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>We have at least a couple hundred years before we would really have to worry about overpopulation. We are using energy and releasing carbon at an unsustainabl

>We have at least a couple hundred years before we would really have to worry about overpopulation. We are using energy and releasing carbon at an unsustainable rate. This means that we are overpopulated.

stale2002 9y ago
People were saying that back in the 1960s, and that within 20 years, we'd be facing worldwide famine, where billions die. Those predictions never came to pass. Also, peak oil supply was supposed to hit us in the year 2000. The peak oil people were correct, in the wrong way though. We aren't going to hit peak oil supply. We are going to hit peak oil DEMAND. As in, our other technological solutions are going to overtake oil, because it will be cheaper and better before we come even close to running out of our non-renewable resources. By looking at all of the recent developments in solar energy (which is currently following freaking "solar moores law". Within a decade, at current improvement rates it will be cheaper than coal in most locations. It already IS cheaper in high energy cost places like hawaii), and other technology progress, humans are easily easily on track to solving all of the supposed problems of overpopulation before come close to being an issue. What the overpopulation people never figured out is that our rate of technological progress is faster than the rate that we use up resources, and it is faster by a long shot.
- antisthenes 9y ago
  You are creating multiple strawmen and arguing with yourself. > What the overpopulation people never figured out is that our rate of technological progress is faster than the rate that we use up resources, and it is faster by a long shot. What the techno-optimists haven't figured out is that technological progress and the resources aren't unlimited, the only case where your argument makes any sense.
  - stale2002 9y ago
    "that technological progress and the resources aren't unlimited" Of course they are not unlimited. In 1 billion years we will have hit that limit of technological progress. Before we hit that limit, 1 billion years from now, we have a long way to go, and the limit is 'effectively' unlimited, for all intensive purposes. The only way your argument makes any sense is if you think we will hit that limit within a decade or something. But all evidence points to the contrary, and that we instead will only have to worry about those limits, a long long time from now.
    - majewsky 9y ago
      > In 1 billion years we will have hit that limit of technological progress. Citation needed.
nine_k 9y ago
We are hunting wooly mammoths at an unsustainable rate. It means we are overpopulated for our level of technology. We need to switch to domestication of animals and agriculture.

stale2002 9y ago

People were saying that back in the 1960s, and that within 20 years, we'd be facing worldwide famine, where billions die. Those predictions never came to pass. Also, peak oil supply was supposed to hit us in the year 2000. The peak oil people were correct, in the wrong way though. We aren't going to hit peak oil supply. We are going to hit peak oil DEMAND. As in, our other technological solutions are going to overtake oil, because it will be cheaper and better before we come even close to running out of our non-renewable resources. By looking at all of the recent developments in solar energy (which is currently following freaking "solar moores law". Within a decade, at current improvement rates it will be cheaper than coal in most locations. It already IS cheaper in high energy cost places like hawaii), and other technology progress, humans are easily easily on track to solving all of the supposed problems of overpopulation before come close to being an issue. What the overpopulation people never figured out is that our rate of technological progress is faster than the rate that we use up resources, and it is faster by a long shot.

antisthenes 9y ago
You are creating multiple strawmen and arguing with yourself. > What the overpopulation people never figured out is that our rate of technological progress is faster than the rate that we use up resources, and it is faster by a long shot. What the techno-optimists haven't figured out is that technological progress and the resources aren't unlimited, the only case where your argument makes any sense.
- stale2002 9y ago
  "that technological progress and the resources aren't unlimited" Of course they are not unlimited. In 1 billion years we will have hit that limit of technological progress. Before we hit that limit, 1 billion years from now, we have a long way to go, and the limit is 'effectively' unlimited, for all intensive purposes. The only way your argument makes any sense is if you think we will hit that limit within a decade or something. But all evidence points to the contrary, and that we instead will only have to worry about those limits, a long long time from now.
  - majewsky 9y ago
    > In 1 billion years we will have hit that limit of technological progress. Citation needed.

nine_k 9y ago

We are hunting wooly mammoths at an unsustainable rate. It means we are overpopulated for our level of technology. We need to switch to domestication of animals and agriculture.