The world’s population grew by 89 million in 2015, according to the demographers at the respected Population Reference Bureau (PRB) in Washington, D.C., who have been compiling and analyzing demographic data since 1929. In mid-2016, we stand at approximately 7.4 billion people, and counting. Counting very rapidly, in fact.
In 2015, there were 57 million deaths worldwide, far surpassed by a staggering 146 million births. Every minute, on average, there was a net increase of some 169 people, and every day, an already overburdened Mother Earth had to somehow furnish food, clean freshwater, wood, energy, land, raw materials and a safe, stable climate for 244,000 new claimants and consumers.
It has been practically an article of faith for us population scholars and activists that global population growth has been slowing down as families worldwide opt for fewer children and girls and women are educated, empowered and employed. Global fertility rates and family sizes have indeed plunged in most regions over the past half-century, and contraceptive use and family planning have risen dramatically, again, in most, but importantly, not in all, regions.
But when we are dealing with the treachery of unsustainable exponential growth, it is all too easy to perceive progress to date on these important fronts as sufficient to resolve the problem, when in fact it is merely necessary. And the gap between sufficient and necessary is huge.
The bottom line is this: Is global population growth actually slowing down? Are we truly approaching population stabilization on a global scale?
And the distressing answer is a resounding NO.
If global population growth were actually slowing down, then 10 years earlier, in 2005, the world’s population should have increased by more than it did in 2015. But this is not what has actually happened.
Using the same data sources, the PRB’s World Population Data Sheets for 2004 and 2005, we see that global population increased by 81 million between mid-2004 and mid-2005. In other words, in 2015, the world’s human population grew by eight million more than it had a decade earlier, in 2005.
The annual rate of increase measured by percentage was 1.2 percent in both 2005 and 2015, but this identical percentage was applied to a larger population base, so the annual increment increased from 81 million in 2005 to 89 million in 2015.
Back in 2005, PRB projected a global population of 9.3 billion in 2050. Now it projects 9.8 billion in 2050. Both the U.S. Census Bureau and the United Nations Population Division are also revising their projections upward. To any thinking or humane person, this should be a cause for deep consternation rather than celebration.
There are three main reasons for this serious setback on the road to a sustainable, stabilized global human population. First, fertility rates have remained stubbornly high in sub-Saharan Africa; they have not fallen in that region like demographers and economists had earlier planned and hoped. Of the top 12 countries with the highest fertility rates in the world, all of them are in Africa, with Niger the highest, at 7.6 (i.e., on average, each woman in Niger gives birth to between seven and eight children).
Having increased very rapidly over the past half century to one billion inhabitants at present, the population of Africa alone is projected to shoot up to four billion by 2100, and still be growing. The extreme pressure to migrate to Europe in desperate search of work and opportunity, already intense in these poor countries with high unemployment and few prospects, is only predicted to intensify. It is a recipe for social strife, conflict and even chaos, as we are seeing in Europe already.
Second, in some areas, fertility rate declines have stalled out, and in certain countries, fertility rates that had been falling have begun to increase again. In Egypt, for example, the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) in 2005 was 3.2; by 2015, it had edged back up to 3.5. In 2005, PRB projected that there would be 126 million Egyptians by 2050; now, in 2015, PRB is projecting 162 million Egyptians by 2050. In 1960, Egypt’s population was a mere 28 million!
If these projections come to pass, the grim squalor in that overcrowded country hugging the overstressed Nile River will only worsen for many tens of millions of inhabitants, which is good news only to Islamist extremists looking to recruit waves of unemployed, alienated and sexually frustrated young men as suicide bombers and jihadi warriors.
Third, in still other countries that had already achieved replacement or sub-replacement fertility, fear bordering on hysteria over the economic and social effects of inevitable population aging has led governments to incentivize or even coerce women into having more children. This has happened in countries as diverse as China, Vietnam and Iran. China has ended its one-child policy, while Vietnam’s TFR increased from 2.2 in 2005 to 2.4 in 2015.
