4 ms·
The more these discussions progress, the more I wonder if there is really only one solution. We need less people. Trying to convince 8 billion people to do some
by snarf21 6y ago
The more these discussions progress, the more I wonder if there is really only one solution. We need less people. Trying to convince 8 billion people to do something like never eat meat or fish seems like an impossible goal. We need to raise the standard of living in countries that reproduction rates > 2. We could also remove tax breaks for kids after the second in developed countries to mitigate the incentives for extra children. Maybe if we only had 4 billion people, we might be able to have everything be sustainable. Such a hard problem to solve.
- searchableguy 6y agoIt's probably not sustainable. If everyone start consuming at the same rate as an average person from a developed country, world would run out of resources in no time.
- oblio 6y agoThe thing is, fertility rates are going down across the world. What are you going to do with the current people? They will all want a decent quality of life. Will you sacrifice your life and quality of life to achieve this greater goal you mention? Or do you just want "others" to sacrifice themselves for it?
- jaybeeayyy 6y agoOverpopulation is a racist myth. Developed countries use far more resources and waste significantly more food than developing nations and wealthy people have a larger footprint than their working class counterparts. https://wwf.panda.org/knowledge_hub/all_publications/living_planet_report_timeline/lpr_2012/demands_on_our_planet/footprint_income/ https://wwf.panda.org/knowledge_hub/all_publications/living_... https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/01/chart-of-the-day-these-countries-have-the-largest-carbon-footprints/ https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/01/chart-of-the-day-thes... https://theconversation.com/emissions-inequality-there-is-a-gulf-between-global-rich-and-poor-113804 https://theconversation.com/emissions-inequality-there-is-a-...
- snarf21 6y agoI'm not sure why you are claiming racism. I'm suggesting we raise the standard of living in poorer countries. That we empower women in these countries. Honestly, how is that racist? Also, yes, wealthy countries over consume. Collectively we just don't care. We can't even get people to wear a mask. I don't think there is a pragmatic way to convince the west to consume less.
- justicezyx 6y agoThis is one of the question that every such discussion about population management wanted to avoid. Understandably, it's much harder to ask people to reduce their current way of life. But technology still is the key here. US household energy consumption actually dropped, resulting into overall leveled national consumption total [1] [1] https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/use-of-energy/homes.php https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/use-of-energy/homes.php
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]