#4500003 - 12/12/19 03:03 AM
Are we having too many children?
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NoFlyBoy
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https://www.worldometers.info/https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/The current world population is at 7.75 billion. World Population: has reached 7 billion on October 31, 2011. is projected to reach 8 billion in 2023, 9 billion in 2037, and 10 billion people in the year 2055. has doubled in 40 years from 1959 (3 billion) to 1999 (6 billion). is currently (2019-2020) growing at a rate of around 1.08 % per year, adding 82 million people per year to the total. growth rate reached its peak in the late 1960s, when it was at 2.09%. growth rate is currently declining and is projected to continue to decline in the coming years (reaching below 0.50% by 2050, and 0.03% in 2100) . a tremendous change occurred with the industrial revolution: whereas it had taken all of human history up to the year 1800 for world population to reach 1 billion, the second billion was achieved in only 130 years (1930), the third billion in 30 years (1960), the fourth billion in 15 years (1974), the fifth billion in 13 years (1987), the sixth billion in 12 years (1999) and the seventh billion in 12 years (2011). During the 20th century alone, the population in the world has grown from 1.65 billion to 6 billion.
There are already countries where they don't even have enough clean water to sustain their population. Countries like India and also countries in Africa and in South America. Are we going to be able to produce enough food to feed everyone in the world. Enough resources needed to generate electricity? Electricity is generated mostly from coal. How many decades of coal supply is left in the world? Nuclear power is a small fraction of how the world gets electricity. Hydropower plants will not generate electricity if there isn't enough water and water sources like lakes and rivers around the world are drying up. Also we are so depended on oil for everything, not just to power cars. So many products are made from oil, many of them most people who uses them every day don't know it's made from oil. How much oil is left in the world?
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#4500007 - 12/12/19 03:32 AM
Re: Are we having too many children?
[Re: NoFlyBoy]
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Joined: Sep 2009
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vonBaur
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Where's Thanos when you need him?
SALUTE TO ALL!
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#4500014 - 12/12/19 04:15 AM
Re: Are we having too many children?
[Re: NoFlyBoy]
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NoFlyBoy
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Electricity is not required for the human existence. Really? Without it, your phone won't work, your computer won't work, for many there will be no heating, cooling, hot water, cooking, food will rot in the fridge. Many folks, the elderly, the disabled, the chronically ill, depend on electricity at home to run devices to keep them alive: breathing machines, dialysis machines at home, and so on. Also many water plants are powered by electricity. Without electricity, soon you won't have water coming out of your faucets and toilet.
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#4500017 - 12/12/19 04:58 AM
Re: Are we having too many children?
[Re: NoFlyBoy]
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Brit44 'Aldo'
Every Human is Unique
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Every Human is Unique
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I have never owned a cell phone. I never will. Keep the discussion civil.Or move it to PWEC ;P I think we are capable of a civil discussion or such a complex subject. The Roman's did not have electricity, but they had running water. edit2: The elderly and the disabled. Well, Darwin had a theory that fits the human existence. Life is not fair. Keep the discussion civil.
Last edited by Brit44 'Aldo'; 12/12/19 05:07 AM.
TPA who TWI "The 10th Amendment simply says that any powers that aren’t mentioned in the Constitution as belonging to the government belong to the states themselves."
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#4500018 - 12/12/19 05:18 AM
Re: Are we having too many children?
[Re: NoFlyBoy]
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PanzerMeyer
Pro-Consul of Florida
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Pro-Consul of Florida
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There is one interesting correlation when it comes to birthrate and you can interpret it any way you wish.
Countries where women have the same standing/rights and education as men in society tend to have lower birthrates while those countries where women are inferior to men in society tend to have higher birthrates.
Last edited by PanzerMeyer; 12/12/19 05:23 AM.
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
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#4500019 - 12/12/19 05:23 AM
Re: Are we having too many children?
[Re: NoFlyBoy]
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Brit44 'Aldo'
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Good comment PM. The subject header is deep, and the poster's comment make it even more broad. Keep the discussion civil.
Edit: PM's comments were on track with the subject heading. The discussion was make more broad.
Last edited by Brit44 'Aldo'; 12/12/19 05:24 AM.
TPA who TWI "The 10th Amendment simply says that any powers that aren’t mentioned in the Constitution as belonging to the government belong to the states themselves."
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#4500022 - 12/12/19 05:58 AM
Re: Are we having too many children?
[Re: NoFlyBoy]
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Mr_Blastman
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I only have one daughter, who has begged us for a sister. My wife, however, is permanently disabled, thus we are unable to provide her with another. We would like one if we could. Children are a blessing from God, and provided you can care for them and shelter them in a loving home that fosters growth and success, I see nothing wrong with raising a family. FYI OP, regarding Oil--there are many technologies that have seen tremendous improvement over the last couple of decades such as nuclear and solar. Unfortunately the nuclear technologies are not being permitted to flourish or gain traction. The most promising involves below-ground self-contained traveling wave reactors(a form of a breeder reactor) that use waste fuel, which could power a community of 20k for 50 - 70 years per core. Would you like to know more?https://terrapower.com/The second is solar power. While efficiencies are still low in the 20 - 25% range, the technology exists now to build extensive solar farms to power sizeable swaths of the world. Would you like to know more? http://www.firstsolar.com/en/First Solar is the leading producer of panels, and at one time constructed entire power plants under contract for power companies, until switching exclusively to panel production. They are the only company in the business that somewhat consistently remains profitable(on-off but overall are fairly healthy). The downside to solar, however, is many of these plants tend to bake the birds that fly overhead. Of course, this is a fantastic opportunity for an all-natural air crisp free roam bird meal joint akin to McDonalds--maybe call it McCaw's. Both of the above technologies are environmentally friendly and reduce our dependence on oil, leading to better air quality and more opportunity to raise healthy families and adapt to growing electric car usage. Dependence on oil is a myth. The technologies exist now to divorce us from the MIddle East. We only need to educate the public and embrace these future looking strategies. And lastly, space based power is still an option through orbital platforms and microwave laser transmission beams. With proper attenuation a measurable amount of solar power from orbit could be transmitted to the ground. Would you like to know more?https://www.energy.gov/articles/space-based-solar-powerAlas, that was not last on my list. Since you mention overpopulation, you skip over the most important pressing issue of all time. This is the danger of underemployment due to increasing automation and integration of robotic solutions into society. There will come a time over the next thirty to fifty years where mass unemployment could drastically reshape the world. This is an issue that needs to be discussed... now.