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The need to provide ever more energy for an ever-increasing population
will alone generate massive environmental impacts. Clockwise from top right:
the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform explodes into flames in the Gulf of Mexico, ironically on the 40th anniversary of Earth Day in 2010; solar photovoltaic panels cover desert habitats; proliferating power lines; an oil-soaked pelican; mining impacts; “green” wind energy that is renewable but can blight scenic landscapes and kill birds and bats in large numbers if not sited properly.
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Humanity’s inability to tame the “population monster” – or at least our procrastination in doing so – will have massively negative social, cultural, economic and environmental repercussions on a global scale. It will stoke social, ethnic and racial conflicts at all scales, from local to regional, national to international. It will intensify competition for dwindling and depleting renewable and nonrenewable natural resources, such as fisheries, arable soils, timber, oil, minerals, lands and, most importantly, water.
It will fuel internal migration from rural areas into crowded, dense mega-cities already bursting at the seams, and it will precipitate international migration from low-income, rapid population growth countries to higher income countries with stable or shrinking populations. Those prosperous nations that have managed to achieve population stability will see that achievement crushed unless they sharply limit the influx of economic immigrants and those claiming to be refugees, mustering the will to resist international pressure to open their borders to the less fortunate.
It will exacerbate air, water and toxic pollution, and it will destroy wildlife habitat and drive many species of plants and animals extinct. Human overpopulation and overconsumption have pushed the Earth into its sixth major extinction event since multicellular life emerged on the planet. Biodiversity will plummet, as one gluttonous species, Homo sapiens, co-opts the vital resources needed to support tens of thousands of other species.
It will accelerate man-made climate change by increasing the number of energy consumers and carbon and methane emitters; this threatens to bring not only sea level rise and droughts, but water shortages, negatively impacting agriculture, settlements and ecosystems. As well, expect more deadly storms that wreak havoc, flatten and flood homes, and kill thousands.
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Migrants march en masse into Slovenia, 2015: a sight that will become
ever more common as this crowded century proceeds, unless rapid population growth in some countries is tamed and borders in other countries are enforced.
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It is nothing short of disheartening that half a century after awareness began to be raised of the insuperable problems posed by rapid, unsustainable human population growth that it is even necessary to harp on this issue at all. By now, humankind should have already halted population growth and moved onto other pressing sustainability challenges. Clearly, we have underestimated the enormity of the population challenge. The primordial urge to leave offspring and to increase the numbers of one’s own kind and kin is just too deeply rooted in our genes and/or cultures.
But reality is reality: on a finite planet, population growth will stop, one way or the other. The only question is how: Will it stop because enlightened human beings rationally and humanely lower aggregate birth rates or because nature – utterly indifferent to our values, wellbeing or even survival – raises the death rate?
The answer to that burning question is still unknown, but it makes all the difference in the world as to what type of Earth we are bequeathing to our descendants and the rest of creation.
UPDATE: The PRB’s Population Data Sheet for 2016 has now been posted and is available online at: http://www.prb.org/pdf16/prb-wpds2016-web-2016.pdf.
It reveals that world population grew by 90 million over the last year, even higher than the 89 million estimated for 2015. Thus, the trend towards higher and higher annual population growth increments called out and lamented in this blog post continues. Far from having been tamed, the “population monster” continues rampaging like a juggernaut.
onlooker on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 12:04 pm
The Earth will soon tame this population monster in the most ruthless and direct of ways.
Hello on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 12:06 pm
It is clear that feeding the high performance breeder apes of africa was not one of the smartest things the west did.
claman on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 12:27 pm
Child mortality should be reintroduced in countries that can’t feed them selves.
Which means that children that can’t survive, should not survive. Even grown ups that can’t provide for them selves must face survival factors.
Cloggie on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 12:37 pm
The West has declining (white) population numbers, mostly because f feminism, Africa should follow but doesn’t. News flash: it is their problem.
Development aid in 2013:
EU $87B
US $33B
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_aid
In other words, many trillions have been given since decolonization, mostly by Europe. But the more you give, the more you create the conditions they multiply. This can only end badly.
