Is overpopulation the world's biggest problem now?

[kingblaze84]

Also, as populations for many nations increase, government budgets will explode as they try to take care of more and more people. Most nations don't have the resources to handle big budgets, especially in developing nations.

 

[Melqart]

I don't know for sure but based on everything I'm reading lately, I'm slowly reaching a conclusion that overpopulation is fast hurting and destroying the planet from an environmental standpoint and living condition standpoint. Climate change is not helping things either but humans are the ones causing climate change for the most part.

With overpopulation, rents and housing will continue to be very expensive for much of the world, and only get higher. For example, in NY and California, places where population growth is high, rents and housing prices there are through the roof. Food will only get more expensive as resources and water dry up, and we're at about 7 billion people now. Refugees from across the globe are at record highs, as governments throughout the Middle East, Asia, and Africa are unable to take care of the ever growing amount of people. Europe is already seeing populations shrink, as cost of living there is already high.

Humans are consuming too many resources at too quickly a pace as well according to scientists, and with limited resources, wars and conflicts will only increase. The world already has more refugees now than almost any other time in world history.

So basically, is overpopulation the world's BIGGEST problem? Or are there other issues more important? Many will say the world can fit enough humans on much smaller land but our resources and water supplies can't last forever at this pace.

I dont believe that overpopulation is a problem. I believe in a sense, that the Western Industrial Consumption paradigm in its current form is grossly unbalanced... it was never meant to be something that the majority of the world could attain...

this is shown in that one statistic that says that we would need more than one earth, if all of humanity were to consume as much as the West.

I obviously dont have the answer to this problem, but I intuitively believe that if the top think tanks and a triumvirate of ecological/political/economic experts on the cutting edge could convene to possibly coalesce a mode of sustainable living that would incapacitate and engender the welfare all peoples, and preserve the environments of our earth for future generations.

 

[zzombie]

No over population is a myth that has been going on for over 100 years already. The fact is that technology has made all the problems of potential over population fixable.

As more people move into cities the damage people do will be alleviated because we will occupy less of surface area. Food won't be a problem because vertical farming will be greatly improved if not mastered our cities themselves will become more efficient. And our use of fossil fuels is already dropping.

Really we should be focusing on the reduction/elimination of non biodegradable plastics and desalination.not worrying about population numbers that will take care of itself, population density is a local issue

 

[kingblaze84]

I don't know for sure but based on everything I'm reading lately, I'm slowly reaching a conclusion that overpopulation is fast hurting and destroying the planet from an environmental standpoint and living condition standpoint. Climate change is not helping things either but humans are the ones causing climate change for the most part.

With overpopulation, rents and housing will continue to be very expensive for much of the world, and only get higher. For example, in NY and California, places where population growth is high, rents and housing prices there are through the roof. Food will only get more expensive as resources and water dry up, and we're at about 7 billion people now. Refugees from across the globe are at record highs, as governments throughout the Middle East, Asia, and Africa are unable to take care of the ever growing amount of people. Europe is already seeing populations shrink, as cost of living there is already high.

Humans are consuming too many resources at too quickly a pace as well according to scientists, and with limited resources, wars and conflicts will only increase. The world already has more refugees now than almost any other time in world history.

So basically, is overpopulation the world's BIGGEST problem? Or are there other issues more important? Many will say the world can fit enough humans on much smaller land but our resources and water supplies can't last forever at this pace.

I dont believe that overpopulation is a problem. I believe in a sense, that the Western Industrial Consumption paradigm in its current form is grossly unbalanced... it was never meant to be something that the majority of the world could attain...

this is shown in that one statistic that says that we would need more than one earth, if all of humanity were to consume as much as the West.

I obviously dont have the answer to this problem, but I intuitively believe that if the top think tanks and a triumvirate of ecological/political/economic experts on the cutting edge could convene to possibly coalesce a mode of sustainable living that would incapacitate and engender the welfare all peoples, and preserve the environments of our earth for future generations.

I can respect that but various think tanks from the world community have already come together and said overpopulation is the world's biggest danger to the environment, fishing sources are drying up and science can only do so much when most people worldwide can't even take care of themselves. Who realistically is gonna create more affordable housing for the billions of people around the world?

