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Page added on August 24, 2022
The planet is approaching 8 billion people. We’re not ready
Last month, the United Nations Population Division issued its World Population Prospects 2022 report, which forecast that the human population will reach and surpass 8 billion on Nov. 15. In a carefully worded statement on the report, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres declared 2022 a “milestone” year.
He had good reason to choose his words carefully. To speak in a global context concerning the interconnections of population, consumption and inequality (as he did) is no easy task. The status quo for nearly 50 years has been that the Global North tells the Global South, “You have too many mouths to feed — you should curb your population growth rates,” and the Global South tells the Global North, “You eat too much — you should curb your consumption rates.” Both sides are correct, but still manage to speak past each other.
Critics love to pour derision on poor old Thomas Malthus, the population economist whose ideas have undeniably been abused by those pushing racist, xenophobic and anti-urban growth agendas. Similarly vilified is Paul R. Ehrlich’s flawed yet visionary book, “The Population Bomb,” the reading of which introduced me to human population growth issues when I was still in high school.
Yet for all their flaws, the analyses of Malthus and Ehrlich cannot be ignored. Feeding more mouths over time does result in still more mouths to feed. Satisfying more consumer demands results in still more consumer demands to satisfy.
To say this out loud is to toss a sacred cow on the third rail. In many political contexts, mention of population control is about as popular as gun control at a National Rifle Association convention.
One of the most successful ways to shut down legitimate discourse on population issues is to lump that discussion with historical eugenics, racism, colonialism and genocide. Discussion quickly descends into a paranoia-fest of “whose population? And who is doing the controlling?” — not improper concerns, but too often improperly used to shut down all discussion.
One result of this deadlock is that the human population has jumped 267% in the roughly six decades I have been alive.
I have seen the changes personally. In the 1970s as a teenager in Ohio, I watched the corn fields down the road get turned under, subdivided and planted with houses. I moved to Southern California in 1980 and soon thereafter lived and worked in the Riverside County agricultural hinterlands of the western Coachella Valley, places like Cherry Valley and Beaumont, now filled cheek-by-jowl with houses.
Exurbia has become suburbia.
I lived in the San Jacinto Mountains in the 1980s and in the southern Sierra Nevada from 2005 to 2020 and have seen those forests made ghosts of their former selves by bark beetles and big burns. The whole landscape, even after regrowth, looks tired and worn down at the heel.
California’s urban cores have not grown that much in population over the last 50 years. Instead, more people have built and moved into the wildland-urban interface.
I was one of them and part of the problem.
Our home burned down in the Creek Fire of 2020. Nothing sensitizes you to the end of the world like having your own world end.
No matter who is winning the debate about growth, we clearly aren’t planning for that growth particularly well.
Experiments like China’s coercive and now-defunct One Child Policy notwithstanding, the only persistent governor on the engine of population growth has been the “invisible hand” of demographic transition: the historic shift from high-birth rates and high-infant death rates (in low-tech, low-female-education, low-economic-development societies) to low-birth rates and low-infant-death rates (in high-tech, high-female-education, high-economic-development societies). Because women with more options generally have fewer children, education and economic opportunities for women are key to both demographic transition and any possibility for reining in population growth.
Yet even this mild constraint is unacceptable for the likes of Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance, who has argued for parents having a more powerful say in American democracy than nonparents. Natalist nationalists like Vance want to roll back the achievements of cosmopolitanism and feminism, view migration as surrender and fear an extremely unlikely “abrupt population collapse” driven somehow by the aforementioned demographic transition.
According to the U.N. report’s forecast, the curve for absolute global population will continue to rise through most of the century before flattening and stabilizing (fingers crossed) at 10 billion or 11 billion.
Vance and his fellow travelers, however, seem little interested in the global situation. They castigate the decision to refrain from having children as “selfish” and lacking “physical commitment to the future.” Yet, beyond the immediate realm of the nuclear family or the demands of church and state for more parishioners and citizens, choosing to be childless is clearly unselfish — even reciprocally altruistic and committed to the future — in the context of the community of all life on this planet.
Choice, not coercion, is key.
The involuntary abortions forced on Chinese women under the One Child Policy are the flip side of American women being forced to carry pregnancies to term against their will in the wake of the Supreme Court Dobbs decision. Is it any wonder that the number of people seeking tubal ligations and vasectomies is way up? More of us seem to be concluding that, because we are pro-creation, we will choose not to engage in procreation.
It’s not impossible for human beings to say, “Enough of us, already!”
64 Comments on "The planet is approaching 8 billion people. We’re not ready"
supremacist muzzies killed 202 people mostly elite whitey supertards elite whitey supertards love supremacist muzzies more on Sun, 28th Aug 2022 11:01 pm
muzzie is released early from Indonesia
this is where elite whitey supertard jay hanson died. it was the work of supremacist muzzies
please hcange ur undies after 2 weeks
please feel at ease among friends
we’re all lovers of supremacist muzzies here
please dont buy into this overpopulation BS its pushed by elite whitey (((supertards))) cuz they want to administer the depopulation shot on Mon, 29th Aug 2022 1:58 pm
on the other hand, elite whitey supertard Putin is finished.
Russia hasn’t modernized since end of cold war. The war won’t end well. One possible outcome is elite whitey supertard Putin disposed and Russia get out of Ukraine. But Ukraine will promptly join NATO, already Lativia and a few others already done so
please hcange ur undies after 2 weeks
please feel at ease among friends
we’re all lovers of supremacist muzzies here
makati1 on Mon, 29th Aug 2022 4:52 pm
please…, what bullshit! Yes, the GMO JABs are about depopulation, but your assertion about Russia is pure Western brainwash propaganda.