“Migrants march en masse into Slovenia, 2015: a sight that will become
ever more common as this crowded century proceeds, unless rapid population growth in some countries is tamed and borders in other countries are enforced.”
No it won’t become ever more common, in fact it has already stopped, because of the rigorous behavior of the Balkan states, who ignored orders by Merkel and Juncker not to build fences and did it anyway. The only place migrants still make it to Europe is by (rickety) boats via Italy. But Austria, Switzerland and France in the north had closed the border as well so now Italy is stuck with them. Good for them as they pick them up 5 miles out of the Libyan coast, rather than pushing them back by force, as the Australians do, and push them back to Africa and destroy the boats.
Merkel is almost finished and so is the Bundesrepublik, a leftist US vassal state. The satrap of Moscow, the GDR was flushed through the toilet of history in 1989, it won’t be different with the FRG, perhaps as early as before 2020.
Globalism is nearly over, tribalism and right-wing policies are next.
claman on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 12:46 pm
Hello said :
“It is clear that feeding the high performance breeder apes of africa was not one of the smartest things the west did.”
Hello, The real problem is that we gave them low child mortality. They are basically living the way they use to, except that their children doesn’t die, so they just keep on multiplying, and they don’t see what it coming. They are afraid of addressing the over population proplem because it is culturally and maybe even politically inconvenintly.
Anonymous on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 12:56 pm
Finally, an honest article on the ture state of population growth. Reports, even by pro-population control advocates routinely tell us ‘population is decreasing’. A flat out lie. What has been decreasing is the RATE of increase in population growth has declined(slightly) overall. Not the same thing, not even close. Sure SOME regions have little growth, some even net negative. The world as a whole, not remotely. Most pro-reduction advocates play loose with their own data, and language, and prefer to push gloss over the fact that population is still increasing at unsustainable rates, by more than are willing to admit.
This article at least, points out the glaringly obvious fact that nothing like a natural reduction in GLOBAL population is occurring. Well, ok maybe in a FEW regions something like is occurring. But many writers like to treat the few cases where population growth is actually flat, or net negative even (ie Germany), as if Germany’s population statistics represent the entire world. Pssst: they don’t.
Sissyfuss on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 1:01 pm
My Amish neighbors try to reject any technology post 1830. All except modern medicine. They are still breeding at 1830 levels but instead of a 25% infant survival rate it is now 99.99%. I keep yelling at them,”listen to Bartlett, you
fartlets, it’s exponential!” After which they heave road apples at me.
claman on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 1:02 pm
clogg : “Globalism is nearly over, tribalism and right-wing policies are next.”
I think it should be called : Socialist locally and fascist globally.
We are allowed to like our own culture and we are allowed to defend it.
Davy on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 1:48 pm
Clog, “development aid” that is a funny. It is mostly a cover for economic exploitation. Europe is the worst of them because they feel so ashamed of their past they give the most and are he most corrupt about it. The US is just about global hegemony. China is just about economic exploitation and they make the local sharks richer. Russia is about Putin Pride. In the end it is the poor if the 3rd world that get the shaft.
Apneaman on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 2:06 pm
It’s funny how the self deluded and self important white retard losers who can’t stop pouting and about overpopulation of other races are often cheerleaders of the very scientific and technological innovations that have led to over breeding. Did y’all think your WHITE overlords would not jump at the first chance to make a buck regardless of the consequences? They don’t give a shit about any part of overshoot. They are the rich masters and the only thing that can end their rule is total collapse or a successful revolution. While more white joe six packs get thrown under the bus everyday by their white masters, the masters are drinking champagne, eating caviar and fucking thousand dollar whores every day while laughing their ass off at the stupid plebs burning up their energy sniveling and moaning like little girls over their primitive tribal “emotions”. Cloggie is right that many western men are totally feminized and none more so than the merican white whiner. The ass fucking you are taking from your overlords is a thousand times worse than the grievances your colonial ancestors had against the British. The colonials did their fair share of whining and raging too (pamphlets, letters, public speaking and such) but they were men of action and actually got off the couch, left the house and took real risks.
