Voronwë_the_Faithful wrote:In another thread,
vison wrote:There are about 6 billion of us right now. I wonder which ones of us are to be viewed as "too many"?
Forgive me for saying so, my dear vison, but I really think that is a dangerous way to look at the question of over-population. Obviously, it is unreasonable to say that one person has a greater right to be on the planet then another. But that doesn't change the fact that we are reaching (or maybe have already reached, or at best or in danger of reaching) the point where the natural resources of the planet simply can not sustain that number of people, at least living the way that we do. I'm no scientist, but I can recognize scientific realities when I see them. Addressing the problem is not a matter of deciding which ones of su are to be viewed as "too many". It is a matter of preventing widespread suffering on an unimaginable scale, and perhaps even a matter of the preservation of the human race itself.
Or so it seems to me.
Sorry to respond in a separate thread, but I didn't want to osgiliate the other thread any more.
Oh, I think there are too many of us, Voronwë. I agree with you.
But those of us that are here aren't about to leave, that's the point I was making. I guess I didn't make it too well.
One of my favourite writers, P. J. O'Rourke, wrote something called "Too many of them, not enough of us". Very interesting.
Who are "us"? Well, there are those who think there are "too many" brown skinned people, or Chinese people. There are those who think there are "too many" Americans burning everything up before anyone else gets a chance. There are those who think that their own species is a fungus infesting the planet and they seem to long for the catastrophe that "cleanses" the Earth.
I dunno. I can't decide whether to be optimistic or pessimistic. As material prosperity spreads around the globe, as women get educated, as new technologies appear -- will we be able to make it past a certain point? Will those educated women do as educated women usually do and have fewer babies?
Some people have what I can only call blind faith in the capacity of us humans to save our bacon at the last second. Technology has always bailed us out before! Run out of oil? Then something better and cheaper will pop up. No land left? Leave Earth and colonize other planets. (That one seems incredibly goofy and impossible.)
As I say, I dunno. I lean more to optimism than pessimism. But one thing is sure: the human population has not reached its maximum yet. I forget when that is hoped (by optimists) to happen.
Dig deeper.