And sustainable living sounds great but let's be honest, people are greedy as fuck. People will always want and desire more then what they need.

 

[zzombie]

I don't know for sure but based on everything I'm reading lately, I'm slowly reaching a conclusion that overpopulation is fast hurting and destroying the planet from an environmental standpoint and living condition standpoint. Climate change is not helping things either but humans are the ones causing climate change for the most part.

With overpopulation, rents and housing will continue to be very expensive for much of the world, and only get higher. For example, in NY and California, places where population growth is high, rents and housing prices there are through the roof. Food will only get more expensive as resources and water dry up, and we're at about 7 billion people now. Refugees from across the globe are at record highs, as governments throughout the Middle East, Asia, and Africa are unable to take care of the ever growing amount of people. Europe is already seeing populations shrink, as cost of living there is already high.

Humans are consuming too many resources at too quickly a pace as well according to scientists, and with limited resources, wars and conflicts will only increase. The world already has more refugees now than almost any other time in world history.

So basically, is overpopulation the world's BIGGEST problem? Or are there other issues more important? Many will say the world can fit enough humans on much smaller land but our resources and water supplies can't last forever at this pace.

I dont believe that overpopulation is a problem. I believe in a sense, that the Western Industrial Consumption paradigm in its current form is grossly unbalanced... it was never meant to be something that the majority of the world could attain...

this is shown in that one statistic that says that we would need more than one earth, if all of humanity were to consume as much as the West.

I obviously dont have the answer to this problem, but I intuitively believe that if the top think tanks and a triumvirate of ecological/political/economic experts on the cutting edge could convene to possibly coalesce a mode of sustainable living that would incapacitate and engender the welfare all peoples, and preserve the environments of our earth for future generations.

I can respect that but various think tanks from the world community have already come together and said overpopulation is the world's biggest danger to the environment, fishing sources are drying up and science can only do so much when most people worldwide can't even take care of themselves. Who realistically is gonna create more affordable housing for the billions of people around the world?

And sustainable living sounds great but let's be honest, people are greedy as fuck. People will always want and desire more then what they need.

so called think tanks and educated people have been running their mouth about overpopulation since forever about that bullshithttp://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/14/opinion/overpopulation-is-not-the-problem.html?_r=0

 

[zzombie]

there are more fat people than ever before and we throw away tons of perfectly good food every year there is no over population, but there will always be poor suffering people

 

[popotak]

No its the laziness of the people.

 

[kingblaze84]

No over population is a myth that has been going on for over 100 years already. The fact is that technology has made all the problems of potential over population fixable.

As more people move into cities the damage people do will be alleviated because we will occupy less of surface area. Food won't be a problem because vertical farming will be greatly improved if not mastered our cities themselves will become more efficient. And our use of fossil fuels is already dropping.

Really we should be focusing on the reduction/elimination of non biodegradable plastics and desalination.not worrying about population numbers that will take care of itself, population density is a local issue

Our cities and farming efficiency may improve but people will still use a lot of resources, especially as nations modernize. What happens to the cost of housing and food when the planet reaches 8 or 9 billion?? It will be so high that poverty will have no choice but to increase, and when poverty increases in big cities, crime and conflicts are gonna become unbearable. These conditions already exist in many places around the world.

Population numbers also won't take care of itself, it's getting higher and higher and most governments worldwide won't have the resources to take care of them.

 

[kingblaze84]

No its the laziness of the people.

What do you mean laziness of the people, most people want to work but there's not enough jobs to go around. The youth unemployment around the world is like 40%.

 

[zzombie]

No over population is a myth that has been going on for over 100 years already. The fact is that technology has made all the problems of potential over population fixable.

As more people move into cities the damage people do will be alleviated because we will occupy less of surface area. Food won't be a problem because vertical farming will be greatly improved if not mastered our cities themselves will become more efficient. And our use of fossil fuels is already dropping.

Really we should be focusing on the reduction/elimination of non biodegradable plastics and desalination.not worrying about population numbers that will take care of itself, population density is a local issue

Our cities and farming efficiency may improve but people will still use a lot of resources, especially as nations modernize. What happens to the cost of housing and food when the planet reaches 8 or 9 billion?? It will be so high that poverty will have no choice but to increase, and when poverty increases in big cities, crime and conflicts are gonna become unbearable. These conditions already exist in many places around the world.