Plantagenet on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 2:08 pm
Its too bad the Ds opposed the zero population growth movement back in the 80s for being anti-immigrant. A viable ZPG movement is exactly what we need.
The US was a pretty nice country back when it only had 200 million people, and the world was a lot nicer when it had half as many people as it has now.
Cheers!
Apneaman on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 2:21 pm
Technology will save us………again. Our resource usage per human will be reduced by 95% once we’re uploaded to the singularity server farm.
The world wide cage
Technology promised to set us free. Instead it has trained us to withdraw from the world into distraction and dependency
“The greatest of the United States’ homegrown religions – greater than Jehovah’s Witnesses, greater than the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, greater even than Scientology – is the religion of technology. ”
“What Silicon Valley sells and we buy is not transcendence but withdrawal. The screen provides a refuge, a mediated world that is more predictable, more tractable, and above all safer than the recalcitrant world of things. We flock to the virtual because the real demands too much of us.”
https://aeon.co/essays/the-internet-as-an-engine-of-liberation-is-an-innocent-fraud
Cloggie on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 2:33 pm
“Europe is the worst of them because they feel so ashamed of their past they give the most and are he most corrupt about it.”
Why should we feel ashamed for lifting stone age countries and bringing infrastructure and education to them?
http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1713275,00.html
Just watch the news and learn that these folks risk their lives by crossing the Mediterranean by the hundreds of thousands in order to be with us Europeans, the so-called exploiters and escape their own hell holes.
Colonial era:
Rhodesia:
http://zimbusiness101.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/wheat-563×353.jpg
http://www.mimages.co.za/files/imagecache/watermark/files/CABAA-ICBAA-CAEFA-EI_thumb.jpg
British colonial architecture in India:
http://tinyurl.com/htujfuv
Dutch colonial architecture in Indonesia:
http://tinyurl.com/h7b79bd
Colonial railroads in Africa:
http://www.citi.io/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/204-3.jpg
The ultimate European do-gooder Albert Schweizer in his Lambarene:
http://ais.badische-zeitung.de/piece/04/82/89/44/75663684.jpg
Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of priests and other religious people dedicated their lives, went to Africa to set up hospitals and schools and plantations for no other purpose than help the Africans, during and after the colonial era.
I totally reject that typical leftist white guilt trip.
Nobody could foresee the consequences of development before the seventies.
Hawkcreek on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 2:48 pm
When we export technology and medical care to third world countries, without exporting equivalent amounts of population control, we are the among the guilty ones.
But it doesn’t really matter. Reality bats last, and says that billions will die in the next 20-30 years. The population will take care of itself.
Apneaman on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 3:02 pm
Cloggie, there is one simple reason why the migrants flee to Europe and not North America – The Atlantic Fucking Ocean.
And I’m very grateful for it!
claman on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 3:04 pm
APNE, name me just one black leader (exept O’ ) that has anything to say, that others really want to listen to.
You said :”Did y’all think your WHITE overlords would not jump at the first chance to make a buck regardless of the consequences? They don’t give a shit about any part of overshoot”.
We are 7 billions and there is not one black man who can raise his voice against injustice after Mandela died. Come on, you can do better
Anonymous on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 3:06 pm
Wow, the village idiot plantafool had to somehow shoehorn his obsession with the so-called ‘democratic party’ in his wretched pseudo-nation into the convo. Too lazy to even spell out their name fully. Hey plant, since the other target of your OCD, obomber, is a ‘d’, as well, why didn’t you blame him for that too, lol.
Anonymous on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 3:18 pm
Clogg, I wouldn’t disagree sharing and helping others are not virtues, but asserting xtian priests dedicated their lives to ‘helping’ the natives of africa, or anywhere else, is stretching, even for you.
White xtian priests went around the world , one step behind xtian armies. But their purpose was not to ‘help’, the
natives conquered by our armies, but to destroy their culture, language, art, erase their history, and turn them into meek, passive unresisting types. Iow, cultural conquest was their goal-not ‘xtian charity’. And, by and large, it worked. So lets not fool ourselves by claiming the white-mans burden ok?
