally. We just need to fix the energy situation. eventually, if we can get far enough, our population will spread into space. We are a virus, embrace it and try not to kill the host.

 

Like I said, the human population growth will outpace innovations in energy production and conservation. The more people there are, the more energy that will be required. Right now, what is out there in alternative energy is inefficient and costly. It could be several decades before what needs to be figured out will be figured out. And then what, 15 billion people on earth?

 

This made me think of that Kilgore Trout story...I think it was Venus on the Half Shell

 

I just don't see it the same way. If we put in the effort, on a massive scale, the energy issues should be very achievable. We aren't too far away now in theory, but the investments would be huge. but with time, further research and innovation this is conquerable.

Technology and population might both be on an exponential growth curve, but population will always have its growth potential limited by procreation. Technology faces no such resistance.

 

I think it should be noted that there are a lot more folks in that 15 billion who probably won't live long lives because humans have figured out how to eat themselves to death at a younger age

 

Its been a long time since I read any KV, I need to go back again. Loved it years ago but don't remember much.

 

If you are talking renewables, there are definitely limits since you are harvesting from natural resources.

And the graph of population growth refutes that growth potential is limited.

 

The limit on nuclear power is extraordinary. The limit on solar is only limited by area, but as tech improves those stations could move into space. Battery storage power will continue to improve till storage is moot. Point is, as population grows, so does tech. Tech will (1) discover new energies and (2) require less energy output and (3) find more efficient energy dispersal. This will continue until energy is inconsequential as long as we focus on it. We don't need to solve the energy issue for 20 billion, we need to solve it for now, and keep investing in our future.

And by the way, population growth is slowing down. Some models have it dropping to 1 billion ever 15 years for the next few decades and eventually holding at 10 billion or so. We don't know, but as we bring third world nations into the modern world population rates slow and eventually drop. There are competing population models and I don't have the knowledge to discern which ones are more fitting. I took a population dynamics course in college about a decade ago where we looked into many of the models but 80% of the class was about animal populations, and we really just touched on the human issue. But I trust our minds more than our ability to freeze our loins.

 

Energy production isn't the only environmental concern of a large population. And I'm still not convinced that is the final answer to solve any of this.

It's not just an issue of mindfulness. Much of the world is third world and they still fuck and reproduce like jackrabbits. Shit is never going to change in many of those areas and if they do guess what, they will build and pollute a shit ton.

There will a time in history in which the world will have to control its population. And there will be a time where the world will have to cull the population. Not now, not soon but it will happen, the first before they realize that the second will have to happen. Genocide has been carried out for far less. There will eventually be environmental based genocide.

 

Actually the old buggers don't produce much nor use much.