Population numbers also won't take care of itself, it's getting higher and higher and most governments worldwide won't have the resources to take care of them.

the cost of things like food and especially housing in certain markets is artificially held higher than what they really should be. Populations naturally decrease on their own one way of the other as nations modernize their populations naturally drop.

THERE WILL always be poor people.

 

[kingblaze84]

No over population is a myth that has been going on for over 100 years already. The fact is that technology has made all the problems of potential over population fixable.

As more people move into cities the damage people do will be alleviated because we will occupy less of surface area. Food won't be a problem because vertical farming will be greatly improved if not mastered our cities themselves will become more efficient. And our use of fossil fuels is already dropping.

Really we should be focusing on the reduction/elimination of non biodegradable plastics and desalination.not worrying about population numbers that will take care of itself, population density is a local issue

Our cities and farming efficiency may improve but people will still use a lot of resources, especially as nations modernize. What happens to the cost of housing and food when the planet reaches 8 or 9 billion?? It will be so high that poverty will have no choice but to increase, and when poverty increases in big cities, crime and conflicts are gonna become unbearable. These conditions already exist in many places around the world.

Population numbers also won't take care of itself, it's getting higher and higher and most governments worldwide won't have the resources to take care of them.

the cost of things like food and especially housing in certain markets is artificially held higher than what they really should be. Populations naturally decrease on their own one way of the other as nations modernize their populations naturally drop.

THERE WILL always be poor people.

You said before populations "naturally" decrease on their own but overall that's not happening. India is modernizing and their population is still increasing, Africa is modernizing and their population growth like India's is basically unsustainable. Yeah there will always be poor people but the AMOUNT of people in poverty will grow so large it will be impossible to do anything about them.

And the cost of food and housing is artificially held higher, I can agree with that but as I said before, humans are a naturally greedy species, and nothing is gonna change that. As humans grow in population, do you really expect humans to pollute the water less? Do you expect humans to be any less greedy and selfish?

 

[zzombie]

No over population is a myth that has been going on for over 100 years already. The fact is that technology has made all the problems of potential over population fixable.

As more people move into cities the damage people do will be alleviated because we will occupy less of surface area. Food won't be a problem because vertical farming will be greatly improved if not mastered our cities themselves will become more efficient. And our use of fossil fuels is already dropping.

Really we should be focusing on the reduction/elimination of non biodegradable plastics and desalination.not worrying about population numbers that will take care of itself, population density is a local issue

Our cities and farming efficiency may improve but people will still use a lot of resources, especially as nations modernize. What happens to the cost of housing and food when the planet reaches 8 or 9 billion?? It will be so high that poverty will have no choice but to increase, and when poverty increases in big cities, crime and conflicts are gonna become unbearable. These conditions already exist in many places around the world.

Population numbers also won't take care of itself, it's getting higher and higher and most governments worldwide won't have the resources to take care of them.

the cost of things like food and especially housing in certain markets is artificially held higher than what they really should be. Populations naturally decrease on their own one way of the other as nations modernize their populations naturally drop.

THERE WILL always be poor people.

You said before populations "naturally" decrease on their own but overall that's not happening. India is modernizing and their population is still increasing, Africa is modernizing and their population growth like India's is basically unsustainable. Yeah there will always be poor people but the AMOUNT of people in poverty will grow so large it will be impossible to do anything about them.

And the cost of food and housing is artificially held higher, I can agree with that but as I said before, humans are a naturally greedy species, and nothing is gonna change that. As humans grow in population, do you really expect humans to pollute the water less? Do you expect humans to be any less greedy and selfish?

POPULATIONS GO THROUGH a bell curve populations in india and some parts of africa are increasing as they modernize but eventually a peak is reached and their populations will start to drop. we will continue to pollute but the affect of our pollution will also start to decrease.

attaining a clean water supply is the problem, but yes as more of us move into cities there will be less pollution on the surface area of the earth which means less water contamination

 

[zzombie]

overall the human population may increase but so what population density is a local problem. the places that are moving from a less poor to rich/middle income status will have big populations but the other areas, the rich areas will have dropping populations.