All those priests and nuns were there as agents of conquest, lending a hand to the ‘natives’ was just window dressing.
But the real kicker is, this practice is still very much alive, even today. The so-called uSaid(CIA’s civilian arm) to use an example, is infested with xtians, who see their primary task as converting Africans to xtianity, not digging wells or building schools. The practice of opening USaid up to xtian ‘missionaries’ got a huge boost during the bush regime if I’m not mistaken.
claman on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 3:26 pm
Still no african voices.
Ano said : “But the real kicker is, this practice is still very much alive, even today. The so-called uSaid(CIA’s civilian arm) to use an example, is infested with xtians, who see their primary task as converting Africans to xtianity”.
Where d’fuck are the african voices
Apneaman on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 3:26 pm
claman, you’re comment is nonsensical. I don’t think you’re on the same page as me.
Davy on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 3:31 pm
You Europeans don’t get it do you. Your whole white European civilization has been about disturbing other stable civilizations for your own ends. Now the consequences are occuring and you want to blame them. This European migrant crisis is your own making. Sure blame it on the US but that is another one of your dark child that turned into a monster. The dynamics of this crisis go deeper than US military meddling. iMA something your European MIC is fully involved with. You can’t smugly enjoy prosperity at the expense of others than whine and complain when they are knocking at your door wanting in. You created these dynamics and it is you that will have to live with them.
claman on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 3:39 pm
Apne, if you complain about the (Us) whites over whelming part in todays debate, i’m just asking you, where are the blacks. There are no black, south american or european leader with just the slightest hint of a vision of where we are going. They all leave it to the US, china and Putin. And that is not very good, if you ask me
claman on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 3:47 pm
Davy, No europeans are blaming the immigration crisis on the USA. On the contrary we very much blame our selves. This whole situation is the result of European colonialism and our habitude of givng colonial people automatic citizens rights at home in europe. That was a bad idea, but it look good then.
Davy on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 3:59 pm
Our coming extinction challenge is a product of European civilization. Those values and ideas of that civilization in its many and varied forms have been delivered to all parts of the world to the detriment of the entire earth. The anglosphere is nothing but an extension of this. It is likely if Chinese civilization was left to its own means we would likely see the same results. Our extinction tendencies appear to be a result of a human defect. That said lets place blame where it was spawned and that was Europe.
claman on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 4:04 pm
Davy, you can put it that way, and I won’t disagree too much. It is the anglosphere and all that comes with it that is to blame for the situation as it is to day.
Davy on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 4:25 pm
The worst of it is American today but it was European failure, weakness, and historic exploitation that allowed any of this. The US could never have attained its hegemony without European failures. It is the anglosphere that created the basics of the US. This was then mixed with the worst of ever other continent resulting in a cancer of corrupted free markets and hijacked liberal democracy. Yet, all blame goes back to the entire European civilization. Europe has destroyed the world and soon the world will destroy Europe.
Sissyfuss on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 4:48 pm
Clognitive Dissonance ” Nobody could forsee the consequences of development before the 70s.” How about Malthus, Erlich, me. Your people exported greed,
ecodestruction and genocide and your proud as punch.
Apneaman on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 4:50 pm
claman, blacks don’t run the world white people currently have most of the power. Blacks don’t have any real power same as poor whites or anyone else who lives under the boot. Trust me, if a black leader with “vision” emerged with enough followers, the moment he/she was deemed a threat to the current global regime or any of their plans they would “intervene” in any one of a hundred different ways. That goes for any threat from any colour of person from any country. Ruthlessness and coercion are how you get and maintain power and to think otherwise is naive.
claman on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 5:15 pm
Apne – yet it is absolute silence from Africa when it comes to new ideas of how the continent is and how it could be .
I try to find African sites where they discus their situation in general. And all I find is local news with rapports about what is happening in the bigger world.
It is just like they have given up and just wait and see what is happening every where else.