Last edited by Mr_Blastman; 12/12/19 03:31 PM.
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#4500033 - 12/12/19 09:57 AM
Re: Are we having too many children?
[Re: Brit44 'Aldo']
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BD-123
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Old Scroat
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Naunton Beauchamp Worcestershi...
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" Are we having too many children?" Not in the developed world it seems, Norway particularly Japan, Scandinavia and here in the UK it is going to be a problem supporting us oldies in our dotage with a shrinking working and tax paying workforce. I've done my bit, having had four who having graduated work in professions that aid the wider UK population. Get their brains from their mum, I hasten to add, I'm a bit thick and left school at 15. I Children are a blessing from God. Wasn't that sure in the early years, thinking of one day after a gruelling 12 hours of work, returning home to find two olders teasing and reducing their younger sister to tears and my poor wife covered in milky vomit with not a baby suit left clean in the house due to the washer packing up and an over-greedy newborn!
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#4500039 - 12/12/19 11:14 AM
Re: Are we having too many children?
[Re: NoFlyBoy]
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Ssnake
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I don't share the Malthusian world view that the future brings nothing but doom, gloom, mass poverty, and mass starvation. Quite the contrary, pretty much all social indicators show an overall positive trend. In 1960 the worl literacy rate was somewhere in the order of 30...40% (10% for women); today it's close to 90% (and about 85% for women). We were all supposed to starving to death by 1980 (if you were to believe certain Malthusian computer models), and here we have probably the greatest inventor of all time who saved more people's lives than anyone else, [b]Norman Borlaug[/b], a name that everybody should be familiar with, proving the doomsayers wrong (Fritz Haber being one of the very few other scientists playing in a comparable league, except that his life was overshadowed by his leading role in chemical warfare; Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur probably belong into that category as well). Economic growth is less and less dependant on increased energy consumption. Cell phones are connecting the agrarian societies of Africa, opening to them the vast knowledge pool of the internet. Yes, we're more people, but we're also vastly more educated people who will think of solutions to the world's problems. By today's models the world population will peak in about 80 years, and then start shrinking - possibly too rapidly for comfort (could become quite a disaster for world economy), but that's a problem that our great grand kids will have to deal with. All in all I think that we're too much focused on bad news and pay not nearly enough attention to the positive developments.
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#4500046 - 12/12/19 01:34 PM
Re: Are we having too many children?
[Re: BD-123]
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PanzerMeyer
Pro-Consul of Florida
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Not in the developed world it seems, Norway particularly Japan, Scandinavia and here in the UK it is going to be a problem supporting us oldies in our dotage with a shrinking working and tax paying workforce.
Japan is in an especially severe situation because its population has been declining steadily since about 2000 and will continue to drop. The nearly non-existent immigration to Japan also compounds the issue. The Scandinavian countries have actually found a "sweet spot" concerning population growth since even though the birthrate is very low, it's still in positive territory. The Scandinavian countries have also been used to having relatively small populations for a long time anyway. Sweden has the largest population currently at 10.3 million. Heck, that's about half the population of my state of Florida!
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
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#4500047 - 12/12/19 01:35 PM
Re: Are we having too many children?
[Re: Mr_Blastman]
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MarkG
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The Bayou
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Children are a blessing from God, and provided you can care for them and shelter them in a loving home that fosters growth and success, I see nothing wrong with raising a family. Thinking of nieces and nephews, and now their children (some who are about to visit), I'm sure they are. I've never felt regret for not having them, especially with accepting a disproportionate amount of responsibility for taking care of parents. “A man’s got to know his limitations.” – Clint Eastwood. I feel like we made the right decision under our odd circumstances, and fortunately neither of us were wired with strong biological clocks. I think I could have been a perpetual bachelor and never settle down at all, but I was just so smitten with the girl...and 35+ years later, I still am.
The rusty wire that holds the cork that keeps the anger in Gives way and suddenly it’s day again The sun is in the east Even though the day is done Two suns in the sunset, hmph Could be the human race is run
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#4500049 - 12/12/19 01:38 PM
Re: Are we having too many children?
[Re: NoFlyBoy]
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PanzerMeyer
Pro-Consul of Florida
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Pro-Consul of Florida
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Hey Mark, that's absolutely fine and it's infinitely better for people to NOT have children who simply know it's not for them than for people to have children who are definitely NOT parent material (ie unemployed, uneducated, irresponsible, drug and/or alcohol addiction, criminal record, etc.).
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
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