 

[zzombie]

food will not be that big of an issue, we will move toward vertical farming so the cities will feed themselves alternative and renewable energy is getting better every year and so is desalination and filter technology.

 

[cyr0gen]

I think it's a problem but I still think corruption is by far our biggest problem. They gain more as we grow in #'s and they are scared of losing what they have.

 

[janklow]

thing is, overpopulation got oversold decades back, so whatever threat it represents (probably mostly in the less resource-rich and more unstable) is going to get a little overlooked

 

[kingblaze84]

No over population is a myth that has been going on for over 100 years already. The fact is that technology has made all the problems of potential over population fixable.

As more people move into cities the damage people do will be alleviated because we will occupy less of surface area. Food won't be a problem because vertical farming will be greatly improved if not mastered our cities themselves will become more efficient. And our use of fossil fuels is already dropping.

Really we should be focusing on the reduction/elimination of non biodegradable plastics and desalination.not worrying about population numbers that will take care of itself, population density is a local issue

Our cities and farming efficiency may improve but people will still use a lot of resources, especially as nations modernize. What happens to the cost of housing and food when the planet reaches 8 or 9 billion?? It will be so high that poverty will have no choice but to increase, and when poverty increases in big cities, crime and conflicts are gonna become unbearable. These conditions already exist in many places around the world.

Population numbers also won't take care of itself, it's getting higher and higher and most governments worldwide won't have the resources to take care of them.

the cost of things like food and especially housing in certain markets is artificially held higher than what they really should be. Populations naturally decrease on their own one way of the other as nations modernize their populations naturally drop.

THERE WILL always be poor people.

You said before populations "naturally" decrease on their own but overall that's not happening. India is modernizing and their population is still increasing, Africa is modernizing and their population growth like India's is basically unsustainable. Yeah there will always be poor people but the AMOUNT of people in poverty will grow so large it will be impossible to do anything about them.

And the cost of food and housing is artificially held higher, I can agree with that but as I said before, humans are a naturally greedy species, and nothing is gonna change that. As humans grow in population, do you really expect humans to pollute the water less? Do you expect humans to be any less greedy and selfish?

POPULATIONS GO THROUGH a bell curve populations in india and some parts of africa are increasing as they modernize but eventually a peak is reached and their populations will start to drop. we will continue to pollute but the affect of our pollution will also start to decrease.

attaining a clean water supply is the problem, but yes as more of us move into cities there will be less pollution on the surface area of the earth which means less water contamination

Everyone hopes clean water increases throughout the world but it's an expensive process for many nations, so I hope it happens somehow. Humans will continue to pollute but as more nations modernize, pollution will increase too, you think China and India are gonna pollute less anytime soon? We will see. And we don't know when that peak will be reached population wise, that will be a problem down the line, as many of these people will have no use for society and later on cause problems for it.

Scientists and sociologists are agreeing on this but I'm trying to keep an open mind here.

 

[kingblaze84]

thing is, overpopulation got oversold decades back, so whatever threat it represents (probably mostly in the less resource-rich and more unstable) is going to get a little overlooked

Yeah I can agree with this, overpopulation was oversold before but now it seems to be a real problem. It may or may not be the most important issue facing the world now, but I think it's definitely one of them.

 

[kingblaze84]

I think it's a problem but I still think corruption is by far our biggest problem. They gain more as we grow in #'s and they are scared of losing what they have.

That's a good point, corruption and greed are definitely among the biggest issues facing the world now. If not the number one issue, then number two and three for sure.

 

[Delphas]

Overpopulation is an issue, but it's exacerbated more by our lifestyle.

People starving? Look how much food gets wasted not in the US, but world wide. It gets dropped because it doesn't have a particular aesthic, or only a small part of an animal is desired, when the entire thing is edible.

Global warming? Look directly to our overdepence on oil, and having natural energy solutions deferred because of interference from oil companies.

People being poor? There will always be poor people, rich people, and middle class, but what constitues the financial aspects of each are wildly changing because the rich and corporations are raping the world.

Overpopulation isn't a myth, but if we took care of some of these issues, you be surprised how easily it could be managed.