It would be nice to se some african ideology or plan for the future
Apneaman on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 5:31 pm
claman after 400 years of slavery, murder and rape of the African continent and it’s black people here is “some african ideology”.
https://youtu.be/5zON0o_d51E?t=91
claman on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 5:37 pm
Apne , or why not this
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/09/05/politics/philippines-president-rodrigo-duterte-barack-obama/index.html
At least it is a statement. Not african , but anyway.
Apneaman on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 6:09 pm
Thanks claman. Rodrigo my new hero. I only listened to him. Once the puppet Obama started talking I killed the page. I really do not know that much about modern day P’s. I know the Americans fucked them over big time after their invasion and occupation – it’s what empires do. I think Rodrigo is a little harsh on the country’s addicts (death sentence) because they are victims as much as anyone. Execution for the dealers is fine, but they should kill the tobacco people as well. That being said, none of this stuff keeps me awake at night because it’s all petty meaningless cancer monkey bullshit and it’s all so predictable. Same shit different century. The only thing different is the scale of the overshoot. If only we could bring back the good ole days when everything was all white. The imaginary golden age.
It never was golden
‘The good old days’ is a virulent falsehood that infects those whose defences have been weakened by fear and insecurity
“Make the world great again!’ thunder the prophets, religious and secular alike, who know our need for mythic comfort in the face of unjust reality. And so, with a paradoxical mix of pride and self-loathing, humanity tells the same story again and again, about the fallen present and a potential return to paradise past – to Hesiod’s idyllic golden age, Confucius’s beloved Zhou dynasty, the Hindu Satya Yuga, the Garden of Eden, grandpa’s garden, grandma’s kitchen – when we were authentic and pure, God’s children, noble savages, hunter-gatherers, off-the-grid, on the farm, keeping promises, respecting elders, healthy and happy – back to the good old days.”
https://aeon.co/essays/nostalgia-exerts-a-strong-allure-and-extracts-a-steep-price
claman on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 6:10 pm
Apne, after 400 years of slavery, murder and rape of the African continent and it’s black people , they still haven’t been able to rise or unite.
It would be about time that they did.
claman on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 6:23 pm
Apne, I think I was a litle rough there, but we are in deep need of african philosofers that can formulate the African idea. THAT MIGHT NOT BE an idea of mere consumption,but more like….??
I’m not joking – we need African philosofers . The Africans need themselves to know where they are going.
louploup on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 6:24 pm
I think Davy has it about right. Instead of “European” I would use “modernism” as the basic problem. It’s accurate to point out that the US took over the global hegemonic position from Europe (Spain, Netherlands, Britain…) and that China would do the same given a slightly different history a thousand years ago (check out Ian Morris’s “Why the West Rules for Now”).
There’s a good visual on the population issue at
https://populationspeakout.org/the-book/view-book/
ghung on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 6:34 pm
I appreciate all of you who give white Europeans credit for so many human traits, and hate to burst your bias bubbles, but white folks didn’t invent greed. They didn’t invent exploitation, slavery, heaven, hell, everlasting life, capitalism, killing their neighbors, stealing their women and stuff, screwing over people of other races and religions, environmental ruination….. Fact is, virtually all of these things were around long before white folks in Europe were much more than hunter-gatherers. Didn’t even have writing or mathematics. Western white people didn’t write the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Old Testament,, any of dozens of stories that describe man’s inhumanity to man. Non-whites came up with these things. Seems they’ve devolved to the point of blaming the successful-race-du-jour, or maybe they’re too humble to take credit where credit is due, eh?
I urge all humans to stand proud and pat themselves on the back. We’re all good at what we do, regardless of race, color or creed.
Cloggie on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 6:40 pm
“I urge all humans to stand proud and pat themselves on the back. We’re all good at what we do, regardless of race, color or creed”
Ever considered a career in diplomacy?
Cloggie on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 6:44 pm
“It would be nice to se some african ideology or plan for the future”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dambisa_Moyo
(“Leave us alone”)
https://youtu.be/inClCwsVwjY
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/spiegel-interview-with-african-economics-expert-for-god-s-sake-please-stop-the-aid-a-363663.html
(“For god sake please stop the aid”)
Cloggie on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 6:52 pm
“I think Davy has it about right. Instead of “European” I would use “modernism” as the basic problem”
The problem is that the Europeans, among whom i gracefully count (as in “implicate”) our North-American cousins, created a civilization called modernity that is so wildly successfull that everybody wants it too.
