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How can we sustain infinite growth on a finite planet?
Human population growth is a serious problem that is growing by ridiculous geometric progression. Everyday approximately 200,000 people die, and in contrast 450,000 are born. That is a staggering 250,000 new mouths to feed everyday! We cannot support infinite growth on a finite planet! We're running out of land. Thousands of square miles of rain forest are gutted every year for palm plantations to produce palm oil so that masses can be sustained. Fresh water supplies are in limited quantities. Polution and contamination abound. Why do people ignore the realities of where we're headed? It frightens the crap outta me. It appears as though the discovery of oil is when things really took off. Oil ultimately led to the internal combustion engine so that huge amounts of land could be cultivated. Pesticides and fertilizers were also made possible via oil to enhance production yields. As well as affecting the pharmeceutical industry to produce vaccines. It's not natures way.
Check out this human population growth chart: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://worldhistoryforusall.sdsu.edu/images/Popn_Graph2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://worldhistoryforusall.sdsu.edu/themes/keytheme1.htm&h=324&w=524&sz=49&tbnid=YSJSr0mYU4gonM:&tbnh=77&tbnw=124&zoom=1&usg=__kIp3FdU9ydMckYq62HCWmiEmqXc=&hl=en&sa=X&ei=2nk9UOvmL8vsigKdhIGwDg&ved=0CCUQ9QEwAQ&dur=655
Pabitra Mukhopadhyay 30+
Kate Roworth of Oxfam International proposes a doughnut hypothesis to tackle the situation and I have difficulties agreeing with her. http://pabitraspeaks.com/why-a-doughnut-now/
Skye Kelly
Farrukh Yakubov 50+
Andrew Young
I see mentioned below that the average number of kids a family has is diverging to two. This video by Hans Rosling makes a very strong case that population will eventually plateau as the standard of living and eduction is raised for the poor. http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_religions_and_babies.html
We already have the technology to supply energy without the use of natural resources, but currently renewables are too expensive. We won't truly see them catch on until there is a shortage of natural resources, driving up their costs, or governments start taxing the use of natural resources. People will make decisions that financially benefit them.
Again we have the capability to create clean water, it is just an energy intensive process.
I'm no ecologist, but I do believe the environment is pretty resilient. I've seen some pretty impressive restoration projects. My only hope is that we can keep everything in check long enough for the population to plateau and for green technology to surpass the use of natural resources. I love the outdoors and I hate to see the damage we've caused.
I don't like what I see, but I am optimistic...
W. Ying 10+
(1) Two kids per couple is the optimal number today according to our instincts.
(2) There will be more than plenty of resources and energy if we quit SILLY invalid happiness.
Be happy validly!
shawn disney 10+
Andrew Young
Do you really think it would be worth the effort of terraforming a planet when we can't even manage the one we have in a sustainable way?
shawn disney 10+
W. Ying 10+
(1) Terraforming a planet is almost impossible for the extremely fragile humans of ultra-high accuracy.
(2) There will be more than plenty of resources and energy on the earth if we quit SILLY invalid happiness.
Be happy validly!
Iñigo Puente Bustindui
Since the industrial revolution until now days, human's life has changed drastically. All the advances in science: medicine, technology, sistems etc. have contibuted, not just to improve human's lives, but also, unfortunatelly, jeopardizing our own supervenience, like the following reasons:
1) Medicine advances have impulse an exponential birthrate and overpopulation. We have adapted so good to this world that, now, we are a kind of cancer or plague to our planet. I have friends that have known their great-grandparents and have children as well, that is: 5 generations living in a same period of time.
2) Technology, have create us many needs and thus we have become very consumerist and materialistic society, having to consume huge quantities of resources, sometimes unecesary; some others unificiently, creating ecology devastation and inmbalances in our environment.
3) Systems like economy have made many injustices. I believe this is the greatest flaw in this issue because it has create a greate gap between societys, countries and people. And the problem with this is that this creates ignorance as there exists a correlation between lowincome - low, inefficient education or non-existence at all.
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Iñigo Puente Bustindui
So, just to conclude, I think birth control is definitely a very important part of the solution. But it's missing the how. How can we control birthrate? Let's be reaasonable, we can not imposse people not to have children. It might be, probably, something that future generatioms will have to do as a way of survivance if we keep these birthrates. And, yes, I agree wars are one of the resaults from many of our exesses. Although we can not take it as a solution to control overpopulation. That would made us regress instead of progress as society and as developed beings.