Their (Russia) military is well above any in the West in ALL areas. Even the US military admits that. Russia has the S400 system (S500 on the way) that is way above anything the US has, and the US supersonic missiles are years, if not decades, ahead of the over priced junk the US makes and sells to stupid countries.
If your little dream world of supremacy lets you sleep at night, good for you, but don’t try to convince other, open minded, educated, people that it is real.
BTW: Putin’s population is 70% plus and Biden’s is about 30% at last check and going down. Who will be replaced? LOL
please dont buy into this overpopulation BS its pushed by elite whitey (((supertards))) cuz they want to administer the depopulation shot on Mon, 29th Aug 2022 5:40 pm
never forget elite whitey supertard president putin cured covid
never forget elite darkie supertard will smith cured covid with slap heard around the world
please hcange ur undies after 2 weeks
please feel at ease among friends
we’re all lovers of supremacist muzzies here
if u criticize elite whitey (((supertard))) then elite whitey supertard kat came out of the woodwork and assassinate u on Mon, 29th Aug 2022 6:04 pm
“To learn who rules over you simply look to those you cannot criticize.”
― Voltaire
the convid hoax started 3/2020 and i immediately called for amputation of elite whitey supertard thunderf00t.
This supertard went on self imposed quarantine.
he has posted zero video since on the subject of the convid
supertards please change ur undies after 2 weeks
please feel at ease among friends
we’re all lovers of supremacist muzzies here
peakyeast on Mon, 29th Aug 2022 9:31 pm
Russia is still selling minerals, fertilizer, oil, gas, diamonds… Just not to the US and EU anymore and a lot of it with a good price – just not in $ or Euro – which is even better. We just pushed the biggest world exporter to asia and supported the construction of an alternative to the petrodollar and swift. China e.t.c. could not have wished for a better plan – and all implemented by the west in their sheer stupidity and the arrogance.
The west is not selling McDonalds meals, coca-cola, important social media and other useless counterproductive crap.
Guess who has a problem?
dont buy this overpopulation stuff its all elite whitey (((supertard))) agenda for the love of supremacist muzzies and for pushing the convid and depopulation shots on Mon, 29th Aug 2022 10:23 pm
think about it 20,000 years ago there was a lot of ice during the period of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. The ice covers most of canada and northern US and is two mile thick.
that’s all melted and the ocean is where it is today. the plymouth rock is still where it is.
we have 8 billions ZOMFG haha no big deal
try 80 billions human beings at the time of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, all supremacist muzzies.
alarmists much
supertards please change ur undies after 2 weeks
please feel at ease among friends
we’re all lovers of supremacist muzzies here
dont worry about having too many people its nothing compare to 20000 years ago back then we had 80 billion people all supremacist muzzies and we are still here arent we so dont worry about it this is about propaganda to push convid and the on Tue, 30th Aug 2022 5:54 am
depopulation shots by elite whitey (((supertards)))
the whole climate change and global overpopulation are pushed by people who want to blame elite whitey supertards.
note that during the period of the Laurentide Ice Sheet 20,000 years ago it was supremacist muzzies that caused the melting of two miles of ice over much of Canada and northern US. There were 80 billion human beings at the time, all supremacist muzzies.
this is why when convid first started 3/2020 i immediatey called for amputation of elite whitey supertard thunderf00t
this elite whitey supertard went on self imposed quarantine and i said it smellz
supertards please change ur undies after 2 weeks
please feel at ease among friends
we’re all lovers of supremacist muzzies here
when convid first started 3/2020 i immediatey called for amputation of elite whitey supertard thunderf00t this elite whitey supertard went on self imposed quarantine and i said it smellz on Tue, 30th Aug 2022 6:03 am
pop quiz:
did i push for amputation of elite whitey supertard thunderf00t for convid related activities?
If the answer is YES then it’s wrong.
ask urself this elite whitey supertard speaks high british english, does he love supremacist muzzies of course he does. think about it and you arrive at the correct answer.
did elite whitey (((supertard))) einstein get nobel for (((supertard))) MSM science relativity?
it’s for photoelectric effect.
now you see why i didn’t demand amputation of elite whitey supertard thunderf00t for convid related activities. things are not always as it is on the open.
supertards please change ur undies after 2 weeks
please feel at ease among friends
we’re all lovers of supremacist muzzies here
Duncan Idaho on Tue, 30th Aug 2022 10:53 am
experts predict that large cities like Phoenix and Las Vegas are going to be uninhabitable within decades
They are uninhabitable now
paultard on Tue, 30th Aug 2022 2:58 pm
supertard SAW SAWS pbuh swt where is my lover REAL Green Goat. playing with the goats and auto keltecs, not me.
during the last ice age 20000 years ago of the Laurentide Ice Sheet the world had 80 billions human beings all supremacist muzzies on Tue, 30th Aug 2022 7:30 pm
the ice melted and the population crashed.
this global warming caused the depopulation of supremacist muzzies
it was supremacist muzzies that caused the melting of two miles of ice.
8 billion is nothing compared to 80 billions.
don’t fall for dis
supertards please change ur undies after 2 weeks
please feel at ease among friends
we’re all lovers of supremacist muzzies here
dont fall for this trap this is how elite whiey (((supertards))) push the convid and depopulation shots the proof is in the pudding 20000 years ago we had 80 billion human beings all supremacist muzzies we have mere 8 billion now hello thats on Tue, 30th Aug 2022 10:22 pm
nothing in comparsion
now elite whitey supertard is making videos “muzzies of tik tok”
this is after we had “libs of tik tok”
supertards please change ur undies after 2 weeks
please feel at ease among friends
we’re all lovers of supremacist muzzies here
SilentRunning2 on Wed, 31st Aug 2022 6:27 pm
Spot on, and completely correct analysis. Human population growth must cease.