And now what?
Who is going to bring the bad news?
Probably Mother Nature herself.
Nobody else has the courage.
claman on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 7:00 pm
@ghungh, agree agree, exept we are too many.
Every culture should be allowed to develope in its on speed and manner, as they all ways has.
Minor cultures should accept the dominance of the greater culture, just like the “great” philosofer Ayn Rand said it should.
But we are too many , and that is the main problem to day, no matter what culture you have, or which religion.
We are all good at what we do, regardless of race, color or creed. BUT WE ARE TOO MANY.
claman on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 7:12 pm
cloggie, that was a great woman speaking there:
https://youtu.be/inClCwsVwjY
ghung on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 7:30 pm
claman said; “@ghungh, agree agree, exept we are too many.
Every culture should be allowed to develope in its on speed and manner, as they all ways has.”
Since when? Humans have been interfering in each other’s development for thousands of years, imposing their beliefs, screwing each other, copying their technology, influencing their cultures, stealing their fire, taking credit……
Apneaman on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 7:41 pm
Overpopulation is always self solving. It will become much harder to feed folks with a broken economy due to broken infrastructure. The hits are getting bigger and more frequent.
Louisiana Flooding: Damage to State At Least $8.7 Billion, Governor Says
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards has asked for $2 billion in federal aid for the state’s recovery.
http://patch.com/us/across-america/louisiana-flooding-damage-state-least-8-7-billion-governor-says
These early estimates are always underestimates.
claman on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 7:47 pm
Ghung, You got a point there. No culture exists on its own. There will all ways be a relation to neighbours.
Davy on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 7:53 pm
It is fun to talk about the chicken and the egg of our mutual depravity but it will not change things. We are on a collapse trajectory. The key question is how long. I know some feel emotionally our modern civilization is somewhat immortal but there are plenty of indications we are nearing the end of something and the beginning of another. Will this be a transition or will this be an abrupt end?
Now that we are all modern we are in this together. Even those who are not participating in affluence are modern by default. Everyone is dependent on everyone else in special and also dangerous way. I personally am not optimistic. This pessimism is not so much because I feel humans can’t succeed it is because I feel Nature is entering a new epoch. This epoch will not be stable enough to allow a modern civilization. If Nature were whole and stable I would allow a chance for humans to muddle through our worst problems. Without stability of our habitat we have little hope. Yet, for many of us we could live out our natural lives in the status quo. We just don’t know the time frame but the direction is clearer by the day.
makati1 on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 8:05 pm
Bring it on! Let’s get the show on the road. Enough talk. Let’s see the results of our greed and lust as it takes down the world as we know it. Most, if not all of us, like to blame others for our fate so let’s get it settled once and for all. Just do it! LOL
claman on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 8:39 pm
But Mak, your dear beloved China will be the first to get hit by climate changes. Global warming doesn’t just hit evil capitalists and imperialists, it will also hit a peacefull non-imperialistic power like China.
claman on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 8:49 pm
Untill the next disaster, sleep tight
makati1 on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 9:10 pm
Claman, I doubt that. It is already happening to the US big time. Mega storms dumping water measured in feet, ongoing drought in the West, Huge temperature swings. Quakes where there usually isn’t any. The New Madrid Fault overdue, Yellowstone, etc. Not to mention the financial tsunami bearing down on the unsuspecting Americans. Nope, the first blows will be felt most on the West and America in particular.
JuanP on Mon, 5th Sep 2016 9:23 pm
I expect the number of births to increase dramatically throughout the world as access to education and contraceptives diminishes in the future. I also expect increased mortality to lead to increased fertility, too. I find the fact that we had 146 million births in the world last year extremely depressing. I am so glad that I had a Vasectomy and no children; there is no way this can end well. Life on Earth will become incredibly brutal in the coming decades.