I believe the answer for many solutions for today's issues is EDUCATION; good education. Education that not just permit everyone have acces to the several fields of knowledge, but also that teaches ethics and good values that can inspire people and society to be be better; a "formative education" that can change the world.
I know it might sound very naive, but it is a fact that good education change people's way of thinking and way of living.
Let me put you an example. In Mexico, my country, we can find a huge gap between rich and poor people and we can clearly see the correlation, I was talking you about, good or competitive education - high income vs inefficient education - low income people, and the huge gap in the way of thinking. My parents' made has four children and two grand-children at the age of fourty, this is not an isolated case, actually it is pattern we can observe. Low-income people are more ignorant due they're enable to have goog education what they get is just a rickety education, and we can say it's one of the reasons they have more children at younger ages. If we could help improve the education sistem and let everyone have a formative education, we could help a lot in solving this problem. Another way to improve education are these kind of movements; TED's movement, where people can enrich their criterion and perhaps inspire society to be better.
(MORE)
Iñigo Puente Bustindui
Another way to improve education is by improving the entertainment industry, as this is, every day more and more, the one who educate and transmit values (good and bad) to society. That's the reason I started to write scripts; to make stories that could inspire people to be better and thus contribute to cociety for better.
If we could convince people to have less children, perhaps one or two; and if we could convince them, if they want to have children, have them at older ages, perhaps at 30's, I'm positive we could save the world and have a green planet again.
The worst genocide of tomorrow is the ecocide of today.
W. Ying 10+
(1) The “optimal point” of kid number per couple has changed instinctively from many into 2 or less for keeping our DNA alive --- the goal of our life.
(2) We ourselves consume our own planet INVALIDLY.
(3) MONEY destroys: empathy --- symbiosis --- peace --- humankind.
(4) EDUCATION makes people know the “invalid happiness” leading us to self-extinction.
Be happy validly!
Hannah Staats
Henry Woeltjen 10+
However, as far as preparing for the future I think we can break it down a bit.
1) Shelter
The amount of space needed for each human is rather small. We aren't really talking about a "lack" of anything as we haven't even used all of the available land here in the United States.
2) Resources
This "danger" has existed for decades. I don't think we are in any danger of a crisis like you attempt to state here.
We definitely have problems. I do agree that the environment needs to be our focus. However, how do we pay for green industry? Our problems extend far past "waking up" and almost dive into "how do we wake up"?
Green industry is not a matter of choice...or something we are waiting for people to accept. It is very difficult to imagine how we plan to maximize industry...and manage environmental damage.
Let's also note the positive role oil plays in our daily lives.
Daniel Harder
John Allyn
The evolution of intelligence is a large topic. One aspect is the issue of unrecognized self image being mixed up with self, or who we actually are. The self image is a mentally created illusion of who one thinks one is. The actual self is experienced as the kinesthetic sense ( kinesthetic - definition of [ The sense that detects bodily position, weight, or movement of the muscles, tendons, and joints. Greek k nein, to move ... ) of being in a body fulfilling biological needs.
People functioning out of self image are competitive, aggressive, with disregard concerning the consequences of their actions upon the larger field of human well being. This is because once one is disconnected from the kinesthetic self one feels insecure. Insecure because the self image must constantly be maintained through accomplishment and acknowledgement or it begins to fade. This results in a feeling of anxiety, fear and a feeling of doom boarding on death because one has identified with a false self which can be killed off by not being validated and reinforced through accomplishment.
From my perspective we have a ways to go, but some of us will survive to reproduce again.
George Kong 30+
Instead of economic growth, what about the growth of the 'sustainability bubble' (not in the perjorative economic sense, but in terms of what the bubble grows to encapsulate)?
That is, the more energy and the more materials and technologies we are able to bring under the banner of 100% sustainability, the more real growth we have.
At this point in time, we're in a negative growth phase in those terms - because we're making things less sustainble through our actions.
Another angle to consider growth from is experiential and information growth. Imagine high quality VR technology... essentially a maturation of visual/sensory computing technology found in games; it's a system that will provide experiences independent of material consumption.
And ultimately, that's kinda what the human experience boils down to - a series of interlinked and interconnected sensory experiences. The experience of conspicuous consumption can be easily replicated in virtual space - and in doing so, it can reduce the importance of real conspicuous consumption.
How much value is there in a boat, a big house, a fast car... when all these things are difficult and expensive to purchase and maintain - and there's an alternative where you can experience all these things and better at next to full sensory fidelity in VR?
