3 ms·

Perhaps it is not sustainable to have more than 100 million people on a small island with limited resources for the long term. People talking about population

by frontman1988 4y ago

Perhaps it is not sustainable to have more than 100 million people on a small island with limited resources for the long term. People talking about population collapse forget that the population explosion that has happened in the recent past is quite the exception in human history and such high population growth was never sustainable in the long run. Continuously increasing the population while maintaining a good quality of life is a challenging task. The current population "crisis" may simply be a return to the norm, as nature seeks to establish a stable equilibrium. Japan has prospered as a civilization for thousands of years without being as densely populated as it is now: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_history_of_Japan_before_the_Meiji_Restoration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_history_of_Japan_b... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demography_of_the_Empire_of_Japan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demography_of_the_Empire_of_Ja...

MrVandemar 4y ago
Indeed. It is very telling that the article characterises it as a "crisis". We are facing the twin existential threats climate change and environmental collapse, and population is a staggeringly huge driver of both those problems. Reduction in population is generally a good thing. That's if you care about existential threats. Most people don't. The media doesn't talk about this. It's not a safe topic to discuss and if you dare to you are instantly politisied and become "the scary bad person". People care about the economy, they care about jobs, they care about growth, they care about having kids, they care about petrol prices, they care about a bigger TV and having a lithium battery drone they play with for a couple of weeks and then put it in the cupboard, they care about driving a 4WD in a city because the advertising made it look rugged and outdoorsy and anyway, Fred has one so you need one too, they care about having an electric car because it's painted "green" (it's not; the environmental costs are abstracted away to a place where you don't have to think about it). "Crisis"? Yes, but not in population.
- NalNezumi 4y ago
  I think almost everyone is actually talking about the aging population problem rather than the declining population problem. We simply haven't seen a situation yet where such a massive proportion of the population is old and economically not contributing, while being supported by a welfare state (and pension) and having disproportionate political power (and incentives) to not correct the course

MrVandemar 4y ago

Indeed. It is very telling that the article characterises it as a "crisis". We are facing the twin existential threats climate change and environmental collapse, and population is a staggeringly huge driver of both those problems. Reduction in population is generally a good thing. That's if you care about existential threats. Most people don't. The media doesn't talk about this. It's not a safe topic to discuss and if you dare to you are instantly politisied and become "the scary bad person". People care about the economy, they care about jobs, they care about growth, they care about having kids, they care about petrol prices, they care about a bigger TV and having a lithium battery drone they play with for a couple of weeks and then put it in the cupboard, they care about driving a 4WD in a city because the advertising made it look rugged and outdoorsy and anyway, Fred has one so you need one too, they care about having an electric car because it's painted "green" (it's not; the environmental costs are abstracted away to a place where you don't have to think about it). "Crisis"? Yes, but not in population.

NalNezumi 4y ago
I think almost everyone is actually talking about the aging population problem rather than the declining population problem. We simply haven't seen a situation yet where such a massive proportion of the population is old and economically not contributing, while being supported by a welfare state (and pension) and having disproportionate political power (and incentives) to not correct the course