Juniper Blue 10+
I have one suggestion: Provide quality education for all girls, boys and people (in general) . We will
(statistically shown) have less population increase over time and the people will generally be more capable of meeting their potential.
shawn disney 10+
charles motley
John Moonstroller 30+
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444165804578008311635287522.html
extract: "Moving low-income families out of poor neighborhoods doesn't help the families escape poverty, according to a new study, but it does make them healthier and happier.
In a paper published this week in the journal Science, researchers from the University of Chicago, Harvard and other institutions, studied the effects of Moving to Opportunity, an experimental federal housing program in the 1990s that offered housing vouchers to more than 2,000 low-income families so they could move from impoverished areas into mixed-income neighborhoods. A separate control group had similar demographics but didn't move to mixed-income neighborhoods with the help of vouchers..."
busetgadapet buset
that's what happened over and over in history
so you dont need to worry,
Iñigo Puente Bustindui
Do you really think so?
W. Ying 10+
Please do not do that!
Today's war will very probably lead to human extinction rather than population control.
Will it be far easier to quit the silly invalid happiness to control it?
busetgadapet buset
it's inevitable...you know not all people could use their brain in the crysis situation, most people will use violence...
the effective way to prevent it is by birth control, government need to make a research about how many food vs human a country can supply so they can decide healthy birthrate value, so gov can decide whether it's time to only have one kid/family or more or not even one
if they have surplus food then no birthcontrol but if there is a potential of minus food supply I think gov need to apply those 1 kid 1 family is enough
Iñigo Puente Bustindui
Let me share with you my cosmogony; the way I see this issue. In the past, people used to have many children, it was a part of their "modus-vivendi" for many reasons. First of all, the circunstamces they lived were very different: there was a lot of land to even explore, medicine was very limited and therefore live expectancy was very short, having many children was a way to increase the work force in the typical family business, currents of thought, in those days, said people had to dwell earth and everything in existance was made for the use and joy of humankind.
Since the industrial revolution until now days, human's life has changed drastically. All the advances in science: medicine, technology, sistems etc. have contibuted, not just to improve human's lives, but also, unfortunatelly, jeopardizing our own supervenience, like the following reasons:
1) Medicine advances have impulse an exponential birthrate and overpopulation. We have adapted so good to this world that, now, we are a kind of cancer or plague to our planet. I have friends that have known their great-grandparents and have children as well, that is: 5 generations living in a same period of time.
2) Technology, have create us many needs and thus we have become very consumerist and materialistic society, having to consume huge quantities of resources, sometimes unecesary; some others unificiently, creating ecology devastation and inmbalances in our environment.
3) Systems like economy have made many injustices. I believe this is the greatest flaw in this issue because it has create a greate gap between societys, countries and people. And the problem with this is that this creates ignorance as there exists a correlation between lowincome - low, inefficient education or non-existence at all.
(MORE)
Iñigo Puente Bustindui
So, just to conclude, yes, I think birth control is definitely a very important part of the solution. But it's missing the how. How can we control birthrate? Let's be reaasonable, we can not imposse people not to have children. It might be, probably, something that future generatioms will have to do as a way of survivance if we keep these birthrates. And, yes, I agree wars are one of the resaults from many of our exesses. Although we can not take it as a solution to control overpopulation. That would made us regress instead of progress as society and as developed beings.
I believe the answer for many solutions for today's issues is EDUCATION; good education. Education that not just permit everyone have acces to the several fields of knowledge, but also that teaches ethics and good values that can inspire people and society to be be better; a "formative education" that can change the world.
I know it might sound very naive, but it is a fact that good education change people's way of thinking and way of living.
Let me put you an example. In Mexico, my country, we can find a huge gap between rich and poor people and we can clearly see the correlation, I was talking you about, good or competitive education - high income vs inefficient education - low income people, and the huge gap in the way of thinking. My parents made has four children and two grand-children at the age of fourty, this is not an isolated case, actually it is pattern we can observe. Low-income people are more ignorant due they're enable to have goog education what they get is just a rickety education, and we can say it's one of the reasons they have more children at younger ages. If we could help improve the education sistem and let everyone have a formative education, we could help a lot in solving this problem. Another way to improve education are these kind of movements; TED's movement, where people can enrich their criterion and perhaps inspire society to be better.
(MORE)
Iñigo Puente Bustindui
Another way to improve education is by improving the entertainment industry, as this is, every day more and more, the one who educate and transmit values (good and bad) to society. That's the reason I started to write scripts; to make stories that could inspire people to be better and thus contribute to cociety for better.
If we could convince people to have less children, perhaps one or two; and if we could convince them, if they want to have children, have them at older ages, perhaps at 30's, I'm positive we could save the world and have a green planet again.
The worst genocide of tomorrow is the ecocide of today.
Daniel Harder
Pabitra Mukhopadhyay 30+
About a decade ago Humans, as a single species were appropriating close to 40% of the total terrestrial photosynthetic produce - I do not dare to know the current statistics. The linear growth paradigm is a mass insanity just like praying for a miracle cure of a cancer patient without resorting to therapy.
I do not want to sound overtly pessimistic by saying that even the natural cyclic growth-decay-growth is also an entropic slide down to an eventual stop.
W. Ying 10+
It is the "invalid happiness" to be blamed.
Humans need only valid happiness to keep their DNA alive.
They use their instincts out of the valid scope formed 10,000 years ago.
So, just quit the invalid happiness and everything will be OK.
Mark Hurych
Every day there are billions of people trying to pass on these ideas. We need to revisit this lesson and practice compassion. Compassion equals health from self to community. Empathy is not a long lost art. We can always at least copy the behavior we think is good. Mirror neurons trigger mirrored emotions. If you watch Schindler's List, follow Schindler's approach, not the Nazis.
W. Ying 10+
If we do symbiosis right, we have to quit invalid happiness
Right?
Chris Cavalari
It's a given that the Brown economics is the only one we can practice at this point if we don't want to torch the planet in the next few hundred years. Perhaps someone will write a way more extreme economic thesis based on ecology.
And when they do, in whatever country they do it in, perhaps they will be placed in prison, because we all want our toys and our heat and our electricity, and who's going to tell us any different?
W. Ying 10+
We have to quit invalid happiness!
It is the orign of all evils.
shawn disney 10+
Yvonne Gamble
W. Ying 10+
To quit invalid happiness is much easier than set our sights on the infinite universe.
Gordon Barker 10+
All we need is for a general increase in health care in some high growth population centres and millions or perhaps even billions who would normally die will live to consume resource, food and water. That can cause a spike in the population that if acompanied by an unfavourable climate change will spark a population decrease.
Or a space faring race of hungry aliens can come down and harvest us (as they do evey 100,000 years or so, when our population explodes).
I'm not sure which future I would like to see less.
W. Ying 10+
The easy and happy way to go is to quit silly "invalid happiness" and save more than 90% of resources on the planet.
Wrong?
Gordon Barker 10+
Also, in the long term (and as a species we really should consider the long view as more important than the next quarter) unconstrained exponential growth is never sustainable. Sooner or later the population of the earth must stop growing, sustain itself at that level or (more probably) fall back to some lower level that the earth can comfortably sustain while maintaining a healthy eco system.
I personally think that given our blatent disregard for the environment needed by other species and our overfishing of the oceans, we are already far past the population number the earth would be comfortable with.
Karl Meyer
Myself, I think there is a tipping point that the world will reach, beyond which it will be impossible to recover. However, I do not think that humanity's course to this point will be very direct. When things go wrong, people will try to fix them. If people somehow determine that life is sustainable at current population levels, I don't think that maintaining the status quo will be very straightforward either. The worst case scenario is that we have passed the tipping point and that humanity is currently in decline and on the way to extinction. That would not be straightforward either (barring some kind of cataclysmic event), and outright extinction (i.e., zero human beings) is pretty unlikely I would think.
The question does not center on the survival of humanity so much as on the quality of life we and our progeny enjoy while on this earth. How do we want to live before our star explodes? An interesting question: Considered as a single organism, how far is it even possible that humanity is in charge of its own fate? How much sentience and self-awareness can we attribute to the human organism?
W. Ying 10+
Not far, humankind will be in charge of its own fate if it knows what the invalid happiness is.
James Chapman
jasreet singh
Still there is a large mass that is to be made aware of the problems arising due to the growth of population.
We just need to wok on that mass to contol the population.
The reason behind the increasing populaion can also be not ignored as well !
W. Ying 10+
The reason behind the increasing population is the invalid happiness.
esteban gonzalez
walter crockett
jasreet singh
Now for the word 'infinite' the population is growing at a tremendous rate in various areas and the there is a pat of the population that is not recognized.
walter crockett